HAWAII 



These afford great facilities for irrigation, but 

 ..urn- to the small size and the conformation of 

 the islands they are in no oust- navigable. 



Cliimttr, .sW, ('-. lAing as they do in the 

 iniilille of the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Islands, 

 though within the tropics, enjoy a fairly temperate 

 climate. In tlie hot season the temperature seldom 

 ii-cs ulxive 90 F., wliile in the cool season it 

 seldom falls below 52 F., the average temperature 

 for the year being 74 -3" F. Rains, brought by the 

 inn -tli-east trade- wind, are frequent on the side of 

 tin* mountain- which faces that quarter, but on 

 tli>' other parts of the islands little rain fall*, and 

 tin- sky is generally cloudless. The yearly rainfall 

 at Honolulu, being on the leeward side of Oalm, i- 

 iiM'l-T 40 inches ; that of the islands generally 

 about 54 inches. The soil, whose constituent parts 

 are mainly scoriae, decomposed lava, and sand, is 

 generally thin and poor, out at the bases of the 

 mountains and in the valleys there are extensive 

 tracts as fertile as they are beautiful. In Hawaii 

 alone, on the Waimea plains, thousands of sheep 

 of the merino breed lind grazing ground ; and on 

 most of the islands, while the upland slopes of 

 the mountains are clothed with dense forests, the 

 lower levels spread into grassy plains rich with 

 sugar and rice plantations. 



Natural History, Products, die. The islands are 

 separated from other lands by a broad expanse 

 and great depth of sea, consequently their natural 

 history has many special features of its own. In 

 the high mountain!* there are some species of 

 plants akin to those of the American continent. 

 The forest- trees are mainly to be found on the 

 windward, being the rainy side of the mountain- 

 ranges. Tropical frviits are numerous. There are 

 no\v, as has been stated, numerous sugar and rice 

 plantations on the islands. The staple food of 

 the natives consists of pot, a kind of thick paste 

 made from the root of the taro plant (Arum esculen- 

 tum) and raw or dried fish. The only indigenous 

 animals are rats, mice, bats, dogs, and hogs, but 

 others have been added since white men came to the 

 islands ; cattle, sheep, &c. having been introduced 

 by Vancouver and other navigators. There are 

 large numbers of semi-wild horses in the kingdom, 

 and in some parts of the mountains wild dogs are 

 also to be found. Reptiles are few, including on 

 land one species of lizard and a few of the gecko ; 

 and the native birds, of which there were nineteen 

 species, are rapidly disappearing, though foreign 

 importations more than supply their place. The 

 archipelago has unfortunately no mineral resources. 

 Coral rock is the material chiefly used for building 

 purposes, and to a less extent basalt, compact 

 lava, and sandstone. There is a large variety of 

 sea-shells, some of which are of exquisite beauty. 



Trade, Finance, efcc. The commerce of the is- 

 lands is gradually increasing. Up to the year 1876 

 the most important trade was that of the vessels 

 MI gaged in the whale-fisheries of the Pacific, which 

 now are almost extinct. In 1876 a Reciprocity 

 Treaty was concluded with the United States, and 

 since that date there has been an enormous develop 

 ment of the sugar export trade. Over 200,000,000 

 Ib. of sugar, being eight-ninths of the total value of 

 the exports, were grown and exported in some 

 years, the other cliief articles of export being rice, 

 wool, molasses, coffee, hides, tallow, and bananas. 

 The total value of the exports was$l 7, 346,000 in 1898, 

 of which practically nil went to the United States; 

 the imports groceries, provisions, rlnthing. grain. 

 timber, hardware, \v. amounted to si U>.~>O,<MMI, ,| 

 which the United States supplied about one-half. In 

 the foreign carrying traffic some 300 vessels were 

 employed in 1895, while about 60 Hawaiian ships 

 ply be'tween the different islands. On the larger 

 islands there are good roads, and in the islands of 



Hawaii, Maui, and Oalm there are about 100 mile* of 

 railway. The i i-legraph encircles these islands, and 

 ( tabu ami Hawaii are connected by telegraphic cable. 

