61 



Other leases call for the building of fences on forest reserve 

 lines as soon as certain proposed forest reserves on Oahu shall 

 have been officially set apart. While again, still other leases call 

 for the up-keep of fences built, voluntarily or under lease require- 

 ments, in former years, on forest reserve boundaries on each of 

 the larger islands of the group. In addition many miles of 

 forest fence are voluntarily maintained by sugar plantation com- 

 panies and ranches on forest reserve boundaries across Govern- 

 ment lands, not to speak of forest fences wholly on privately 

 owned lands. 



An estimate recently made of forest fencing now in existence, 

 required to be constructed under leases in force, and needing to 

 be built for the better protection of the native forest, shows the 

 following data, which while only pretending to be approximate, 

 give a fairly good idea of the length of fencing required: 



Government Private 



Lands. Lands. 



Miles. Miles. 



Existing forest fences 110.0 111.0 



Fences required to be built 



under leases now in force 21.5 



Needed fencing 85.0 91.0 



216.5 202.0 



When this needed additional fencing is all done and the fences 

 so built and those now in existence are being properly cared for, 

 the forests of Hawaii will be in vastly better condition than they 

 are today. The particular forest need of the present year is to 

 get this work started and under way. 



KAHOOLAWE. 



Perhaps at this point reference should be made to the reclama- 

 tion of the Island of Kahoolawe. 



This small island (28,260 acres) was, upon the expiration of 

 a fifty-year lease, set apart in August, 1910, as a forest reserve. 

 This action was taken at the suggestion of the Governor and was 

 in accordance with a concurrent resolution passed by the Leg- 

 islature at the session of 1909. The purpose of the action was to 

 bring Kahoolawe under the control of the Department of the Ter- 

 ritorial Government best fitted to handle the task of restoring to a 

 condition where it would be of real value, an island that through 

 continued over-stocking by cattle and sheep followed by the ac- 

 tion of the elements, has been reduced in large part to an abso- 

 lutely barren waste. 



