The Hawaiian gazette., 1881-11-09

drama being the loss of the Storm Bird.
The number of South Sea Islanders at
present among us is insignificant, and the
number is not likely to be increased.
Lastly, we have the Saxon race; which Is
in a large measure the property y-holding
race: which has in and out of the Legis-
lature always had an important influence
upon ali political questions; whose inter
est has alwavs been bound up in support
ing law and order.
These arc the elements with which our
political thinkers have to deal, and they
must be pr, pared to deal with them now;
the matter of the Chinese now IN our
midst is very important one, which may
demand instant attention; the matter of
the Portuguese is one which, though ap-
parently remote, is not so very remote;
within the next decade it will be knock
ing at our political gates with no uncer-
tain hand. We have always favored Por-
tucuese immigration; we see In them
very desirable addition to our industrial
population; we think there are great pos
sibilities in them for cooperation; the
cooperative system In sugar planting has
never yet been fairly tried, and from all
we can gather from men who are prac
tically acquainted with plantation work
and management, we're it properly tired
! there would be every likelihood Of obtain
| ing excellent results. But for the moment
we are viewing things from their political,
not their commercial standpoint, and the
bringing in of large numbers of Portu-
guese requires us to view it from this
standpoint.
Whit is it that we are going to assist in
building up? A little while ago we very
fairly succeeded in making the world be-
lieve that we were building mp Chinese
State in the center of the Pacific are we
not now going to make an error on the
other side, and cause it to be said to our
! detriment that Portuguese State is being
raised, and that, in time, under our pres
ent system of nearly universal franchise,
we might not have Portuguese ministry
within few years? OF course the answer
is 20 we must have laborers, and if we seek
elsewhere, the same arguments which
have been advanced against Chinese, and
which you are now advancing against
Portuguese, would hold good" Truly,
! but we by no means want to advance an
argument against Portuguese immigration,
we merely wish to show what may be a
political danger, when we seek this lmml-
grafton and are not prepared to deal with
the questions it involves. One way to deal
with it is to restrict the power of becom-
ing a voting citizen, to restrict naturaliza-
ton. Supposing a Portuguese to come
here under contract for five years, during
that period he should not have any right
of becoming a voter, and even after that
we would put restrictions, and strong ones,
in the way of such men acquiring the
Hawaiian nationality before they become
citizens of this State they should be men
who have some stake in the State. We
have merely presented one case, we have
not, at the present moment, time or space
to go into others. We have pointed out,
however, Il subject which will bear CON
siderable discussion, subject which has
many ramifcation, and which demands a
great deal of thought. Let, then, all who
have the wide interests of the whole
country, who have the narrower interests
of their own private means at heart. land
here we certainly appeal to very large
circle,) think well over this. How are we
going to meet the difficulties which are
presented before us by the presence of
four nationalities, all of which are likely
to take an active part in political life?