Don’t kill the gooseTo the Forum:

The business and tourist communities should be singing the praise of the Sierra

Club for its lawsuit to require the Hawaii Tourism Authority to obey Hawaiian

Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 343, the law that requires any government entity

that plans an activity that requires the use of State funds to conduct an

environmental assessment.

HRS 343 protects the environment of Hawaii, the

very Goose that lays the Golden Eggs that form the economic basis of the

tourist industry. This is especially relevant for Kaua’i where the rate of

increase of tourist arrivals in the last two years has been significantly

higher than on the other islands.

The reason is not the money spent by

the HVB and KVB to promote tourism or Mayor Kusaka’s jaunts to Tokyo and her

first class flight to Paris. The fact is that there is a new generation of

sophisticated tourists who abhor the kind of artificiality of Waikiki, Lahaina

and Kihei, but much prefer the rural and yet unspoiled environment of Kaua’i,

especially the North Shore.

To allow unfettered promotion of development

and tourism is to kill the Goose, yielding quick profits but forfeiting long

term economic health.

What the Sierra Club is doing is to protect the

Goose so that instead of a few people collecting a bunch of golden eggs all at

once, all of us, including Gregg Gardiner and future generations of tourists

will continue to enjoy the beauty of Kaua’i.

It’s really very simple.

Just don’t kill the Goose!

Raymond L.

Chuan

Hanalei