THE HAWAIIAN 
FORESTER I AGRICULTURIST 
Vol. V DECEMBER, 1908 No. 12 
During the past year public opinion all over the United States 
has been aroused as never before to a realization of the neces- 
sity for more careful methods in the use of the sources of the 
material wealth of the Nation — the great natural resources, for- 
ests, waters, minerals and lands. 
First came the announcement that the President was to call 
together the Governors of all the States for a conference. Then 
for six months followed what amounted to a campaign of educa- 
tion. Newspapers and magazines vied with one another in arti- 
cles on Conservation and helped to work up an interest that 
reached the point of action at the Conference of the Governors 
held at the White House in Washington in May. 
The Conference of the Governors was a gathering that will be 
remembered as one of the noteworthy events in American his- 
tory. It marks the beginning of a new era in the economic 
development of the Union, for only by the wise use of its natural 
resources can the Nation continue to enjoy material prosperity. 
Following the reappointment by President Roosevelt of the Wa- 
ter Ways Commission and its enlargement into the National Con- 
servation Commission, there have been appointed by many of the 
Governors, State Conservation Commissions to investigate the re- 
sources of individual states and to cooperate with the National 
Commission in devising plans whereby the natural resources of 
the Nation as a whole and of each state and territorv may be 
properly developed and wisely used. 
In Hawaii continued economic prosperity depends in an un- 
usually intimate way on the right use of natural resources. For 
this reason it was especially appropriate that Governor Frear 
should appoint, as he did in July last, the Territorial Conserva- 
tion Commission of Hawaii. In personnel the Commission is rep- 
resentative of the interests involved. The chairman is Mr. Ralph 
S. Hosmer, the Territorial Forester. Mr. W. O. Smith is the sec- 
retary of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, made up of 
the plantations that are now the largest users of water in the 
Territory. Mr. Alonzo Gartley is manager of the Hawaiian Elec- 
tric Company, a corporation that takes a keen interest in har- 
nessing water to do work in another way. Mr. W. F. Dilling- 
ham, treasurer of the Oahu Railway & Land Company, represents 
