KAUAI AND OAHU. 77 



doors, as well as the size of the houses ; have paid some regard to 

 ventilation, and improved the quality of their sleeping-mats. 



The slow progress of improvement in this district, is thought to have 

 been owing to the uncertain tenure of property ; but as the new con- 

 stitution and laws provide for this, it will no longer be an impediment. 



The schools in this district number eleven, which are taught by 

 native teachers, under the superintendence of the missionaries. The 

 number of children who attend them averages about four hundred, 

 which is about half the number in the district. The scholars are be- 

 tween four and sixteen years of age. Messrs. Emerson and Locke 

 are both of opinion, that the Hawaiian children are not inferior in 

 intellect or in aptitude for handicraft to other children having equal 

 advantages. 



There is one church in the district, on whose first establishment, 

 seven years previous to our visit, it had five hundred and eighty-three 

 communicants ; of these eight have died, eighteen were dismissed to 

 join other churches, fifty-nine expelled for unchristian conduct, and 

 four hundred and ninety-eight are now connected with the church. 

 Most of the latter have a good degree of conscience, and some sense 

 of Christian obligation, whilst others, as might be expected, are appa- 

 rently little more than in name Christians. 



From 1832 to 1839, there were four hundred and forty-five mar- 

 riages. There has been a register of the births and deaths kept for a 

 part of the time, which would go to show that the former was to the 

 latter as one to two. Some particular years seem to have varied 

 somewhat from this : in Waialua, forty-five births to one hundred 

 and thirty-six deaths. In another place the proportions were as 

 seven to seventeen ; and in a third, as two to eight, without any pre 

 vailing disease. In 1836, at Waialua, the births were thirty-four, the 

 deaths ninety ; in 1839, fifty-six to one hundred and eighty-five. 



The population in 1832, at Waialua, was 2,640; in 1836, 2,415; 

 decrease in four years, 225. 



From the great differences between the several places, without the 

 existence of any epidemic, one is led to believe that mistakes may 

 have been made in the register ; the general belief, however, is, that 

 the numbers that will represent the decrease most accurately, are the 

 above. 



The causes of decrease in this district are supposed to be sterility 

 and abortion ; the latter is quite common, and instances are known 

 where women have had six or seven, and sometimes as many as ten, 

 in the same number of years, and no living children. 



Infanticide has been practised to some extent, down to 1840. From 



G2 



