i 7 8 



HAWAII. 



[letter XVIII. 



every twenty-seven children. There is a Board of Education, 

 and Kamakau, its president, reported to the last biennial ses- 

 sion of the legislature that out of 8931 children between the 

 ages of six and fifteen, 82S7 were actually attending school! 

 Among other direct taxes, every quadruped that can be called 

 a horse, above two years old, pays a dollar a year, and every 

 dog a dollar and a half. Does not all this sound painfully 

 civilized ? If the influence of the tropics has betrayed me into 

 rhapsody and ecstacy in earlier letters, these dry details will 

 turn the scale in favour of prosaic sobriety ! 



I have said little about Honolulu, except of its tropical 

 beauty. It does not look as if it had " seen better days." Its 

 wharves are well cared for, and its streets and roads are very 

 clean. The retail stores are generally to be found in two long 

 streets which run inland, and in a splay street which crosses 

 both. The upper storekeepers, with a few exceptions, are 

 Americans, but one street is nearly given up to Chinamen's 

 stores, and one of the wealthiest and most honourable mer- 

 chants in the town is a Chinaman. There is an ice factory, 

 and icecream is included in the daily bill of fare here, and iced 

 water is supplied without limit, but lately the machinery has 

 only worked in spasms, and the absence of ice is regarded as a 

 local calamity, though the water supplied from the water- 

 works is both cool and pure. There are two good photo- 

 graphers and two booksellers. I don't think that plate glass fronts 

 are yet to be seen. Many of the storekeepers employ native 

 " assistants ; " but the natives show little aptitude for mercantile 

 affairs, or indeed for the " splendid science " of money-making 

 generally, and in this respect contrast with the Chinamen, who, 

 having come here as coolies, have contrived to secure a large 

 share of the small traffic of the islands. Most things are ex- 

 pensive, but they are good. I have seen little of such decided 

 rubbish as is to be found in the cheap stores of London and 

 Edinburgh, except in tawdry artificial flowers. Good black 

 silks are to be bought, and are as essential to the equipment of 

 a lady as at home. Saddles are to be had at most of the 

 stores, from the elaborate Mexican and Californian saddle, 

 Avorth from 30 to 50 dollars, to a worthless imitation of the 

 English saddle, dear at five. Boots and shoes, perhaps be-^ 

 cause in this climate they are a mere luxury, are frightfully dear, 

 and so are books, writing paper, and stationery generally 3 a 

 sheet of Bristol board, which we buy at home for 6d., being 

 half a dollar here. But it is quite a pleasure to make pur- 



