A few facts concerning the Hawaiian islands may serve to supplement
the deficiencies of the foregoing letters. The group is an
hereditary and constitutional monarchy. There is a house of nobles
appointed by the Crown, which consists of twenty members. The House
of Representatives consists of not less than twenty-four, or more
than forty members elected biennially. The Legislature fixes the
number, and apportions the same. The Houses sit together, and
constitute the Legislative Assembly. The property qualification for
a representative is, real estate worth $500, or an annual income of
$250 from property, and that for an elector is an annual income of
$75. The Legislators are paid, and the expense of a session is
about $15,000. There are three cabinet ministers appointed by the
Crown, of the Interior, Finance, and Foreign Affairs respectively,
and an Attorney-General, who may be regarded as a minister of
justice. There is a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and two
associate justices, and there are circuit and district judges on all
the larger islands, as well as sheriffs, prisons, and police. There
is a standing army of sixty men, mainly for the purposes of guard
duty, and rendering assistance to the police.
The question of "how to make ends meet" sorely exercises the little
kingdom. All sorts of improvements involving a largely increased
outlay are continually urged, while at the same time the burden of
taxation presses increasingly heavily, and there is a constant
clamour for the removal of some of the most lucrative imposts.
Indeed, the Hawaiian dog, with his tax and his "tag," is seldom out
of the Legislative Assembly.
What may be termed the per capita taxes are, an annual poll tax of
one dollar levied on each male inhabitant between the ages of
seventeen and sixty, an annual road tax of two dollars upon all
persons between seventeen and fifty, and an annual school tax of two
dollars upon all persons between twenty-one and sixty. There is a
direct tax upon property of .5 per cent. upon its valuation, and
specific taxes of a dollar on every horse above two years old, and a
dollar and a half on each dog. Of the $206,000 raised by internal
taxes during the last biennial period, the horses paid $50,000, the
mules $6,000, and the dogs $19,000!
The indirect taxation in the shape of customs' duties amounted to
$350,000 in the same period. The poor Hawaiian does not know the
blessing of a "Free Breakfast Table."
The islands are large importers. The value of imported goods paying
duties was $1,437,000 in 1873, on which the Hawaiian Treasury
received $198,000 as customs' duties. Twenty-five thousand dollars'
worth of ale, porter, and light wines, and thirty thousand dollars'
worth of spirits, show that the foreign population of 6,000 is more
than sufficiently bibulous. The Chinamen, about 2,000 in number,
are, or ought to be, responsible for $13,000 worth of opium; and the
$34,000 worth of tobacco and cigars is doubtless distributed pretty
equally over all the nationalities. Twenty-one thousand gallons of
spirits were imported in 1873. The licences to sell spirits brought
$18,000 dollars into the treasury in the last biennial period, but
those for the sale of awa and opium brought in $55,000 during the
same time. These licences are confined to Honolulu.
There are two interesting items of customs receipts, a sum of $924,
the proceeds of a per capita tax of two dollars levied on passengers
landing on the islands, for the support of the Queen's Hospital, and
a sum of $1,477, the proceeds of a tax levied on seamen for the
support of the Marine Hospital. There is a sum of $700 for
passports, as no Hawaiian or stranger can leave the kingdom without
an official permit.
There are 58 vessels registered under the Hawaiian flag, of which 40
are coasters, and 18 engaged in foreign freighting and whaling.
The value of domestic exports in 1873 was $1,725,507. Among these
are bananas, pineapples, pulu, cocoanuts, oranges, limes, sandal-
wood, tamarinds, betel leaves, shark's fins, paiai, whale oil, sperm
oil, cocoanut oil, and whalebone. Among other commodities there was
exported, of coffee 262,000 lbs., of fungus 57,000lbs., of pea nuts
58,000 lbs., of cotton 8,000 lb., of rice 941,000 lbs., of paddy
507,000 lbs., of hides 20,000 packages, of goat skins 66,000, of
horns 13,000, and of tallow 609,000 lbs.
The expense of "keeping things going" on the islands for the two
years ending March 1st, 1874, amounted to $1,193,276, but this
included the funeral expenses of two kings, as well as of two extra
sessions of the Legislature, which amounted to $42,000. The
decrease in the revenue for the same period amounted to $45,000.
The items of Hawaiian expenditure were as follows:--
For Civil List. $47,689.73
" Permanent Settlements, Queen Emma. 12,000.00
" Legislature and Privy Council. 15,288.50
" Extra Legislative Expenses. 19,011.87
" Department of the Judiciary. 72,245.64
" " of Foreign Affairs and War. 78,145.85
" " of the Interior. 389,009.08
" " of Finance. 202,117.05
" " of the Attorney-General 97,097.00
" Bureau of Public Instruction. 89,432.40
" Miscellaneous Expenditures. 170,474.67
The balance on hand in the Treasury,
March 31st, 1874. 764.57
-------------
$1,193,276.36
That, under the head Finance, includes the interest on borrowed
money. The funded national debt is $340,000. Of this sum a portion
bears no stated interest, only such as may arise from the very
dubious profits of the Hawaiian hotel. The interest charges are 12
per cent. on $25,000, and 9 per cent. on $272,000. The estimates
for the present biennial period involve a large increase of debt.
