Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-09
The Pure Blood Natives Are Steadily
Decreasing.
THE HALF ISLANDERS REINCREASIEG
The Foreign-Bom Element Has
Gained Largely
LITERACY OF THE ISLANDS

rfoHi fionoiulu star.
The population of the Hawaiian Islands
is of HETEROGENEOUS character. being made
up OF Hawaiian. American. British. Ger
man. Portuguese. Chinese. japanese and
other nationalities. The total number of
the population I'm 1896. The date of the last
| census. was 10000; males. a. .5i7. and fe-
males, 3G.5o3. OF this 81 oi9 were fuli-blood-
ed Hawaiians, 23,o3S were Americans and
Europeans. "a 400 were Japanese, n. GIG were
Chinese, and 400 were South Sea islanders
There remain S.4s5 part-Hawaiians. who
derive their descent from American. Euro
pean or Asiatic fathers and Hawaiian
mothers.
The Hawaiian population OF pure birth is
still decreasing, though the rate OF de-
crease was less for the past six years than
ii was for the similar period before that.
From 1884 10 1890 the decrease was 1879 per
cent, while from 1850 to 1886 IL was - per
cent
large increase, the other hand, having
advanced from 6, lS6, as reported in lscaa. to
s,ls5 in 1886, gain OF .,2E'. or 81 per
cent.
The Hawaiian-born population, where
both parents are foreigners. also shows a
wonderful advance, viz: l,i95 against
Is, lob, an increase of G...lS or S3i per cent.
OF this number 6359 are Portuguese. Thus,
out of total pure Portuguese population
OF 15,1g1. according TO the report, 45.s per
cent were born on the islands, OF the
Japanese population only 81 per cent. and
of the Chinese los per cent, Were born
here. These latter may be regarded as the
transient population, people who come
anu go but do not make their homes on
the islands, whereas the Americans and
Europeans do make their homes upon the
islands, bring up their children upon the
soil, as ii Were and form a permanent pop
uiatlon, population which, together with
the part-Hawaiians, will eventually form
the entire backbone of the island people.
The Foreign Born.
The foreign-born population has increased
from il.S13 to 55,1s3, an advance of 139lo,
or 3d. per cent. Ii is among this section
OF the population that the great Gispro-
portion of the sexes occurs. and, of course
it is here that the preponderance of the
Asiatic comes in. OF this 40. SI mentioned
above, 22,323 were japanese and la,:is2 were
Chinese, a total of 41,1ll; of these ST III
were males and $3.50 Were females These,
as has been stated already. must be re
garded as in a great measure fioatinS
population, working on the plantations, and
returning to their native countries with
small Accommodations saved from their
wages, their places being filled by fresh
immigrants.
Summing up the percentage of popula-
ton it VIII be found follows: HawaiiaHs,
2S4; part-Hawaiians IS; American Ell
fopeans and their descendants. 2i.l; Jap
anese, 2e.3; Chinese, l2.s; other rationale
ties, %.
The keynote of the future is 10 be found
among the survivals OF children. If the
young children are increasing. there is hope
of healthy state growing up. Now. in
this direction the prospects are good. The
total increase of the population during the
six years from 1880 10 1886 was 2l.l per
cent. but the increase CT children between
the ages of one and six years during the
same period has been T. 496 or 80 per cent,
which * n fbordia ~ haa Sbn
Analysing the increase of young children
according ID nationality the re is a gain
among Hawaiians of : per cent, the figures
being 1924 against APO. a gain of 2i9
Among part-Hawaiians. the Increase has
been from 1,56S in 1870. to 2,5'90 in 1885, a
gain of 1,02o, or 65 per cent.
Literacy.
The literacy of the islands based unon a
standard of ability to read and write,
stands high. Taking all Municipalities, there
are SO, 195 over six years of age and of
these 63U per cent are able to read and
write. Following is the percentage who
can read and write: Hawaiian and part
Hawaiian, 81; Americans and Europeans
other than Portuguese, 81: Portuguese. "a;
japanese, Chinese and South Sea islanders,
IL.
This does not include foreigners of Ha-
waiian birth 1t should be Noted also that
20 per cent IF the Hawaiians are able u
read and write English.
The percentage OF those attending school
is very high. The total number of chill
dren within school age. viz. six to fifteen,
vas reported as li,2S6; the total number
attending school was 1874, or 500 Der
cent. This is a big increase since 1880.
when the percentage att fencing school was
Sl.59.
The total owners of real estate were re-
ported in 1896 as G,:i21, while in 1880 the
total was 46.'5 This increase is undolb;-
edly due TO the action of the homestead
law, and the main part of ii is divided
among the Hawaiians part-Hawaiians and
Portuguese.
OF the $685. houses which are duelt in by
their actual owners, 5i.94 per cent are
owned by Rawaiians. q. "a per cent by part-
Hawaiians, l1Gi per cent by Portuguese
ana ten other nationaiities tcsether own
2S.IS per cent.
Occupations.
The population OF the islands is an in
dustrlous one. Taking the working poDu-
lation to be all those over fifteen years of
age. there are of all nationalities .,6.7as
males, of whom 1904 reported themselves
as OF no occupation, or who failed 10 stale
what their occupation was. This is only
s.96 per cent of the total possible workers.
But here the national tendencies show up,
Tor the HawaiianS report lS.2l per cent
without occupation. the part-Hawaiians
2lfa per cent, while the most industrious
are evidently the Portuguese. who have
only 81. or l.io per cent reported as with
out occupations. In this connection it
should be noticed that the non-workers
among the HawaiiGns are TO be found
rather among the young men than among
the old. Many Hawaiians remain al school
after the school age, fifteen. is reached
and many, even though they have left
school, do not start in any Regular occu-
patton During the last six years the num-
Der of female wage earners has Increased
In 1880 there were 2,1f3 females who re-
ported employment, or % per cent of the
total workers. In 1886 there were 1859, or
CD per cent Of the total workers and this
ratio will undoubtedly increase during the
next six years.