Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 498, 16 January 1902 — SECRETARY COOPERS WORK. [ARTICLE]

SECRETARY COOPERS WORK.

Announcement is made that an official handbook of Hawaii is soon to be -sued by tbe Territory for distribution among tbe various States and Territories of the United States, and that Se retary Cooper is to be its author. VVe should like to ask who will supply the money necessary to defray the expenses of the work. For months the Territorial government has been pleading poverty, a shortage of funds, no money available for needed work at K'walo, or for other public improvements that are of far more importance to Hawaii than tbe publication of any handbook of the Territory . an be even though edited by Secretary Cooper. We should like to inquire, before the public money Is finally committed to this government publication, where Secretary Cooper gained the newspaper and editorial experience that aloix can qualify him for the very important task that he has undertaken We have no knowledge or recol-| lei tion of hearing his name even as a journalist, much less as a newspaperman. It may he. though, that he acquired some such experience in the seaside city of San Diego during bis residence in that Southern California summer resort in its boomlct days. Assuming, however, and we trust It is nut too great an assumption, that Hon. Henry E. Cooper, Secretary of the Territory of Hawaii, is fitted for the task that he has undertaken, both from a literary and editorial standpoint. we repeat the question; Where will the money come from to pay the Incidental expenses in con nectlon therewith?" It has been found necessary to shave expenses and to curtail expenditures that are absolutely needed to protect the health of the people of Honolulu. Yet this offl. ial handbook ran be printed and ‘‘scattered broadcast.*' Even the Advertiser, we feel sure, will be unwilling to donate its machines, presses and bindery to such purposes. It may be that the Cooper Official Handbook Is intended to offset the m if chief done by the Supreme Court'-i circulation of the Thrum Annual. If - i. it may have some excuse for existence. But. come right down to it. what R'*od will it do Hawaii? It will not reach the masses of the people on the Mainland. It will not bring capital here atid relieve the stringency of the local money market. It will not dredge Honolulu’s harbor. It will not drain the Kewalo swamp. It will not k<*ep vessels that have been to plague stricken parts from calling here. It will not relieve the lepers on Molokai. It will not repair the roads on Hawaii But it will use public money that might be better turned over to some government department that can use tt to good advantage where most needed. Secretary Cooper's advance prospectus tells us that: Attention will be paid also to tbe agricultural and manufacturing possibilities of the Territory and its advantages as a place of residence.” Having heard so much recently of the impossibility of developing Hawaii from an agricultural standpoint other than sugar we presume that Secretary Cooper’s digest will be placed In the hands of Eastern cap Halists with a view to their investment in plantation properties. It would be useless for a plain everyday working farmer, who has been told so often, by the government organ that there was no opening here for the small farmer, to receive tbe official book of Secretary Cooper, that Is If the facts are «et forth as they have been in the official organ »ad we presume that both official pro dotilons are set* to the same tune. When the farmer or laboring man on the Mainland learns something from Editor Cooper on the question of rents in Honolulu, he is apt to ejaculate and pause before breaking up his household to camp on the side of Punchbowl with its "advantages as a place of residence." If Hon Henry E Cooper Is an ex ,

pert on manufacturing, he may Induce Secretary Cooper to delve tato the latest census statistics and then furnish material from which Editor Cooper ran prepare lacid and instructive data as to the availability of sites for far lories, such as the one at Kewaio. the abundance of water power, ar.d supply of raw material, the light ness of our taxes, details of the illegal Income tax and other data as the capitalist a'ways nose* into before he de< ides to move his factory from the Mainland to the Territory, or to venture on pastures new and verdant. There is one factory, however, that mar be of nntold benefit to Hawaii before very long, and that factory Is a « ;gar refinery which may soon become a necessary adjunct to our plantation interests If Secretary Cooper can feel the pulse of planters' agents on this subject and sun the rolling to erect a good refinery In Honolulu. if needed, he may accomplish far more beneficial results than, tan be achieved through the circulation of his official handbook, even though prepared and ever so widely circulated by its editor.