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Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii

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                             600	HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.
for a generous hospitality. Education and religion receive at their hands 
zealous support. The remainder of them contain good people of the 
laboring class and the vicious characters of a seaport city. These general 
observations can be applied to the English and German population.
The native population, numbering in 1890 40,622 persons, contained 
27,901 able to read and write. No country in Europe, except perhaps 
Germany and England, can make such a showing. While the native 
generally reads and writes in native and English, he usually speaks the 
Kanaka language. Foreigners generally acquire it. The Chinese and 
Japanese learn to use it and know very little English.
Among the natives there is not a superior class, indicated by great 
wealth, enterprise, and culture, directing the race, as with the whites. 
This comes from several causes.
In the distribution of lands most of it was assigned to the King, chiefs, 
some whites, and to the Government for its support. Of the masses 
11.132 persons received 27,830 acres - about two and a half acres to an 
individual - called Kuleanas. The majority received nothing. The 
foreigners soon traded the chiefs out of a large portion of their shares, 
and later purchased from the Government government lands and 
obtained long leases on the crown lands. Avoiding details it must be said 
that the native never held much of the land. It is well known that it has 
been about seventy years since he commenced to emerge from idolatry 
and the simplicity of thought and habits and immoralities belonging to it. 
National tradition has done little for him, and before the whites led him 
to education its influence was not operative. Until within the last twenty 
years white leaders were generally accepted and preferred by the King in 
his selections of cabinets, nobles, and judges, and native leadership was 
not wanted.
Their religious affiliations are with the Protestant and Catholic 
churches. They are over-generous, hospitable, almost free from revenge, 
very courteous - especially to females. Their talent for oratory and the 
higher branches of mathematics is unusually marked. In per son they 
have large physique, good features, and the complexion of the brown 
races. They have been greatly advanced by civilization, but have done 
little towards its advancement. The small amount of thieving and absence 
of beggary are more marked than amongst the best races of the world. 
What they are capable of under fair conditions is an unsolved problem.
Idols and idol worship have long since disappeared.
The following observations in relation to population are presented, 
though some repetition will be observed:
The population of the Hawaiian Islands can best be studied, by one 
unfamiliar with the native tongue, from its several census reports. A 
census is taken every six years. The last report is for the year 1890. From 
this it appears that the whole population numbers 89,990. This number 
includes natives or, to use another designation, Kanakas, half-castes 
(persons containing an admixture of other than native blood in any 
proportion with it), Hawaiian-born foreigners of all races or nationalities 
other than natives, Americans, British, Germans, French, Portuguese, 
Norwegians, Chinese, Polynesians, and other nationalities.
(In all the official documents of the Hawaiian Islands, whether in 
relation to population, ownership of property, taxation, or any other 
question, the designation "American," "Briton," "German," or other 
foreign nationality does not discriminate between the naturalized citizens

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