HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0258.038 1996-1998 ........~....,~..,,....x.,...,....,.~~.....x...,~.,,~...,......,t,~,..~....~.,....~..,.,~...~~...~..rt.,
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM HENRY Rp$S - KOHALA - 889-5587
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BACK INTO RECKLESS SLAVERY?
On October 24 our government is going to give our land in Hamakua away to Oji Paper
Co., for $40 PER ACRE per year, unless we do something about this. Who would not want
to lease some land for a trifle $40 PER ACRE per year and put it to good use? But WE
can't get that. Our mayor and the state land-board are planning to lease it, by contract for
55 years, to unknown, and what appears to be greedy, unaccountable foreigners who ruin
the environment and deplete the soil with fast growing eucalyptus trees for wood chips,
promising a few dozen part-time, minimum wage jobs and regular spraying of poison from
airplanes - in return for 10,000 acres of fertile lands that belong to the people and 15,000
later, to make it a total of 25,000 acres. Nobody has been properly consulted, it is simply
forced on us, notwithstanding loud and clear protests.
Can we do something about that? YES WE CAN. Because that lease requires an Environ-
mental Impact Statement. Not from Oji -but from our government. So we are hereby putting
both the government and Oji on notice that if the ILLEGAL LEASE is signed, this matter will
be pursued in court to INVALIDATE THE LEASE, and we will have full PUBLIC SUPPORT.
Henry Ross, Kohala
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