The present financial position of the kingdom is, an increasing
expenditure and a decreasing revenue.
The statistics of the Judiciary Department for the last two years
present a few features of interest. There were 4,000 convictions
out of 5,764 cases brought before the courts, equal to a fourteenth
part of the population. The total number of offences in the
category is 125. Of these some are decidedly local. Thus, for
"furnishing intoxicating liquors to Hawaiians" 92 persons were
punished; for "exhibition of Hula," 10; for "selling awa without
licence," 12; for "selling opium without licence," 24. It is not
surprising to those who know the habits of the people, that the
convictions for violations of the marriage tie, though greatly
diminished, should reach the number of 384, while under the head
"Deserting Husbands and Wives," 67 convictions are recorded. For
"practising medicine without a licence," 56 persons were punished;
for "furious riding," 197; for "cruelty to animals," 37; for
"gaming," 121; for "gross cheating," 32; for "violating the
Sabbath," 61. We must remember that the returns include foreigners
and Chinamen, or else the reputation for "harmlessness" which
Hawaiians possess would suffer seriously when we read that within
the last two years there were 178 convictions for "assault," 248 for
"assault and battery," 12 for "assaults with dangerous weapons," 49
for "affray," 674 for "drunkenness," 87 for "disturbing quiet of the
night," and 13 for "murder." Yet the number of criminal cases has
largely diminished, and taking civil and criminal together, there
has been a decrease of 656 for the last biennial period, as compared
with that immediately preceding it.
The administration of justice is confessedly one of the most
efficient departments of Hawaiian affairs. Chief Justice Allen,
both as a lawyer and a gentleman, is worthy to fill the highest
position in his native country (America), and the Associate
Justices, as well as the native and foreign judges throughout the
islands, are highly esteemed for honour and uprightness. I never
heard an uttered suspicion of venality or unfairness against anyone
of them, and apparently the Judiciary Department of Hawaii deserves
the same confidence which we repose in our own.
The Educational System has been carefully modelled, and is carried
out with tolerable efficiency. Eighty-seven per cent. of the whole
school population are actually at school, and the inspector of
schools states that a person who cannot read and write is rarely met
with. Each common school is graded into two, three, or four
classes, according to the intelligence and proficiency of the
pupils, and the curriculum of study is as follows:--
CLASS I.--Reading, mental and written arithmetic, geography,
penmanship, and composition.
CLASS II.--Reading, mental arithmetic, geography, penmanship.
CLASS III.--Reading, first principles of arithmetic, penmanship.
CLASS IV.--Primer, use of slate and pencil.
The youngest children are not classified until they can put letters
together in syllables.
Vocal music is taught wherever competent teachers are found.
The total sum expended on education, including the grants to
"family" and other schools, is about $40,000 a year. {453}
It has been remarked that the rising race of Hawaiians has an
increased contempt for industry in the form of manual labour, and it
is proposed by the Board of Education that such labour shall be made
a part of common school education, so that on both girls and boys a
desire to provide for their own wants in an honest way shall be
officially inculcated. There is a Government Reformatory School,
and industrial and family schools for both girls and boys are
scattered over the islands. The supply of literature in the
vernacular is meagre, and few of the natives have any intelligent
comprehension of English.
The group has an area of about 4,000,000 acres, of which about
200,000 may be regarded as arable, and 150,000 as specially adapted
for the culture of sugar-cane. Sugar, the great staple production,
gives employment in its cultivation and manufacture to nearly 4,000
hands. Only a fifteenth part of the estimated arable area is under
cultivation. Over 6,000 natives are returned as the possessors of
Kuleanas or freeholds, but many of these are heavily mortgaged.
Many of the larger lands are held on lease from the crown or chiefs,
and there are difficulties attending the purchase of small
properties.
Almost all the roots and fruits of the torrid and temperate zones
can be grown upon the islands, and the banana, kalo, yam, sweet
potato, cocoanut, breadfruit, arrowroot, sugar-cane, strawberry,
raspberry, whortleberry, and native apple, are said to be
indigenous.
The indigenous fauna is small, consisting only of hogs, dogs, rats,
and an anomalous bat which flies by day: There are few insects,
except such as have been imported, and these, which consist of
centipedes, scorpions, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and fleas, are
happily confined to certain localities, and the two first have left
most of their venom behind them. A small lizard is abundant, but
snakes, toads, and frogs have not yet effected a landing.
The ornithology of the islands is scanty. Domestic fowls are
supposed to be indigenous. Wild geese are numerous among the
mountains of Hawaii, and plovers, snipe, and wild ducks, are found
on all the islands. A handsome owl, called the owl-hawk, is common.
There is a paroquet with purple feathers, another with scarlet, a
woodpecker with variegated plumage of red, green, and yellow, and a
small black bird with a single yellow feather under each wing.
There are few singing birds, but one of the few has as sweet a note
as that of the English thrush. There are very few varieties of
moths and butterflies.
