The Hawaiian gazette., 1901-01-01
MILLER AND MISSIONARIES.


his muse untenablc does No, Ike the
chutch-going and conservative people
OF Hawaii any more than be does those
OF other places and climes Except Tor
his facility In the making OF verse
some Of It good some OF u toigrable
and the most Of 10 bad Miller does
not differ from the long-hairel, YER
min bitten top-booted, red-shirted,
gin soaked and profane California
miner OF the Vigilance Committee
days He naturally takes the saloon
view of things. Urged by the sensa-
ton mongers Of the Examiner, Miller
came to Hawaii in 1896 TO write down
the government, the planters and the
missionaries, service he performed
quite In mining camp fashion and en-
TREY 10 the satisfaction Of his en-
p.Oyora. Owing 10 these facts and TO
Mexican incumbrance he brought
with him 20 give touch OF scarlet 10
his home life Miller was treated with
dlsdaiu here, finding his social enter
tainmeut chiefly where easy going
hackmen took him. Naturally he abb
horred the missionary" the man IN q
clean shirt, the man who pays his
debts and the man Of sober family
life. He had seen with rage such
ridlculOusly decent people destroy the
old raw customs Of California, and
when he found them 80 well intTench-
ed here that he could not stride into
their. drawing -roOms at Will, his
inamorata on his arm, he wrote OF the
missionary" and his kind in the spirit
Of "A Billngsgate lOafer berating people
on their way to church Time has
somewhat changed his language, but
his latest TRADE shows that II has not
much moderated his scorn.
We print elsewhere what Miller has
written In the Newsletter about the
responsible and reputable classes in
Hawaii, one Of the keynotes OF which
Is in the lines addressed 10 the native
race:
How pitiful and 10 dcspDilcd
by those you fed, for whom you tml"d.
There never yet was slanderer Of
Hawaii who did not raven about the
"plunder" Of the Hawaiian by the
missionary" declaring that all the
missionaries are rich, and all the ma
tiyes landless, and that in the owner
ship Of the soil wrested from the abo-
riginal proprietors lies the treasure
which the missionaries have heaped
up. II Is probably useless to try and
remove the false impression thus Gre
ated, but II Is at least fair 10 Sian
dcred community to ask for bill OF
particulars. If Joaquin Miller would
drop poetical license long enough to
ascend 10 facts, and keep sober while
relating them, we should like TO have
him tell in plain prose, on the basis
OF information collected here, how
many missionaries laboring in Hawaii
left fortunes or even competencies to
their children; and how many OF those
children, who remained In the sacred
profession, ever kept n bank account
As for other white men, they have
mainly prospered here by creating
values in commerce, agriculture or
trade Men took land that WAS sterile
hapu11g, al IL
was then worth or else leased II at
rentals fixed by the native govern
ment. They bored for water and got
It; they put In the most profitable
crops and raised them they found a
market and controlled IT, Who was
robbed? Certainly not the natives,
whose chiefs owned the land for cen-
turtles and never raised "A tree on It;
nor in parting with such holdings did
they lose the right 10 homes of their
own, for today, as a native writer late
ly proved, they are the most numerous
land-hoIders in Hawaii;
REAL PROPERTY OWNERS,
llawaiaus .,.,,,,,,.,, ...,..,...,...,.J,S9 J
American and European ...,,.....,2,027
Portuguese ,.,,,,,,,. ....,,...,...,,..I,0 2G
corporations .,..,r,.t.,. ..,.-,,.,. 21
In other words, although the native
people Of Hawaii are the easiest ones
to rob known anywhere in the world,
there are 595 more Of them owning
valuable real estate than there are Of
all other landed proprietors pat 10
gether We'll would il have been for
the MoNiran owners OF old California
III they could have done hnlf as well
a- lhar after Eve years experience
with joaquin Mlers red shirtel
friends of days gone by Ana yot The