Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-04-22
THEIR ENVIABLE LOT
Hawaiians Have Really Little to
Complain About.
LIVING Is CHEAP AND WAGES GOOD
Improvement in Their Condition in
the Last Fifty Years.
DEMAND FOR ANNEXATION

i special correspondence OF Inc Evening Stdr
HONOLULU, April Z, 1897.
There has been much said of late in
|, Wa shingtcn in the royalist interest, about
the native Hawaiians (Hah-wye-yuns) be-
| ing so oppressed. 1t is said that they are
down. trodden and crushed under the heel
of the cruel American missionaries sons
and sugar planters. They have been robbed
| Of their nationality and deprived of their
| franchises; their lands have been stolen
| from them; they have been thrust down in
| to general poverty and restitution. Once a
| happy. nght-hearted people, now in want
| and sorrow, they bewail their country,
Iassed from them into the plundering hands
of those who came in deceitful Gospel
guise.
Last Sunday entered a tram car, in
| which were four young native females of
| unmixed blood. who were more stylishly
| CARRIED than three white women of good
position in the same car. One of the latter
was with her husband, who was manager
of a line of steam coasters. 1 asked him
what proportion of his cabin passengers
| were ratives. Nearly one-half," he re-
piled. Now, the regular cabin fare to the
| nearer islands is 81, or 8 cents mile, while
! deck or steerage fare is only 81. The for
| mer includes good table fare, with COM
| Portable state room. Few Asiatics, or Por-
| tuSuese, think they can afford such luxury.
| Twenty years ago no natives except few
| of wealth and rank, thought of such a
thing, even when most of the vessels were
| schooners, and deck passengers were COM
! monty wet by seas dashing over them.
| Now only the poorer class of natives are
| content to occupy the sheltered decks Of
| the steamers, which are vastly more COM
| fcrtable thar cabin passages were twenty
years ago on the tumbling little schooners.
l am certain that there is no other coun-
try on the globe where the peasantry and
| lsboring class are nearly as well housed,
| clothed or fed as are our native Hawaiians
| of the same class. To read the recently
reported utterances Of Liliuokalani. or Ju-
| lirs Palmer, one would suppose that there
| was widespread restitution and suffering
among native Hawaiians The contrary is
| the fact. Poverty and misery are found in
all lands, but more seldom among our ma
| tives than elsewhere. There are few of
| those disabled by age or illness who are
not made reasonably comfortable by rela-
| ttves. Drunkenness and debauchery, gam
| bling and opium. produce restitution and
| suffering here as elsewhere. Hawaiians are
a habftually kind and generous race cheer
fully sharing ever thing with needy kindred
| and even neighbors. BY old custom, this
| liberality is excessive, encouraging the idle,
so that 1t is difficult for any native to ;.c-
of means his kindred come and live on him.
He must get his employer to keep back
part OF MS wages to pay for a house or
land. Any money in hand goes TO mis-
friends.
Labor In Demand.
ANY native man or woman having
| strength easily finds employment amply
| suf1cing their rather simple wants In the
| country natives are in great demand as
drovers. Transfers ETC., at from $40 to $50
| month. They are employed on planta-
lions at $50 or $40 a month as overseers of
gangs of Chinese or Japanese In the
towns. common laborers get at least one
dollar day, and roustabouts on the
wharves from $1J0 to 500. Large num-
p pers are sailors and boatmen at high pay.
| being excellent watermen. There are now
great numbers Of skilled artisans among
the natives. carpenters, plumbers, ma
chinists, painters, printers, ETC., who earn
thrifty. and own good houses and vehicles
Many Of them go to their daily labor on
their wheels. like the whites.
As compared with the laboring classes in
other lands, the Hawaiians live in great
plenty. Their condition is one of opuIence
as compared with twenty-five years ago,
before reciprocity had doubled day wages,
and before many natives had acquired me-
chanical skill. AS compared with the near
ly universal abject poverty of sixty years
ago. which wildly remember, the natives
are all now rolling in wealth. Then they
were serfs to their chiefs. never handled
any coin, and little cloth. The possessor OF
a shirt was gentleman, and the owner OF
pants a lordling. About that time a little
sugar mill was started, that made about
fifty tons year. and paid IS cents a week
for labor in cotton cloth at % cents yard.
Those wage-earning natives were the envy
. of the whole country.
Ten years after that, in 1s47. began the
process by which each householder was
made the owner in fee simple of the small
allotment upon which he had been living
as tenant-at-will of the landlord chief to
whom he owed one days labor In a week,
besides extra service to higher chiefs as
called for. These "kuleanas" or peasants
allotments, consisted of an average of per-
haps half an acre of taro swamp, and of
ample for the food Of a family, taro
patches easily feeding ten adults to the
acre-not forty, as Capt. Dutton erroneous
ly reported. This made all the people free
men. nc longer serfs. 1t was due to the
active personal influence of leading mis-
scenarios. acting upon the very kindly and
reasonable disposition of the king, Kane
hameha III. and his chiefs. Between IS4I
rate bits of land, I believe-were surveyed
and described with great care and zeal,
half Of them by the missionaries and some
OF their older sons, who were very solicit
tous to secure to each peasant his due
quantity Of ground In opposition to the
grasping resistance of the landlord. All
those surveys were recorded In the old
books Of the land office, together with sur
veys OF the larger tracts, and constitute
the original basis Of most of the existing
titles to land In these islands.
Losing Their Land
During. the past fifty years probably
three-fourths of those peasant allotments
have passed out Of the hands of the orig
inal owners and their heirs and are now
owned mostly by white men. In the same
time the natives have decreased from 3d.
600 to $1,000. They have parted too easily
with their little homesteads. most COM
monty by mortgaging them to get money
for some within. and then almost Invariably
failing to pay principal or interest. through
hab.tual unthrift. Nearly all of the old
landlord chiefs have died and left no heirs
Their large tracts within which the small
allotments lay in scattered patches have
passed into the hands Of white men by fam
purchase, very commonly sold to pay debts
ct the chiefs estates. The presence OF
these scattered patches was often q serious
inconyenience to the land owner. who
wocld watch his Opportunity to buy out
the peasant. The native generally got the
fun value Of his land. often much more.
but became landless. - -
4rs. Domlnis y reported ~ representing
tsax the msnHonar3es' soma had been the
chief operators In thus getting away the
Ande Of tie natives. Tina can hardly BE-
nues because ouiy - IN told Of these
eenflen1en sare noW Hy1uH - thane falanla
49,