THE CONDITIONS IN HILO CONTINUOUSLY ON THE RISE.

When the editor [Edward L. Like] of this paper returned for a few short days to the famous rainy land of Hilo, Hanakahi after his being away, to witness the final breath of his cousin, Miss Emmeline Kaleionamoku Nawahi, which she released from this life in the land of their birth. There were many things he reported on pertaining to the fast advancement of that town which took place over the years he was away from the land of his birth.

Being this was the seventh year since he had last seen his birthland, according to him, what he saw was like a different town, and the houses he knew and were familiar with were not where he previously knew them to be. Two- and three-story houses stand in places where he saw small huts in years past.

There was electric lights lighting up the stores, and residences, and the streets of that land famous for rain, in place of the gas lamps which he knew from those days past. The streets were nice, The hacks go back and forth along with buses, on the streets. The number of buses for hire are way more than here in Honolulu.

There are four newspapers that are being printed there: two in English [Hilo Tribune and Hawaii Herald]; one in Portuguese [Voz Publica]; and one in Hawaiian which is being managed by William Kino, and it is called Ka Elele Hawaii. And for the friend goes the great praise of our young Editor, for his friendliness to him, for he was like a malihini in his own homeland after being away for years. And he prays for the long life of Ka Elele Hawaii, the greatest of the Kanilehua Rain.

The strong nature of religious work remains, but he saw a new church there, the Mormons. This religion has progressed greatly, and it was holding a major Sunday School Examination there.

The trains go into the uplands of Olaa and to Puna of the fragrant bowers of hala, and in the desolate lands in the uplands of Olaa where no one lived, there stands a large settlement and the land is covered with sugarcane. and he believes that in but a few years, it will be like the Kanilehua Rain [Hilo] and the Kukalahale Rain [Honolulu].

No more are the passengers drenched by the sea spray as they are taken from the ship by skiff to the shore, because there now is a floating dock where the ship goes up to and the passengers get off easily for the shore. There were so many things he described to us, but these are the major things he did not see when he last was at his home land, nearly seven years ago. It is proof of Hilo’s actual rise in stature.

[Has anyone seen a copy of the Hawaiian language newspaper mentioned here, Ka Elele Hawaii? It seems to be a weekly published in Hilo starting in 1901.]

(Aloha Aina, 3/23/1901, p. 5)