The Hawaiian gazette., 1888-05-22

regards Hawaii as its own; though
how that clause of the Constitutlo n
which forbids the acquisition of terri
tory beyond the sea is to be got over
we do not profess to understand. In
any case. the jealousy of the different
rivals for its heirship will prob
ably keep the interesting realm of
King Kalakaua independent long
after more virile monarchies have
succumbed to their fate. Samoa, we
fear, is likely to be one of these. Al
ready it is drifting under German
control, and Tonga is not likely to
long survive in its present form. FIJI
as a colony is far more prosperous
than it ever was as native kingdom,
while the unftness of the climate for
European settlers will keep New
Guinea-German, Dutch, and Eng
ashland the archipelago to the
north of it. from ever being much
more than hating places for traders,
or fields in which Christian teachers
may exercise their self denying call
ing. The Solomons and the other
thigh islands" of Melanesia and Pc
lynesia may contain mineral riches at
present undreamt Of The coral ones
can only be valuable for agriculture
on land, with beche-de-mer and pearl
shell fishing in their lagoons. The
former generally resolves itself into
cocoanut growing, for though the
soil and the climate are often fit for
almost any tropical crop, copra is the
one which finds the readiest market.
In pursuit of this kind of traffic al
most every isle in the Pacific is now
visited.
The day for great adventures like
those of Cook and Vancouver has
passed away, never to return. In
deed, Cooks amazing revelations
dawned 50 gradually on his country
men, in period of few readers and
slow communication, that before they
were fully known, the first flush of
wonder had disappeared, and Tahiti
and Hawaii were regarded in much the
same light as Brobdingnag and Lii
put. 1t is, nevertheless, worth re-
cording that only last December
hitherto undescribed island was noted
as having been seen to the westward
of Sclaru, in the Timor Lauts, and it
is, we believe, an admitted fact that,
long before the Woodlark Group
were reported to the Admiralty, an
Australian firm had been quietly
trading there, unsupported by their
rivals in the commerce of Oceania
Many of these traders are ''beach-
combers," with a taste fer savagery,
and possessing probably reasons of
their own for leading secluded life.
Such man settles down, marries a
wife or two, and opens business with
his little stock in ''trade"-toma
hawks, knives, handkerchiefs, pipes,
tobacco, matches, and the like-his
rude hut, except that it contains a
homemade table and chair, differing
little from that of the natives among
whom he has settled. Here he dries
his cocoanut kernels and sorts his
shells, until some chance coaster
touches, or a schooner belonging to
the firm by whom he has been en-
trusted with the goods arrives to
carry off the result of his industry.
He is not, as a rule, fit for any pos
sible kind of society, and the say
ages among whom he has quatted |
do not usually improve by their in
tercourse with this type of white
man. They learn all the vices and
few of the virtues of civilization, and,
with their amazing capacity for pick
ing up language, some acquire Eng
lish of the "sandal-wood" order, as it |
is called because it was first taught |
by the now fast disappearing bar
terers in that article. i x
4 But by-and-by, from
these rude beginnings a plantation
springs; an establishment for pre-
pairing the crops is built; more mer-
chants arrive; disputes arise. Then
it is that the Government IS appealed |
to to hoist the flag of the majority of
the residents in order to protect their |
property, while the native chief,
badgered by his troubles and I'M
equal to his new responsibilities, is
only too eager to become, as a mon
arch en- retraite, the pensioner of Queen
Victoria London Standard, April
21st.