Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/704

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. of the exports of the islands come to the United States, while the imports from foreign countries—of which coal is the most important item—are less than a third of the amount received from the United States.

. The total cash receipts for 1901 amounted to $2,140,000, of which $1,230,000 were collected by taxation. The total expenditures were $2,925,000, the largest items being ‘public works,’ ‘health,’ and ‘public instruction.’ The assessed value of property increased almost fourfold from 1892 to 1901.

. The population of Hawaii is exceedingly heterogeneous, and the question of population is one of the most vital and difficult with which the present and future welfare of the islands is concerned. The earliest estimate of the native population, that of Captain Cook in 1778, placed the number at 400,000, which is generally considered as being about a fourth too large. At any rate, the native population soon after this date began rapidly to diminish. The decline is shown by the following figures: in 1823, 142,000 (missionaries' estimate); in 1872, 49,044; in 1890, 31,019; and in 1900, 29,834. The cause of this decline is not fully understood, but prominent among the reasons assigned is the introduction of foreign diseases, which have proved peculiarly fatal to the natives, and the small birth-rate, which is the result in part, at least, of a maternal aversion to domestic responsibilities. In Honolulu the death-rate per thousand in 1900 for Hawaiians was 42.81, which is abnormally large. These tendencies therefore indicate the ultimate extinction of the race. Notwithstanding the disposition shown by the Hawaiians freely to intermingle with other races, there is a remarkably small number of ‘part Hawaiians,’ as will be seen in the table below. Marriages between natives and Chinese are common, but the Japanese have shown an aversion to mixed marriages. The decrease in the native population and their disinclination to work made necessary the importation of labor. Among those first imported were the Portuguese from the Azores, but these were not inclined to reëngage as plantation laborers at the expiration of their three year contract, and subsequent importations have been almost wholly of the lower class of Chinese and Japanese. An attempt to introduce Polynesians did not result satisfactorily. Immediately after the establishment of the Republic, the Japanese came in large numbers, but a treaty with Japan in 1899 gave the United States the right to regulate immigration, and in the year ending in June, 1901, there were only 391 immigrants from that country. The United States law restricting Chinese immigration applies to the islands, and this source of labor is now closed. Prior to the annexation to the United States the Government encouraged and aided immigration, though endeavoring at the same time to check the inflow of Chinese. Under the United States control Government aid ceased, and Chinese laborers are not allowed to enter. The last labor experiment was the importation of Porto Ricans, but they did not prove very satisfactory. The Chinese are the most desirable unskilled labor that can be obtained, and the planters are loud in their demands for the United

States to admit them. The population for 1890 and 1900 was as follows:

Of the Caucasians in 1900, 12,061 were Hawaiian born, 4068 were born in the United States, and 12,357 were foreign born. More than two-thirds of the total population are males. The inhabitants by islands were as follows: Hawaii, 46,843; Oahu, 54,504; Maui, 25,416; Kauai and Niihau, 20,734; Molokai and Lanai, 2504. Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, is the principal city; population, in 1900, 39,306.

. The original inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands are, in physique, good representatives of the Polynesian race, rather tall, and often quite good-looking. In head-form they have a tendency toward brachycephaly. In language the Hawaiians are most nearly related to the Samoans and Tahitians, but their speech has some phonetic and grammatical peculiarities of its own. In mental ability and artistic genius the Hawaiians rank high among their kindred, as their advanced governmental institutions, their assimilation of foreign culture, their industrial and artistic manufactures (kapa-printing, straw-plaiting, feather-weaving, etc.), and their development of a literature amply demonstrate. The love of Hawaiians (and other Polynesians) for games and sports proves them not incapable of action requiring both mental and physical exertion. It was upon one of the peculiarities of the Hawaiian family system, the punulua, a sort of incipient polyandry, that Morgan (1871-77) based his second stage in his scale of evolution of the family, the ‘punuluan family.’ From the older culture the Kahuna beliefs, the hula-hula dance, etc., have survived. The advent in 1900 of Papa Ita, the Tahitian ‘fire-walker,’ proved how much of the ancient Hawaiian religion was still alive beneath the cover of Christianity.

. With a population representing so many races, there is naturally a variety of religions. The great activity of the early missionaries succeeded in bringing the native population within the fold of the Christian Church. However, the Christian faith is ofttimes lightly held, and their old-time pagan practices are sometimes secretly indulged in. The native Protestant following is nearly twice that of the Catholic, the Mormons among them numbering about 4000. The Portuguese are mainly Catholic; but most of the other European and American elements represented are Protestant. The Chinese and Japanese hold generally to their Oriental faith.

. One of the earliest results of missionary effort in Hawaii was the establishment of schools. The first Constitution (1840) provided for a school in districts wherever fifteen or more children suitable to attend school lived close together. At present the school attendance is compulsory for the entire school year for children between the ages of six and fifteen,