May 20, 1990

LEAD: THE Hamakua Sugar Company, one of Hawaii's biggest sugar companies, is hoping to sell 8,000 acres - almost all of it zoned for agriculture - to help pay off its debts. It will begin by offering 5,000 acres at two auctions here, on June 28 and Aug. 16, at which it expects to raise $65 million.

LEAD: COUNTY EXECUTIVE Andrew P. O'Rourke has a lot of selling to do if he expects to win approval of a sales-tax plan that he said could generate $32 million for the county government, $48 million for local governments and $16 million for school districts.

LEAD: SEVERAL area restaurants have begun conducting special dinners that focus on wine both to inform consumers and to enhance midweek patronage. In general, a set meal, with a different wine paired to each course, is offered for prices of $45 to $100 a person.

LEAD: A FAILED condominium conversion plan has entangled several motels in this shoreline community in suits and title claims. But banks that now control the properties have hired managers to operate the motels, and their 125 or so rooms may be open this summer.

LEAD: IT is planting time on the East End, and the sound of the bulldozer is heard in the fields. With farm acreage already halved since 1970, even the slump in the Island's housing industry and an end to the growth in population have not stilled the work of developers laying curbs, digging sumps and cutting roadbeds through some of the richest farmland in the state.