A GLIMPSE OF HAWAII. 



ENCOURAGEMENT GIVEN TO INVESTORS AND 



SETTLERS. 



We are indebted to the Hawaiian Secretary of the Department 

 of Foreign Affairs for a copy of the Handbook of the Hawaiian Islands, 

 issued under the auspices of the above department. As Hawaii vies at 

 present with Cuba in being one of the chief topics of conversation and 

 public interest, a few things concerning the Island may be appreciated 

 by our readers, and with that supposition we give a short account of the 

 history, climate, etc., the data of which we credit to the Handbook. 



In 1778 the islands were discovered by Capt. Cook and their witten 

 history dates from that time, though their traditions and oral history, 

 nanded down from father to son, antedates that time by several centuries- 

 Prom the similarity of the people in religion, language, manners as well 

 as in physical and moral characteristics to the inhabitants of the East In- 

 dian Archipelago, it has led investigators to believe that the inhabitants 

 of all the groups of Island in the central and eastern Pacific are of the 

 same race the Polynesian. 



An English writer who a few months ago contributed to the Forum 

 an article on the Hawaiian question, made the assertion that the warm, 

 enervating climate of the islands was such as to make it quite impossible 

 for the majority of English or Americans to become acclimated. The 

 Handbook does not take a similar view of this matter, for in the first 

 chapter we read that "They (the islands) are thus on the very edge of the 

 tropics, but their position in mid ocean and the prevalence of the north- 

 east trade wind gives them a climate unequalled by any other portion of 

 the globe a perpetual summer without an enervating heat. In the Ha- 

 waiian Islands Americans and Europeans can and do work in the open air 

 at all seasons of the year, as they cannot in countries lying in the same 



latitudes elsewhere On the Hawaiian Islands he can work 



and thrive." 



There are eight Islands in the Hawaiian group that are of value the 

 others being mere rocks. The eight comprise a territory of 6,740 square 

 miles; Hawaii itself comprising 4,210 of this. 



For immigration interest the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu and 

 Kauai hold chief place, for land can be obtained at very reasonable 

 rates and will produce coffee, fruits, potatoes, corn and vgetables. Cof- 

 fee, after sugar, is the chief product of the islands, and, it is claimed, is 

 of such quality that it can take first place with any in the world. It re- 

 quires three years for the plants to produce a crop, and it grows best be- 

 tween 500 and 2,600 feet above the sea level, requiring a loose, porous soil. 