The flora of the Hawaiian Islands is far scantier than that of the
South Sea groups, and cannot compare with that of many other
tropical as well as temperate regions. But all the islands are rich
in cryptogamous plants, of which there is an almost infinite
variety.
Hawaii is still in process of construction, and is subject to
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tidal waves. Hurricanes are
unknown, and thunderstorms are rare and light.
Under favourable circumstances of moisture, the soil is most
prolific, and "patch cultivation" in glens and ravines, as well as
on mountain sides, produces astonishing results. A Kalo patch of
forty square feet will support a man for a year. An acre of
favourably situated land will grow a thousand stems of bananas,
which will produce annually ten tons of fruit. The sweet potato
flourishes on the most unpromising lava, where soil can hardly be
said to exist, and in good localities produces 200 barrels to the
acre. On dry light soils the Irish potato grows anyhow and
anywhere, with no other trouble than that of planting the sets.
Most vegetable dyes, drugs, and spices can be raised. Forty diverse
fruits present an overflowing cornucopia. The esculents of the
temperate zones flourish. The coffee bush produces from three to
five pounds of berries the third year after planting. The average
yield of sugar is two and a half tons to the acre. Pineapples grow
like weeds in some districts, and water melons are almost a drug.
The bamboo is known to grow sixteen inches in a day. Wherever there
is a sufficient rainfall, the earth teems with plenty.
Yet the Hawaiian Islands can hardly be regarded as a field for
emigration, though nature is lavish, and the climate the most
delicious and salubrious in the world. Farming, as we understand
it, is unknown. The dearth of insectivorous birds seriously affects
the cultivation of a soil naturally bounteous to excess. The narrow
gorges in which terraced "patch cultivation," is so successful,
offer no temptations to a man with the world before him. The larger
areas require labour, and labour is not to be had. Though wheat and
other cereals mature, attacks of weevil prevent their storage, and
all the grain and flour consumed are imported from California.
Cacao, cinnamon, and allspice, are subject to an apparently
ineradicable blight. The blight which has attacked the coffee shrub
is so severe, that the larger plantations have been dug up, and
coffee is now raised by patch culture, mainly among the guava scrub
which fringes the forests. Oranges suffer from blight also, and
some of the finest groves have been cut down. Cotton suffers from
the ravages of a caterpillar. The mulberry tree, which, from its
rapid growth, would be invaluable to silk growers, is covered with a
black and white blight. Sheep are at present successful, but in
some localities the spread of a pestilent "oat-burr" is depreciating
the value of their wool. The forests, which are essential to the
well-being of the islands, are disappearing in some quarters, owing
to the attacks of a grub, as well as the ravages of cattle.
Cocoanuts, bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, kalo, and breadfruit, the
staple food of the native population, are free from blight, and so
are potatoes and rice. Beef cattle can be raised for almost
nothing, and in some districts beef can be bought for the cent or
two per pound which pays for the cutting up of the carcase. Every
one can live abundantly, and without the "sweat of the brow," but
few can make money, owing to the various forms of blight, the
scarcity of labour, and the lack of a profitable market.
There is little healthy activity in any department of business. The
whaling fleet has deserted the islands. A general pilikia prevails.
Settlements are disappearing, valley lands are falling out of
cultivation, Hilo grass and guava scrub are burying the traces of a
former population. The natives are rapidly diminishing, {457} the
old industries are abandoned, and the inherent immorality of the
race, the great outstanding cause of its decay, still resists the
influence of Christian teaching and example.
An exotic civilization is having a fair trial on the Hawaiian
Islands. With the exception of the serious maladies introduced by
foreigners in the early days, and the disastrous moral influence
exercised by worthless whites, they have suffered none of the wrongs
usually inflicted on the feebler by the stronger race. The rights
of the natives were in the first instance carefully secured to them,
and have since been protected by equal laws, righteously
administered. The Hawaiians have been aided towards independence in
political matters, and the foreigners, who framed the laws and
constitution, and have directed Hawaiian affairs, such as Richards,
Lee, Judd, Allen, and Wyllie, were men above reproach; and
missionary influence, of all others the most friendly to the
natives, has predominated for fifty years.
The effects of missionary labour have been scarcely touched upon in
the foregoing letters, and here, in preference to giving any opinion
of my own, I quote from Mr. R. H. Dana, an Episcopalian, and a
barrister of the highest standing in America, well known in this
country by his writings, who sums up his investigations on the
Sandwich Islands in the following dispassionate words:
"It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the American
Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole
people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew. They have given
them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language
from extinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the
Bible, and works of devotion, science, and entertainment, etc. They
have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so pressed
their work, that now the proportion of inhabitants who can read and
write is greater than in New England. And whereas they found these
islanders a nation of half-naked savages, living in the surf and on
the sand, eating raw fish, fighting among themselves, tyrannized
over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality, they now see
them decently clothed, recognizing the law of marriage, knowing
something of accounts, going to school and public worship more
regularly than the people do at home, and the more elevated of them
taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional monarchy
under which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench and in
the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the local
magistracies."
If space permitted, the testimony of "Mark Twain," given in
"Roughing It," might be added to the above, and the remaining
missionaries may well point to the visible results of their labours,
with the one word Circumspice!