George Sutherland

“ An offer of proof cannot be denied as remote or speculative because it does not cover every fact necessary to prove the issue. If it be an appropriate link in the chain of proof, that is enough.
Second. The court below, while ruling that the rejection of the evidence was erroneous, held that it was not prejudicial error within the terms of section 269 of the Judicial Code, as amended (28 U.S.C. § 391, 28 U.S.C.A. § 391) , reproduced in the margin. The court thought the offers of proof were not sufficiently specific to enable it to say that the rejection, although erroneous, was prejudicial. ”

“ Testimony was introduced to the effect that upwards of 3,000 acres of the tract were suitable for growing cane, and would produce an average of 70 to 75 tons of sugar cane to the acre, from which could be extracted eight or nine tons of sugar to the acre; and that the contour of the land was favorable to irrigation, and its general condition such as to make it adaptable to the purposes of a sugar plantation. Petitioners offered to prove that they had been for many years negotiating for the development of a sugar plantation on the land ”

“ Petitioners offered further to prove that the surplus water could be captured and transported practicably and economically and used profitably for the cultivation of sugar cane; and that the cost of recovering the water and transporting it would be less per million gallons than that incurred for recovery and transportation of water to other cane lands on the Island of Oahu and other islands in the territory. ”