130 
OAHU  WATER  RESOURCES. 
By  E.  D.  Tenney. 
On  Monday  evening,  March  8,  1909,  the  Committee  on  Agri- 
culture and  Forestry,  Promotion  and  Immigration,  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  (Mr.  R.  W.  Shingle,  Chairman),  held  a public 
hearing  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an  expression  of  opinion  on 
the  proposed  enactment  of  a revenue  measure  to  create  a special 
fund  for  assisting  Immigration  and  for  local  work  in  the  con- 
servation of  the  natural  resources  of  the  Territory.  Among  the 
speakers  was  Mr.  E.  D.  Tenney,  Viice-President  and  Manager  of 
the  firm  of  Castle  & Cooke.  Mr.  Tenney  presented  certain  figures 
in  regard  to  the  water  resources  of  the  Island  of  Oahu,  which  are 
of  general  interest.  The  section  of  his  speech  dealing  with  this 
phase  of  the  subject  is,  in  full,  as  follows : 
“I  would  like  to  address  a few  remarks  on  the  conservation  of 
our  natural  resources,  particularly  as  they  relate  to  forests,  and 
their  relation  upon  the  water  supply.  My  own  knowledge  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  forests  and  water  supply  on  the  other  islands 
is  limited,  but  I know  something  about  it  on  this  island ; and 
within  the  last  day  or  so,  since  receiving  your  invitation  to 
attend  this  meeting,  I have  gone  into  this  question  of  water 
supply  in  its  relation  to  the  sugar  plantations  of  the  island 
particularly,  and  I must  say  that  I am  appalled  at  the  result. 
“The  Island  of  Oahu  contains  600  square  miles,  384,000  acres. 
The  area  of  cane  land  under  cultivation  on  this  island  was  37,500 
acres.  The  daily  pumping  capacity  of  the  pumping  stations  of 
the  plantations  on  this  island  drawing  their  supplies  from  artesian 
wells,  is  351,250,000  gallons.  The  daily  pumping  capacity  of  the 
Honolulu  Water  Works,  for  instance,  is  11,250,000  gallons.  The 
combined  daily  pumping  capacity  of  the  Hawaiian  Electric,  Rapid 
Transit,  Honolulu  Brewery,  Young  Hotel,  Honolulu  Iron  Works, 
Oahu  Railway  and  Land  Company,  and  the  Pacific  Fertilizer  and 
Guano  Works,  I understand,  amounts  to  4,000,000  gallons ; while 
rice  plantations  and  dairies,  individuals,  etc.,  have  a daily  pump- 
ing capacity  of  about  50,000,000  gallons  more;  hence  the  planta- 
tions, the  Honolulu  Water  Works,  the  various  companies  I have 
referred  to  and  the  rice  plantations,  dairies  and  individuals  alto- 
gether have  a daily  pumping  capacity  of  about  416,500,000  gallons. 
“From  the  best  information  I was  able  to  obtain  from  Mr.  Mc- 
Candless  and  several  other  people  around  the  island,  it  is  con- 
sidered an  ultra-conservative  estimate  that  the  water  used  by  rice 
plantations,  dairies,  individuals  and  other  small  agricultural  in- 
dustries from  artesian  wells  amounts  to  50,000,000  gallons  a day. 
as  above  set  forth.  This  reaches  a total  draft  on  the  artesian 
system  of  this  island  of  416,500,000  gallons.  This  is  equivalent 
to  a yearly  supply  of  152,022,500,000  gallons,  or  we  will  sav  in 
round  numbers  150,000,000,000,  equivalent  to  20.000,000.000  cubic 
