The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-07-18

sus figures or the 1871 Portuguese
here In 1896. 1882 had been born In Por-
tuRal or its dependencies, or were In
fact the original immigrants. and $3.50
had been born In this country. both par
cnts being Portuguese. In addition to
these there were $40 part Portuguese
and Hawaiians. offspring of Portuguese
who had married Hawaiian or part Ha-
waiian wives.
when these people came to the ISL
ands. they were practically all laborers,
and possessed nothing and were capa-
BILE of doing nothing but work in the
fields. They were ignorant and very
few could read and write, to say that
one fourth could would be giving too
liberal allowance Now of the $1,000 who
were born here all can read and write,
and over 2OOO of those who come from
Portugal are able to do so, having
learned in our schools.
OF the colony of $4,000, only 3117 are
unskiled laborers. Independent farm
ers number 300; coffee planters as;
ranchers AZ; fishermen 10; sailors 9;
mechanics 257; drivers and teamsters
"a: merchants and traders Sc; clerks
and statesmen 20: school teachers 20;
and number of miscellaneous work
ers Taking the whole colony of the
1000 males above fifteen years of age
| 9S per cent are employed, and the same
may be said of the females They are
industrious certainly, and they are
| frugal.
The Voz Publica is authority for the
statement that the colony owns prop
erty to the value of $1,SOO,OOO, and that
! it has money in the banks to the
amount of $35O,OOO, total of over 81,
0OO, 900, which has been acquired during
| the residence on the Islands. There are
moreover two benevolent societies
one with over 1000 members, which pos
sesses a capital of $40, 900, and another
of 500 members with a capital of 5000
! 1t is of course plain that this COM
munity is not wealthy, but it is well to
do. There is no lack of work for the
men and women, and they are steadily
accommodating wealth. In somewhat
less than twenty years this has been ac-
complished. They came here without
money, and without education; only
with strong arms and frugality to
help them along. Though many have re-
manned laborers, yet many have risen,
and where men have not risen them
selves, their children have risen for
them.
Once the Portuguese understand the
value of schools they have been anxi-
Gus for their children to learn. The
sons of the laborers have passed
through the schools and readily filled
positions as clerks, overseers, school
teachers and so forth. The writer has
in mind a school teacher of considerable
ability, who commands salary of over
500 year, and whose father is lab
orer From like humble beginnings
came young professional man, who
promises to do remarkably we'll.
These tangible results have come
about under the contract system. The
people came as contract laborers, and
have since developed into a power in
the territory The Portuguese vote has
TO be considered and it is apt to &c
, solid. The subject might be enlarged
upon but enough has been given 10
show that the outlook for the laborer in
this country is by no means gloomy
one, if he be only sober, hard working,
and fortunate. 1t is well to take time
to consider the conditions of our hetero-
geneous population and how each sue
ceeds.