The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-10-01

achieved for the benefit of Chinese, as well as
of Europeans, but when we reflect that this peo-
pie appear to have become fixed, sterotyped as
it were, in certain moral and political ideas,
centuries before the ancestors Of the combatants
at Runymede were heard of as clothing them
selves in skins and painting their bodies with
woad; the conviction is forced upon US that as
far as the Chinese are concerned, that battle
might as well not have been fought. By them
our refined constitutional theories fail to be
appreciated, and applied in practice would not
work. They are used to a paternal form of
government, and obedience to it, to substantial
justice, and prompt punishment for wrong doors.
We agree with the speaker already referred to,
that it may be well in framing our laws to con-
slider the population we are likely to have, but
we differ from him as to what that population
will probably be.
1t would be neglecting the signs of the times
not to recognize the imminent probability of a
very large proportion of our population being,
ere long, Chinese. Sir John BOwring states in
the article already referred to, that there are
90 hundreds of thousands of Chinese scattered
over the Islands of Java, Borneo, Sumatra,
$50, 900 of whom arc in Java alone. In allud-
ing to this wonderful overflow of Chinese upon
the neighboring nations, he speaks of {" the great
plans and purposes of Providence being thus
accomplished. He says " In this grand mission
of perpetually advancing change, the Chinese
races are now performing the most prominent
part in the tropical regions of the east. All that
Europe can contribute will be the ruling iniu-
ences represented by a few, whose higher aptitudes
for government, greater knowledge, wider expert
ence, harder perseverance, with a more distinct
perception of an end in view, and better adapta-
ton of the means for obtaining it, will originate
and encourage ameliorations which will gradually
descend among the many"
What is called the "Chinese Question: as
now discussed in California and the United States,
and in Australia, does not apply here. 1t may
we'll be a question with Northern Americans, or
with Southern Australians, whether another and
a cheaper race should be allowed to compete
with them for the possession of their country,
and to eat them Quito compete for a climate
to which the present possessors are adapted, and
for a soil which they can themselves cultivate,
and on which they are able to increase indefi-
nitely. In these islands the circumstances which
give point to that discussion are all absent. The
possessors of the soil are few and decreasing, the
white race, now making a claim for their places,
are physically unable to take them. The posi-
ton of affairs here is this-three different races
put in a claim for existence and support from
the soil of Hawaii, the native, the white, and the
Chinese-the first two cannot maintain themselves
here in adequate numbers at all-the third can
and by coming would benefit the other two
whilst at the same time their necessities in their
own over-peopled country force them to overflow
and inundate the neighboring regions. Hawaii
is one of these regions and with a COMPARE
lively unpeOpled area, it is a convenient hollow
to receive a portion of this inundating wave.
And why should it not? Everything presses
to that end. We want the men. We have a
fertile country, the amount of whose products
are in proportion to it's extent insignificant. We
say it advisedly-insignifcant compared with
what other islands of similar area and capability
produce, and insignificant compared with the
demand to be supplied. We have just had
opened up to us markets under our lee, of which
almost any one, of some half dozen, could take
our whole yield of tropical products. We lose
in price, because we produce SO little-it is hardly
worth while for the Australians, for instance, to
send a ship for a cargo of our produce, because a
vessel of profitable size for such a voyage could
with difficulty be filled in a reasonable time. We
are on too small a scale to pay. This also makes
everything we want to use dear. The transac-
tions of the retailer, the manufacturer, or the
merchant are so few and small that their charge
or rate of profit has to be high to pay expenses
the year round. We could produce more cheaply
if xra prOdnnod r,ora. and hv rrodro;,r ,-o
could get a better price.
We believe that nothing would conduce more
to our progress and prosperity-a prosperity that
would be felt by all, from the poorest native
upwards-than by encouraging by every legiti-
mate means in our power the speedy arrival of the
Chinese that are required-but who must ulti-
mately come anyway. Demagogues on one side,
or well intentioned enthusiasts on the other, may
delay somewhat their advent, and so
help to impoverish US, but there is no permanent
field here for the efforts of either in this direction.
We are luckily entirely ,0ithin the tropics, and
need not be p~erplexed by two opposing systems
of labor policy, or politics. as we might be, did
our territory extend into the temperate zone.
From the humblest laborer up through the me-
chauic, tradesman and merchant, all have one
interest-we are all in one boat. We can all see
that without an economical hard working outdoor
population, our intelligent mechanics, our trades
men, and our merchants may as well depart and
70 long as our own native population continues to
decline, and no substitutes arrive, decay, and
listrasssEill seize hold of us.
s.sS heen observed that &c political morality ,
ssss not sxist in the tropics or in other words,
refnements of political theory do not flourish
here, it is an uncongenial location-they will
rot grow you may plant them, and water them,
nd keep them alive for a time, but they never
eem to come to anything. On the other hand,
lemagogues can do no business with the masses
Is generally found within the tropics, unless they