OUR LETTER FROM THE PHILIPPINES.
THAT BOY TELLS HIS FATHER OF THE GREAT AMOUNT OF GOVERNMENT LAND.
Baguio, Benguet, Philippines.
O My Beloved Father:
Here we are, the two of us, now living in the mountains. We got back on the 17th. Live here is good; the air is brisk, and the only trees that grow in abundance on this mountain are pine. I am thinking that we will be here until the last week of June.
It is not certain whether I will stay here for a full three years. This is a fertile land if you have a lot of money. I met up with a haole man who is the secretary of a Filipino organization here, and he wants me to write about sugar in Hawaii and to publish it in the local papers. He tells me that there are vast and much government lands that are left unfarmed because of lack of funding. If I want land, he can definitely help me to ask for government land. Looking at the worth of sugar in Hawaii, I believe that money can be made through this endeavor. there are a lot of sugar lands here, however, the sugar mills are decrepit and sugar has been pushed to the side; the people here do not understand the sugar industry as they do in Hawaii. That is what makes me want to write about sugar. Here’s something else: Hawaii’s people have their eyes set on here, and a couple of weeks ago, a haole man came from Hawaii to look at the land here with the intent of building a modern sugar mill like in Hawaii. If everything goes well, I am determined to leave this job and to start a large sugar plantation here, and I’ll return to Hawaii to work out the selling of shares [kea] and the purchase of a mill and so forth; I have written to some people in Honolulu about this venture, and if things go well, I will come home to Hawaii in two years, but if they do not go well, I suppose I will wait it out.
I saw the Exposition here [Philippine Exposition held in Manila, February 3–11, 1912], and there are many goods from here. Sugar, coconuts, manila rope, rice, gold, silver, charcoal, and so forth were the things on display. The wood of this land is beautiful, used to make chairs and tables. One of the tables was 10 feet long across the middle, and 40 feet long across the edges, made out of one tree without the addition of other boards. The performances by school children was full of beauty; the lace, household furnishings, hats, clothing, and so forth were lovely and fine. Better than Hawaii.
With aloha from the daughter and from me as well.
Me.
D. S. K. PAHU.
(Aloha Aina, 7/27/1912, p. 1)
Ke Aloha Aina, Buke XVII, Helu 30, Aoao 1. Iulai 27, 1912.
