Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document
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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