354 



HAWAII. 



among the natives, and its debilitating and 

 pauperizing effects have increased since the 

 fate King Kalakaua had certain restrictions on 

 the traffic removed. Though they have been 

 Christian for generations, the ignorant still ap- 

 ply when sick to the arts of the native medicine- 

 man, and are given poisonous mixtures that 

 cause many premature deaths. The capital, 

 Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, had 20,487 

 inhabitants in 1884. The net immigration in 

 1885 was 3,605; in 1886, 1,536; in 1887, 1,030; 

 in 1888, 2,643. In 1889 there were 3,671 arrivals 

 and 2,313 departures, an excess of 1,358 immi- 

 grants, most of them Chinamen and Japanese. 



Education. A complete system of secular 

 common schools is provided for all, Roman Catho- 

 lic and Protestant religious teachers having ac- 

 cess to the children out of school hours. About 

 half the pupils are Hawaiians, and the rest are 

 chiefly Chinese and Portuguese half-castes, with 

 a few Germans and others. English is generally 

 taught. There are excellent superior and special 

 schools, notably the Oahu College, for the sons 

 of Americans ; the Kauai Industrial School, a co- 

 eiucational institution ; and the Kamehameha 

 Industrial School for Hawaiian boys and girls, 

 in separate buildings, to found which the late 

 Mrs. Charles R. Bishop, a Hawaiian princess, left 

 her entire fortune of $500,000. The number of 

 primary schools in 1890 was 178, in which there 

 were about 10,000 pupils. 



Finance. For the two years ending March 

 31, 1890, the revenue was $3,632,197 and the ex- 

 penditure $3,250,510. Of the revenue, $1,082,766 

 were derived from customs and $901,803 from 

 internal taxes. The largest item of expenditure 

 was $1,180,123 for the interior. The revenue 

 for the financial period 1890-'92 was estimated 

 at $2,862,505, and the expenditure at $2,853,116. 

 The public debt amounted on March 31, 1890, to 

 $1,934,000, raised in London to pay off prior in- 

 debtedness, and paying 6 per cent, interest. The 

 loan was authorized by the act of October, 1886, 

 and the portion not yet issued was offered in 

 September, 1891. 



Commerce and Production. Of the capital 

 invested in plantations and other productive 

 enterprises, about $30,000,000, half belongs to 

 foreigners the chief part to citizens of the 

 United States and of the remainder not more 

 than a fifth is the property of natives. The 

 profits in sugar growing, under the reciprocity 

 treaty with the United States, have been enor- 

 mous. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and is 

 capable of bringing forth a remarkable variety of 

 products, but sugar planting has been extended 

 to the exclusion of other cultures. The export 

 of raw sugar to the United States in 1889 was 

 242,000,000 pounds. The admission of sugar 

 free into the United States from the West In- 

 dies and Europe reduces the profits to ordinary 

 rates, and those planters who have borrowed at 

 the prevailing high rates of interest or labor un- 

 der other disadvantages must fail. It is expect- 

 ed that fully one third of the plantations will be 

 ruined, owing to the operation of the McKinley 

 bill, which has also had the effect of reducing 

 wages by one third or one half, while rice and 

 other food staples were unusually dear in 1891. 

 The health and morality of the people have suf- 

 fered from their being deprived of domestic life 



and herded together on the plantations: and, 

 therefore, when the present crisis is surmounted, 

 and other industries besides the cultivation of 

 the sugar-cane have been developed, such as will 

 give small cultivators a chance, the country can 

 still make great progress in wealth and com- 

 merce under sounder social conditions. Already 

 coffee is being planted, and there is some trade 

 in fruits, which mature three months earlier than 

 in California. Rice is grown extensively, both 

 for food and for export, and hides and wool are 

 also exported. The soil and climate are adapted 

 for the cultivation of pine-apples, bananas, mel- 

 ons, and many other kinds of fruit. The value 

 of the imports in 1889 was $5,439,000, against 

 $4,541,000 in 1888, $4,944,000 in 1887, and $4,- 

 878,000 in 1886. The exports of domestic prod- 

 ucts were valued at $14,040,000 in 1889, against 

 $11,631,000 in 1888, $9,435,000 in 1887, and $10,- 

 340,000 in 1886. The exports of sugar in 1889 

 were $13,089,302 in value. The principal other 

 articles of export were rice, of the value of $451,- 

 134; bananas, $135,728; hides, $72,973. The 

 imports are provisions, clothing, grain, machin- 

 ery, timber, hardware, and cotton cloth. Nine 

 tenths of the trade is with the United States. 



Steamers run between Honolulu and San Fran- 

 cisco, New Zealand, Australia, and China. In 

 the inter-island traffic 18 steamers and a large 

 number of schooners are engaged. The fleet 

 belonging to Hawaii numbered 61 vessels in 

 1888, having an aggregate burden of 15,406 tons. 

 There are railroads on the three largest islands, 

 having a total length of 56 miles, and 250 miles 

 of telegraph and cable traverse and connect 

 them. The general post-office at Honolulu in 

 1889 received 882,094 letters and dispatched 

 534,576. Formerly gold and silver coins of any 

 country were current in Hawaii at their nominal 

 or exchange values, but since Dec. 1, 1884, only 

 gold coins of the United States are legal tender 

 for amounts over $10, and American or Hawaiian 

 silver coins for smaller payments. Treasury cer- 

 tificates are issued for deposits of coin, and these 

 are the only paper currency. 



Liliuoknlani's Reign. The death of Kala- 

 kaua and the new tariff of the United States 

 combined to revive some of the political ques- 

 tions that were scarcely settled by the new Con- 

 stitution of July 6, 1887. The men at the head 

 of the Government represented the principle of 

 a parliamentary monarchy of the British type. 

 Opposed to them was the smaller, but vigorous, 

 American party, advocating a republican form of 

 government, and looking forward to annexation 

 to the United States, which was regarded by this 

 group as a necessity for the prosperity of Hawaii, 

 since the McKinley bill had placed Hawaiian su- 

 gar on the same footing as the product of the Span- 

 ish and English colonies and Europe. Allied to 

 these, as members of the Opposition, but pursuing 

 an entirely different object, were the people who 

 believed in Hawaiirfor the Hawaiians, and sought 

 to exclude Europeans and Americans from high 

 offices and place native Kanakas in control of 

 the state. A fourth political force was the 

 Queen herself, who was upheld by an influential 

 clique in her purpose to resume the traditional 

 personal rule that Kalakaua in his financial and 

 political difficulties had signed away. After 

 coming to the throne, she announced the inten- 



