ship Company, the Pacific Mail Steamship 
Company, and the Oceanic Steamship Com¬ 
pany. The Oceanic Company also runs liners 
between San Francisco and Sydney, by way of 
Honolulu and Pago Pago. The Canadian-Austra¬ 
lian Royal Mail line maintains a monthly schedule 
between Vancouver and Sydney, via Honolulu, 
Suva and Auckland. The Alaska Steamship Com¬ 
pany has a service connecting the Hawaiian ports 
of Honolulu and Hilo with Portland, Seattle and 
Astoria. The Honolul iSB al timore run, via San 
Francisco, Los Angeles, Panama and Havana, is 
under the management of the Matson "Navigation 
Company. 
SHIPS UNDER FOREIGN FLAGS 
Then there are many vessels under foreign flags 
that have business at Honolulu. While American 
law prohibits travel of passengers from or to ports 
of Hawaii to or from other American ports in 
other than vessels flying the American flag, the 
foreign bottoms contribute immensely to the busi¬ 
ness of the Islands, necessarily handle a large 
amount of passenger traffic between the Territory 
and foreign countries, particularly the countries 
of the Orient; convey such exports as Hawaii sends 
to alien lands, and carry United States mail. The 
most important of the foreign lines is that of the 
Toyo Risen Raisha, the Japanese company that 
maintains a trans-Pacific service between San 
Francisco, Honolulu, Shanghai and Manila, with 
stop-over privileges at Honolulu. The Toyo Risen 
Raisha also connects Oriental ports, Honolulu, 
and ports of Mexico, and Central and South 
America. 
THE INTER-ISLAND FLEET 
Inter-island transportation facilities are pro¬ 
vided by a dozen boats of the Inter-Island Steam 
Navigation Company, plying regularly between 
Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu, and ports of the 
islands of Hawaii, Maui, Molokai and Rauai. 
Extending from northwest to southeast, the 
eight inhabited islands of Hawaii mark a distance 
of about 400 miles. The largest is Hawaii, which 
gives its name to the archipelago, with an area of 
4,015 square miles; then, in order of square-mile¬ 
age, come Maui, 728 ; Oahu, 598 ; Rauai, 547; Mo¬ 
lokai, 261; Lanai, 139; Niihau, 97; Rahoolawe, 
69. The total area of these eight islands is 6,449 
square miles. To the northwest are a number of 
tiny isles with a combined area of little more than 
half-a-dozen square miles. 
Hawaii is frequently referred to as a “group of 
islands.” Joaquin Miller said: “The Hawaiian 
Islands are not a group, as often miscalled, but a 
string of islands—a string of pearls, if you please 
—a string of rare and precious pearls in the sap¬ 
phire center of the great American sea.” 
“a string of pearls” 
The casual traveler thinks of the Islands as a 
group, usually for the reason that his business 
does not take him into any more of Hawaii-land 
than the capital city and its suburbs; or he is 
passing to farther ports and is at the Crossroads 
of the Pacific for only as long as his steamer 
remains in the port of Honolulu. But the tourist, 
or he who comes to Hawaii for a short or longer 
visit, whether it be for pleasure, or for research, 
or in line of duty or business, soon learns that the 
many world-famed attractions of the Hawaiian 
Islands are by no means concentrated within an 
area immediately convenient to hurried transients 
as they disembark at Honolulu. He discovers that 
Hawaii is indeed “a string of rare and precious 
pearls,” and that each of the five larger islands of 
the principal eight has its own particular attrac¬ 
tions. He finds that while delightful climate, 
beautiful scenery, and wonderful formations are 
common to all the islands, each is renowned for 
its special features. 
Oahu, third island in point of area, is first in 
importance, as already indicated, because here in 
Honolulu are all headquarters—federal, territorial, 
international, financial, commercial, trans-oceanic. 
Politically, the City and County of Honolulu em¬ 
braces all of the Island of Oahu, together with the 
far outlying islets to the northwest of the eight 
larger islands of the chain, though the city proper, 
with a population of about 83,000, occupies but a 
comparatively small portion of Oahu, on the south¬ 
west side. 
Hilo, capital city of the largest island, Hawaii, 
is the Territory’s second seaport, a haven of vast 
possibilities, 190 miles, or 15 hours, from Hono¬ 
lulu by Inter-Island steamer. Hawaii is the only 
island of the archipelago whose craters are active. 
Within 31 miles of Llilo, by scenic auto highway, 
earth’s most spectacular volcano, Rilauea, is for¬ 
ever in action. Ten thousand feet above Rilauea’s 
lake of living lava, which is itself 4,000 feet above 
sea-level, Mokuaweoweo crater, at the summit of 
Manna Loa, occasionally draws attention from 
constant Rilauea with a mighty exhibition of its 
own. 
Wailuku, Rahului and Laliaina are the princi¬ 
pal towns of Maui Island. Rahului is the main 
seaport of the “Valley Island.” Laliaina, once the 
seat of royalty in the “days of old,” is a noted 
rendezvous for fishermen. Mount Haleakala 
(House of the Sun) is Maui’s biggest scenic asset. 
Indeed, it affords one of the grandest sights in the 
world. The largest extinct or quiescent volcano 
in the Pacific, this 10,000-foot crater easily holds 
second place among the wonders of Hawaii, rank¬ 
ing next to fiery Rilauea. 
And yet it is vain to speak of first or second 
place among the Islands’ marvels, for their indi¬ 
vidual characteristics put each in a class by itself. 
He who beholds Creation still at work in the 
“House of Everlasting Fire,” at Rilauea, and 
then climbs to ILaleakala’s highest rim to look 
out upon Maui and other islands, or to gaze down 
upon a sea of clouds at sunrise, or as the sun de¬ 
clines, is usually at a loss to say which never-to- 
PRINCIPAL TOWNS AND WONDERS 
