Ill 
the  Territory  can  be  so  developed  as  through  the  intelligent 
application  of  the  principles  of  conservation. 
The  Chairman.  The  next  speaker  will  be  Doctor  Jared 
G.  Smith,  who  will  talk  on  conservation  as  related  to  Kona  for- 
ests, waters  and  lands. 
Dr.  Jared  G.  Sm,ith.  Mr.  Chairman  and  Members  of  the 
Legislature,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 
The  conservation  of  natural  resources  means  the  saving  of 
money,  the  saving  of  property,  that  we,  the  people  of  Hawaii, 
own,  for  the  benefit  of  our  children  and  our  children’s  children. 
The  resources  in  the  way  of  forests,  of  timber  already  exist- 
ing on  public  lands  and  on  lands  in  private  ownership  amounts 
to  an  enormous  figure,  provided  you  can  translate  standing 
timber  into  terms  of  merchantable  timber. 
As  you  know,  I am  living  in  Kona,  and  have  been  taking  note 
of  what  we  have  in  Kona,  both  in  the  way  of  standing  forests 
and  of  water.  A stretch  of  virgin  forests,  untouched  by  the 
hand  of  man,  extends  from  Kahuku,  or  from  near  Kahuku,  to 
the  slopes  of  Hualalai,  a forest  some  fifty  miles  long  and  at 
its  widest  point  considerably  over  five  miles  in  breadth.  The 
standing  timber  on  this  land,  magnificent  trees  of  large  diam- 
eter, containing  a good  many  hundred  feet,  or  in  some  cases 
nearly  a thousand  feet  of  merchantable  timber,  approximately 
estimated,  amounts  to  about  150,000,000  feet,  board  measure. 
So  you  can  see  that  the  Territory  and  the  people  actually  own 
a great  deal  of  property  which  unless  they  take  very  good  care 
of  it  may  be  destroyed.  I have  seen,  and  you  have  all  seen, 
much  forest  land  destroyed  by  fire.  There  must  be  protection 
of  this  money,  of  this  property,  that  belongs  to  the  people  of 
the  islands — it  not  only  belongs  to  us  but  belongs  to  those  who 
come  after  us.  There  must  be  action  taken  to  protect  it  from 
destruction.  Much  of  this  forest  is  on  land  privately  owned, 
but  a very  considerable  amount  of  forest  of  high  money  value 
as  property  exists  on  government  lands  and  belongs  or  should 
belong  to  the  people  of  the  Territory  and  should  in  course  of 
years  to  come  provide  a great  deal  of  revenue  for  the  support 
of  the  government. 
Besides  preserving  the  forest  because  of  its  actual  money 
value  as  property,  there  are  other  good  reasons  why  we  should 
preserve  our  forests.  The  chief  one  of  these  is  that  of  conserv- 
ing the  moisture,  preventing  the  too  rapid  run-off  of  water. 
I have  made  a hurried  calculation  of  the  rainfall  of  that  forest 
belt,  which  I know  or  which  I know  in  part,  that  in  the  Kona 
district  on  the  Island  of  Hawaii.  Taking  a rainfall — an  esti- 
mated rainfall — not  an  unreasonable  one — say  100  inches  a year 
(there  have  been  private  records  taken  some  time  back,  some 
10  or  12  years  ago,  showing  that  the  average  rainfall  at  about 
