The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-26

house of the legislative bOdy-the
other rooms for offices of the different
heads of departments of the Republ
can government. AS we drove about
the city the novelties that caught our
eye were the tropical fruits and trees
bananas, oranges, mangoes, pine
apples and such-also the rice fields
and fish ponds. One special rice field
attracted our attention. In it were
two Cinnamon, wading in water and
mud nearly to their knees, blowing
with Chinese cows. We could not see
the shape of the pillow, but the cows
were dTab colOred and their skin look
ed like that of a NANCY black dog.
We were reminded of Barnum and cir
Gus days.
The houses were principally, what
may be termed bungaIOes, viz: one
story frame, although among the resi-
dences we noticed many two and three
stories in height. Telephone wires
seem to run everywhere and the city
is lighted by electricity There is
about fifteen miles of street railway,
with mules as motive power. From
its general appearance, / think that
President Lindsay and Superintendent
MacFayden could do some good ser
vice for the infant republic if they
were put in charge of it's street railway
system. The streets and drives are
excellent, the explanation being a sys-
tenn of road making whereby the roads
are rounded up with a scraper, then
wet and rolled with a heavy steam
roller and where necessary the road
bed surfaced with lava which abounds
in the neighborhood. The bicycle
abounds. There seemed to be very
good horses on the islands, upon which
by the way, the women ride astride.
At Waikiki, which is about three miles
from the city along a road, every foot
of which is lined with gorgeous trop-
zeal growth, we were shown the race
course and Kapiolani Park. From the
size and extent of the grounds and
buildings, we surmised that there is
a special Zest for horse racing among
the Hawaiians. On Sunday the park
is filled with carriages. To go back
to the city-many bright and very
attractive well-kept stores line the
principal streets. The population is
decidedly mixed, as besides the native
copper-hued Kanaka there are num-
bers of Japanese, Chinese and Portu-
guese. AS illustrating the cosmopoli-
tan character of the population, at the
Union Church on the previous Sunday.
service had been held in five languages
viz: English, Hawaiian, Chinese, Jap
anese and Portuguese.
The Chinese have their quarters or
Chinatown, with its usual attendants,
and the Acknowledged, Iong-cued son of
hn Will nil hi
Chinese laundry smell, in no sense i'm
proved by the combination, with other
foul odors, as everywhere this cOmbi-
nation of smells being whitfield up our
nostrils as we passed along.
INTERESTED IN THE PEOPLE.
/ feel, however, that it is idle to
attempt to describe what the most
brilliant writer's have wed in doing
and after the most rapturous efforts,
confess that words are inadequate.
We were quite as much interested in
the people as in the strange and unusu-
al sights. Here is a people asking to
be made one with us. Do we want
them? There seems to be numerous
factions in the islands. The sugar
planters forming one, the bankers,
anu IueCIdUlCS duOIHeI, Tie
Kanakas another, and possibly still
others composed of the Chinese, Jap
anese and Portuguese elements. The
Chinese and japanese will be no mean
element if the immigration and impor-
tation of them is not controlled. The
most valuable product of the islands is
sugar cane, from which the wealth of
the islands is derived and from which
large fortunes of many of the residents
have been made.
The planter claims that sugar rails
ing requires cheap labor which he
seeks to import from China and Japan
and he therefore looks askance at an
nexatiOn, which he fears will menace
this by extending the Chinese eXclu-
sion and like legislation. For this
reason he is inclined to prefer things
as they are. The merchant, mechanic,
laborer and Kanaka regard with a very
jealous eye, the augmenting of the
population by cheap labor immigration
and look to annexation for relief and
puts this prominently in his discus
sion of the subject. The Kanaka,
however, is easy going and prefers the
monarchy.
He is fine looking specimen of man
and all we saw impressed us with
their kindly, bright and intelligent
faces. The sentiments of the Chinese
and Japanese upon the subject we did
not learn.
Bitter contests have been carried on
among the people upon the subject of
the opium trade and the legalizing of
the lottery. The opponents of these
measures and the people who are in
favor of the higher order of things,
are derisively called the Missionary
Party. We were told that a large per-
centage of moneyed interests and the
bulk of property in the islands is
owned hY the Americans. i. e.. either