HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



467 



oat at once, delegating the presidency to Gen. 

 Figueroa. No sooner was Gen. Figueroa in- 

 stalled, than Gen. Menendez, a Salvadorian, 

 one of Gen. Barrios's generals, took up arras 

 against him, at the head of the revolutionary 

 forces he had mustered in Salvador. On June 

 14 the opposing armies met at Alpaneca, and 

 the force of Gen. Menendez was victorious, 

 capturing the next day the important town of 

 Chalatenango, while simultaneously Gen. Rivas 



was equally successful at Oojutepeque, Gen. 

 Miguel Brioso, in the opposite ranks, being 

 killed, and Gens. Parrillas and Monterrosa 

 made prisoners. On June 21 Gen. Lisandro 

 Letona capitulated, with other high officers, 

 at Amachapan, and the Nicaraguan forces, after 

 having been repeatedly defeated, were van- 

 quished at Santo Domingo, and returned to 

 their country, the Costa Ricans having gone 

 home long before without firing a shot. 



H 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, a group of islands in the 

 Pacific Ocean, lying midway between Califor- 

 nia and New Zealand, and transected by the 

 Tropic of Cancer, inhabited by the brown Poly- 

 nesian race, and organized as a limited mon- 

 archy. The House of Nobles, appointed by 

 the King, and 28 elected representatives form 

 with the ministers the Legislative Assembly. 

 The reigning monarch is Kalakaua I, born in 

 1836, elected King by the Legislature in 1874. 



The foreigners elect one half of the repre- 

 sentative members of the legislative body. 

 The ministry is composed as follows : Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs, W. M. Gibson; Minister of 

 the Interior, Charles T. Gulick; Attorney- 

 General, P. Neumann; Minister of Finance, 

 J. M. Kapena. The parliamentary proceed- 

 ings are conducted in either the native lan- 

 guage or in English. 



The area of the islands, eight in number, is 

 6,677 square miles. The population, according 

 to the census taken Dec. 24, 1884, was 80,578, 

 of whom 51,539 were of the male, and only 

 29,039 of the female sex. The population was 

 composed of 40,014 natives, 17,939 Chinese, 

 17,335 whites, 4,218 metis, and 1,072 Japanese 

 and others. Of the white population, 2,066 

 were Americans, 1,282 English, 1,600 Germans, 

 192 French, 9,377 Portuguese, 778 of other na- 

 tionalities, and 2,040 born in the country. The 

 number of immigrants in 1884 was 7,654, of 

 emigrants 4,941. The capital, Honolulu, con- 

 tained 20,487 inhabitants. 



The increase in the population of the islands 

 since the census of 1878 was 22,593. The na- 

 tive population during the same period de- 

 creased from 44,088 to 40,014. The Chinese 

 increased from 5,916 to 17,937, the Portuguese 

 from 436 to 9,377, showing an increase in both 

 classes of laborers of nearly 21,000. There 

 was an increase of 790 in the American colo- 

 ny, 399 in the British, 111 in the French, and 

 in the German 1,328, while other foreign na- 

 tionalities besides the above increased 1,186, 

 the Hawaiians of foreign extraction 1,093, and 

 the half-castes 798. The decrease of the na- 

 tive population is caused by small-pox and 

 other contagious diseases introduced by for- 

 eigners. The worst scourge of late years is 

 leprosy, which was first brought to the islands 

 about forty years ago. The leper settlement at 

 Molokai constantly contains about 1,500 vic- 



tims in various stages of the disease. To com- 

 bat the fearful rate of mortality, the Govern- 

 ment makes more liberal expenditures for the 

 public health in proportion to its resources 

 than that of any other nation. 



Finances. The receipts of the treasury for 

 the year ending March 31, 1885, amounted to 

 $1,487,890, of which $520,086 were collected 

 from customs, $307,300 from the revenues of 

 the Interior Department, $355,114 from inter- 

 nal taxes, $184,600 from a loan; and the re- 

 mainder from fines, fees, stamps, sales of Gov- 

 ernment property, and other sources. The 

 total expenditures were $1,476,033, of which 

 $538,546 was disbursed in the Interior Depart- 

 ment; $329,372 in the Finance Department; 

 $143,062 in the Attorney-General's Depart- 

 ment; $106,613 in the Foreign Department; 

 $119,491 in the Health Bureau ; $64,046 for the 

 civil list, and the remainder for other purposes. 

 The public debt amounted on the 31st of March, 

 1884, to $898,800. The Government was au- 

 thorized by the law of Aug. 5, 1882, to borrow 

 in the course of the ensuing three years the 

 sum of $2,000,000 at 6 per cent. 



The Mexican dollars were exchanged for 

 gold at par formerly by common consent 

 among the people, the bankers, and the Gov- 

 ernment. But when $1,000,000 of the new 

 Kalakaua dollars were coined, banks began to 

 ask a premium, which rose to 8 per cent. The 

 Legislature then passed a law to enable the 

 Government to redeem and sell for bullion all 

 coins in circulation except United States gold 

 and silver pieces, and Hawaiian silver, appro- 

 priating $150,000 to cover the loss. The Gov- 

 ernment silver certificates were made redeem- 

 able in gold. The act went into force Jan. 

 1, 1885, and the premium disappeared. For 

 larger amounts than $10 only United States 

 gold coins are legal tender. 



Chinese Immigration. The Planters' Labor and 

 Supply Company petitioned the Government 

 in 1883 for permission to land a sufficient num- 

 ber of Chinese laborers to relieve the existing 

 stringency in the labor market. About six 

 months after the request was granted, the Pa- 

 cific Mail Steamship Company began to land 

 Chinese coolies at the rate of 1,000 a month. 

 The Government, the people, and the planters 

 themselves became alarmed at this influx. For- 

 eign powers pressed the Government to arrest 



