The Hawaiian Islands / Their Resources, Agricultural, Commercial and Financial

SANFORD B. DOLE. President of the Republic of Hawaii.
HONOLULU: Printed by the Hawaiian Gazette Company.
The following pamphlet has been compiled for the purpose of giving information to those intending to invest in the industries of the Hawaiian Islands. The information can be vouched for as correct. The portion dealing with agriculture is from the pen of Joseph Marsden, Esq., Commissioner of Agriculture. The digest of the land law has been prepared by J. F. Brown, Esq., Commissioner of Public Lands. The historical portion has been written by Prof. Alexander, Chief of the Government Survey and author of a Short History of the Hawaiian People and other works. The pamphlet has been planned, edited and in part written by Alatau T. Atkinson, Esq., ex-Inspector General of Schools, and now General Superintendent of Census.

The Hawaiian Islands are situated in the North Pacific Ocean and lie between longitudes 154° 40' and 160° 30' West, and latitudes 22° 16' and 18° 55' North. They are thus on the very edge of the tropics, but their position in mid-ocean and the prevalence of the northeast trade wind gives them a climate unequalled by any other portion of the globe—a perpetual summer without an enervating heat. In the Hawaiian Islands Americans and Europeans can and do work in the open air, at all seasons of the year, as they cannot in countries lying in the same latitudes elsewhere. To note an instance, Calcutta lies a little to the north of the latitude of Kauai, our most northerly Island, and in Calcutta the American and European can only work with his brain; hard physical labor he cannot do and live. On the Hawaiian Islands he can work and thrive.
The rainfall varies, being greater on the windward side of the Islands, and increasing up to a certain elevation. Thus, at Olaa, on the Island of Hawaii, windward side and elevation of about 2,000 feet, the rainfall from July 1st, 1894, to June 30, 1895, was 176.82 inches, while at Kailua, on the leeward side, at a low level, it was only 51.21 inches during the same period.