 Telephones have been introduce*! throughout Oahu, 

 K.m.ii, and Hawaii, and partly in Maui, and areal- 

 moslnniverHallyiiiUMMii Honolulu. TherevenuewaH 

 $2,568,489 in 1898, and the expenditure, $2,186,278 ; 

 the total debt was $4,457,605. In accordance with 

 the act of congress organising the Territory of 

 Hawaii ( 1900), the group forms an internal revenue 

 district, and a customs district, with ports of entry 

 at Honolulu, Hilo, Mahukona, and Kahului. 



History, Constitution, dec. The islands are said 

 to have 'been discovered by Uoetano in 1542, and 

 rediscovered by Captain Cook in the year 1778. 

 < 'ook met his death at the hands of the native* in 

 Kealakekua (Karakakoa) Bay in the year 1779. 

 In early times each island hud a king, but under 

 Kamehameha I. the islands were formed into one 

 kingdom. He died in 1819, and was succeeded 

 by Liholiho, who adopted on his accession the 

 name of Kamehameha II., and whose reign was 

 famous for the abolition of idolatry simultane- 

 ously throughout all the islands. Vancouver, who 

 arrived with Cook in 1778, and returned in 1792 

 and again in 1794, had made sincere attempts 

 to enlighten the islanders, and succeeded so 

 far that he was requested by the king and his 

 chiefs to send out religious teachers to them from 

 England. The first missionaries, however, who 

 visited the islands came from the nearer shores of 

 America. On their arrival in 1820 they witnessed 

 the singular phenomenon of a nation without a 

 religion. The instructions of Vancouver had, it 

 would seem, not been forgotten, and had opened 

 the eyes of the idol-worshipping natives to the 

 grotesque absurdities of their system. But the 

 spontaneous movement of 1819-20 'was no triumph 

 of Christianity for Christianity had not yet claimed 

 or even approached the Hawaiian Islands.' The 

 nation had voluntarily cast off the religion of their 

 ancestors, and had not yet adopted were not even 

 acquainted with any other system. The mission- 

 aries were well received, and the work of instruc- 

 tion was at once begun. In less than forty years 

 they taught the whole Hawaiian people to read and 

 write, to cipher and sew. Kamehameha II. and 

 his queen visited England, and both died in 

 London in July 1824. In 1840 Kamehameha III. 

 substituted for the simple despotism a constitution 

 consisting of king, assembly of nobles, and repre- 

 sentative council. In 1843 the French and English 

 governments formally guaranteed the independence 

 of the Hawaiian kingdom. The death of Kameha- 

 meha V. in 1873 extinguished the line, and the va- 

 cant throne was filled by Lunalilo, a high chief, 

 on whose death in 1874, Kalakaua, another high 

 chief, was elected. His reign is marked by the 

 granting ( 1887 ) of another constitution, which still 

 further limited the power of the crown, the hon>e 

 of nobles now beinf* elected by popular vote. On 

 his death in 1891, Lmuokalani, liis sister, succeeded 

 to the throne. But she was opposed to the new 

 constitution and repeatedly evaded some of its 

 essential provisions, and after a reign of two years 

 she was dethroned by a revolution (January 17, 

 1893), a provisional government being proclaimed 

 by a committee of public safety. Annexation to 

 the United States failed, owing to the opposition 

 of President Cleveland, and in 1894 the Republic 

 of Hawaii was organised. In 1898, however, as an 

 indirect result of the war with Spain, the archi- 

 pelago was formally annexed to the United States ; 

 and in 1900 the Territory of Hawaii was organised. 



Population and Conaition of the People. The 

 total population of all the islands amounted in 

 1897 to 109,020, of whom 72.517 were males and 

 36,503 females. Of this total 31, 019 were natives 



