350 



HAWAII. 



organic law. The King appoints a privy coun- 

 cil to advise on matters of state, and can dis- 

 miss the council at his pleasure. He retained 

 extensive prerogatives under the Constitution 

 of 1864, including the right to make treaties, 

 except such as involved changes in the tariff 

 or the laws of the kingdom, which must be re- 

 ferred to the assembly. All laws to become 

 valid required his assent. He was the fountain 

 of all honors, orders, and distinctions, the com- 

 mander-in-chief of the military forces, with 

 power to place the country under martial law 

 in case of rebellion or invasion, power to coin 

 money and regulate the currency, and the right 

 of granting pardons. Judges were made irre- 

 movable except on impeachment. 



In 1873 King Kamehameha V died without 

 heirs and without appointing a successor, as he 

 had power to do under the Constitution. Prince 

 William Charles Lunalilo was elected king by 

 a general vote of the people, as the Constitu- 

 tion directed. He died the following year, 

 leaving his private fortune to found a home 

 for poor, aged, and infirm natives. The High 

 Chief David Kalakaua, his competitor for the 

 throne, was this time elected by a large major- 

 ity ov r er Queen Emma, and was proclaimed 

 king on Feb. 13, 1874, under the style and title 

 of Kalakaua I. His sister, Princess Liliuoko- 

 lani, was named heiress-apparent, as defined 

 by the Constitution. King Kalakaua was born 

 Nov. 16, 1836, of pure Hawaiian blood, and 

 related to the royal family, his mother, Keoho- 

 kalole, having been a niece of Karaehameha I. 

 He was crowned, with his wife, Queen Kapio- 

 lani, on Feb. 12, 1883. 



Area and Population. The kingdom consists 

 of eight principal islands and several small 

 isles. Only the islands Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, 

 Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, and Niihau are inhabit- 

 ed, Kahulawe having been abandoned some 

 years ago. The area of the inhabited islands 

 is as follows : Hawaii, 4,850 square miles ; 

 Maui, 750 square miles ; Oahu, on which is 

 situated Honolulu, the capital, 700 square 

 miles ; Kauai, 780 square miles ; Molokai, 170 

 square miles ; Lanai, 170 square miles ; and 

 Niihau, 110 square miles. The population of 

 the kingdom at the time of the last census, 

 Dec. 27, 1884, was 80,578 persons, divided into 

 51,539 males and 29,039 females. There were 

 40,014 natives, 17,939 Chinese, 17,335 whitey, 

 4,218 mdtis, 116 Japanese, and 956 others. 

 The white population embraced 2,066 Ameri- 

 cans, 1,282 English, 1,600 Germans, 192 French, 

 9,377 Portuguese, 778 of other nationalities, 

 and 2,040 children of foreigners born in the 

 country. The population of Honolulu in 1884 

 was 20,487. The immigration in 1885 was 

 5,410 and the emigration 1,805. Of the im- 

 migrants 3,108 came from China and 1,961 

 from Japan, the importation of laborers from 

 the latter country being encouraged at the 

 time by the Government, the Chinese laborers 

 who were formerly brought to cultivate the 

 sugar plantations having proved objectionable. 



About 10,000 Portuguese from the islands of 

 St. Michaels and Madeira have been imported 

 for the same purpose. In 1886 there were 

 3,725 arrivals and 2,189 departures. The pass- 

 port law is very stringent, no person after a 

 month's residence being permitted to leave the 

 kingdom without a passport, which can not be 

 granted to any one indebted to the Govern- 

 ment or to a private individual, or to a de- 

 fendant in a civil or criminal suit, or to any 

 applicant against whom complaint is made that 

 he is leaving without providing for the main- 

 tenance of his family. The native population 

 was probably 200,000 when Capt. Cook dis- 

 covered the islands in 1778. Within a century 

 the indigenes, who are allied to the Maoris of 

 New Zealand, have decreased to their present 

 number. 



The school law compels the attendance at 

 school of every child between the ages of six 

 and fifteen years. The free Government schools 

 are supported by a tax of $2 per capita paid 

 by every male inhabitant of the islands between 

 the ages of twenty and sixty. For the biennial 

 period 1884-'86 the sum spent on the schools 

 for each year was $173,020. Every form of 

 religion is permitted and protected. Nearly 

 all the natives are Christians. There is a bish- 

 op of the Episcopal Church, to which the king 

 belongs, and a Roman Catholic bishop. Large 

 sums of money are annually expended by the 

 Government for the cure of the lepers, about 

 700 in number, who are isolated in hospitals 

 on the island of Molokai. The expenditure 

 under this head in 1885 was $75,000. Father 

 Damien, a Roman Catholic missionary who 

 devoted his life to the welfare of these unfor- 

 tunates, recently fell a victim to the disease. 



Commerce and Agriculture. The great range of 

 temperature at the different elevations and the 

 variety of soil are conducive to the cultivation 

 of products characteristic of both southern and 

 northern climates. Subtropical plants and 

 shrubs are brought to great perfection on the 

 plains near the sea-level. Sugar is the most 

 valuable product of the kingdom. On higher 

 elevations fruits, cereals, and grasses of the 

 temperate zone grow well. Imported grass 

 has supplanted the native species. The past- 

 ure-lands of Hawaii and some of the other isl- 

 ands are favorable for the breeding of cattle. 

 In 1 884 there were in the islands 30,140 horses, 

 117,613 cattle, 121,683 sheep, 21,860 goats, 

 2,942 mules, and 278 asses, besides hogs and a 

 large quantity of poultry. Wild hogs, goats, 

 and cattle, wild turkeys, pheasants, duck, plover, 

 and qrtail abound in the forests that clothe the 

 mountains and in other waste places, and ex- 

 cellent food-fish in the rivers of Hawaii and 

 Kauai. 



The sugar and rice crops have engaged the 

 entire attention of cultivators until very re- 

 cently, when the low price of sugar and un- 

 certainty regarding the continuance of the 

 reciprocity treaty with the United States have 

 led to practical attempts to utilize the other 



