80 



least $5,000 per annuam maintained for this purpose. This is 

 one of the forest matters that decidedly demands attention. 



As in earlier years one ranger was employed throughout the 

 period to patrol the Tantalus forest and to oversee the burning 

 of brush, under permit, on Tantalus Heights. 



Several changes in the staff of volunteer fire wardens have 

 lately been made by which the efficiency of the service as a skel- 

 eton organization is maintained. A revised list of the District 

 Fire Wardens appears elsewhere in this volume. 



SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS, 



From the statements in the foregoing pages it should be evi- 

 dent that at the present stage of the game in Hawaii the essential 

 need in forestry is for the better protection of. the native forests. 

 And this is required not because of the worthiness of the forest 

 in itself to be cared for, but because on the forest depends the 

 continuance of an assured water supply. There are other needs, 

 too, for there is much forest work in Hawaii that requires urg- 

 ently to be done, to say nothing of tree planting on waste lands 

 that will unquestionably be of profit to those who undertake it. 

 But first and foremost at this time comes the call for better care 

 of the existing forests on the watersheds. The necessary steps 

 to be taken are fencing and the eradication of wild stock in the 

 forest reserves cattle, goats and pigs which should be follow- 

 ed by the extension of the forest, through planting, where the 

 cover has been broken from any cause. 



To carry out as it should be done, these extensions of forest 

 work will necessarily require larger expenditures than have been 

 made in the past. To meet this demand a portion of the rev- 

 enues now derived by the Territorial Government from water 

 licenses on streams in the forests should be devoted to forest work. 

 In a word, some of the money derived in these islands from water, 

 a product of the forest, should be reinvested in the forest, to the 

 end that for the future the supply of water may be assured, if 

 indeed it cannot be increased. A revolving fund so established 

 will in the end pay itself back many fold. It is the experience of 

 all countries where forestry is practiced that the reinvestment, 

 up to a certain point, in forest administration of the revenue de- 

 rived from the forest, leads to an increase in subsequent returns. 

 Hawaii would be no exception to this general law. Provision 

 should be made for getting the adequate protection of the forest 

 started without more delay. This is a matter that should be 

 brought in the most forcibly way possible to the attention of 

 the Legislature. 



