540 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



the field, and long exercised great influence over the 

 government. That influence has now ceased, and a 

 Church of England mission has been established ; but it 

 may be impossible to neutrahse the evil effects of a 

 system of repression and habits of hypocrisy which have 

 been at work for nearly two generations. 



In 1888, out of a population of less than 87,000, no 

 less than 23,000 were Chinese; coolies of that race 

 having been imported in large numbers for work on the 

 plantations. There are now not more than 20,000, but 

 the Japanese number nearly 8000. At the period just 

 stated there were about 19,000 Europeans, of whom 

 over 10,000 were Portuguese. These are almost without 

 exception natives of Madeira and the Azores, who, unable 

 from overpopulation to get land in their own country, 

 though excellent and most industrious agriculturists, 

 found in the land of their adoption a soil almost as good 

 as that of their own, and an even better climate. With 

 regard to the 40,000 or so of Kanakas still remaining, it 

 is worthy of note that the men are greatly in excess of 

 the women in number, a fact that perhaps more than any 

 other augurs ill for the continuance of the race. 



The main exports of the Hawaiian Islands are sugar 

 and rice. American capital to the amount of five million 

 sterling is invested in the sugar plantations, nearly five 

 times that of any other nation ; and the annual export, 

 which rapidly increases, may be reckoned at about 

 120,000 tons. All is sent to the United States. From 

 5000 to 6000 tons of rice are exported, and the consump- 

 tion of the island may be calculated as even exceeding 

 this, when the large number of Japanese and Chinese 

 labourers, who live upon little else, is taken into considera- 

 tion. The banana trade with the United States has 

 largely increased, and about £27,000 worth of the fruit 



