RUBBER CULTURE IN HAWAII 



THE FIRST SIGHT OF HAWAII A BIT OF THE HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH 

 ISLANDS TEMPERATURE, CROPS, ETC. PROSPECTS FOR RUBBER GROWTH FIRST RUB- 

 BER PLANTINGS THE NAHIKU RUBBER COMPANY, LIMITED PRINCIPAL PLANTING 

 DONE BY UNITED STATES SETTLERS. 



WE crossed the Pacific from Yokohama to Honolulu in the China 

 and as passengers were few I had a roomy, high-studded cabin 

 to myself. Against the advice of the steward I kept the port 

 open, preferring to take a chance on drowning to one on asphyxiation, 

 and my chance proved well taken. When we crossed meridian 180 we 

 had the somewhat unusual experience of having a day forty-eight hours 

 long. We were given two sunrises, two sunsets, and six square meals, 

 all on Friday, and all on the fifth of the month. Had it been Thursday 

 or Saturday I should not have cared, but I hate fish, and that was cer- 

 tainly a long day. 



Our first sight of the Hawaiian group came at evening from the 

 "heat lightning" playing over one of the outlying islands, and at day- 

 break the next morning we were at Honolulu (pronounced Honolulu by 

 the inhabitants). I say at the place, but not in it, for one of our steer- 

 age crowd of Koreans, after troubling the ship's doctor by developing 

 granulated eyelids, and threatening smallpox, came down with a huge 

 abscess in the arm pit that the quarantine officials diagnosed as bubonic. 

 So we waited while they took a section of him ashore, only to return 

 with the glad news that it was simply a respectable but angry boil. 

 After this comforting assurance we went ashore and had tiffin at the 

 elegant Alexander Young Hotel,. went to Wakaki Beach for surf riding, 

 bought curios, took trolley and carriage rides, and in fact settled down 

 to real hard work as sightseers. I am, however, going to put off the 

 story of my own adventures and get right down to the story of Hawaii 

 as it is and as it will be when it gets to be a rubber producer. 



To go back a little, the Sandwich islands were discovered in 1778 

 by Captain Cook, whom the natives believed to be edible, and whom 

 they at once proceeded to get away with. Some time in the present 

 century they were re-discovered by William J. Gorham of the Gor- 

 ham Rubber Company, of San Francisco. The natives did not cherish 

 the illusions regarding him that they did toward the former discoverer 

 and he got away with them. When I met him in Honolulu he had just 

 subjugated every trader in the group, and was planning to sell to a 

 syndicate, enough of his wonderful steam hose to run a pipe line from 



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