Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 158, 26 March 1891 — The Land Question. [ARTICLE]

The Land Question.

The warvt©f a good Homestead > act ie a faet whieh must be re-1 cogQked and remedied at the| earlieet opportu»ity. We «ee the j govemment digposing of large tracts of.land bv auction , and we see l©ng leases disposed of in the same manner, and in eaeh case a j syndicate of capita!ists gr&b the land. f We eee in these casee a hindrance put in the way of true settlement on the land. The true proso«rity of the country dcpends lesB on the formation of syndiCates who import their niachiiiery from Europe and their labor from Japan. or Ghina, or Goa, or by Kidnappingj than it does on the tH)ltletnet»t of J class of working Imen who will go iiito* the forest jand hill, and by their honest toil < f»»und a home for their children. | who will become the Hawaiian | citiEens of the future.

We know of i)ien who are isidustrio»s and wilh large faniilieb born t here who hiivn been trying for years to get a/ homestead on gbvernaient land; . bnt they ean not eompele with tlie ]and-ahark who ean plant his cash down at a gQjvemment auction. Hoqftst and wise government would make the law so as to unahle such to get say 20 acres at a pricfe and make the p^ nn d of payment extend oy er gQ y earg- j n n0 case "inOuM the government part with the land in fee simple 7 . before 20 years, as a guarantee of bone-fide settlement. The pr«s«nt Homestead act entitles the o L ccupies to pay for his land -in one payment but profe«ses toj*uard it for honest settlement bv forbidding him t® dispQ££ of I ii for five years. This is an ab- ] surdity, when a man pays for his ; land in ful 1 ., he ean dispose of it i to the first epeculator that comes alongv and so defeai the whole spirit and intent of the Law.