The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-03-01

...' ..I'| I'D. |'.N.|||'N TOD |N. cue"
which is su sr1ua.g marked m the
more dansaN raorUyd countries and TO
which attention was called BOO The Star
Cd short time ago may bp observed also
boo Canada. In 1891 the province of on
ari1 had a total population of 21l4OOO,
of whom 1295.OOO We're rural and $4,000
urban. The corresponding census fig
ures for the year just past show a to-
tai population of 21S2 1900. OF these
l2lI0OO live i'm the country and g3j,7OO
I'm the towns and cities.
This means that the country has lost
i'm the decade about $4,000 inhabitants,
while the towns have gained 10000.
These figures are especially striking,
because Ontario is still underpopulated
rather than overpopulated, and because
the provincial and the national govern
ments make systematic efforts to at
tract immigrants to the farms.
In the great wheat-growing province
Manitoba these efforts have been sue
| cessful In ten years past the increase
| i'm the fields has been $4,000, i'm the
towns only 10000. The fact seems to be,
however, that social rather than econo-
mic conditions conduce to movements
cityward.
1t is the deadly dullness of country
life which tells upon the young. The
spread Of education, the cheapness Of
ephemeral literature naturally make
the young seek after a life in which
there is more excitement than in the
dull little towns and villages or in the
solitary farm houses separated from
each other by muddy or dusty roads ac-
cording to the season. Canada is only
another Illustration of a well known
fact.
New York draws countless lives into
it's mesh and grinds them up and
throws them away as useless lumber,
or the mere trash of the sugar cane,
fit only for the future furnace. Chica-
go draws them, st. Louis does, so does
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna st.
Petersburg. 1t is ever the movement
from the fields and the innocent agra
rian life, to the feverish life of cities.
Work may be hard, pay may be small,
but there is nightly cheap amusement,
and if the purse is too depleted for en-
| tering any of these, there is still the
hustle of the streets to watch, the chaff
of the street boys, the bright shop
windows to look at, the cars dashing
past, the handsome carriages rolling
along the avenues, the glitter Of cleo
trio lights, the flaming theatre doors,
the newsboys shouting the latest edi-
tions. 1t is an endless whirL and one
can understand that once the desire Of
| it enters the unbalanced mind, away
goes duty and everything else and the
remorseless nav Of the city SEXES up
on the youth of either sex, and off they
go. 1t is not now that they expect the
streets to be paved with gold, they
know better, but they are after excite
ment and pleasure.
The days for Goldsmith's ideal viii
Iage have passed long ago. In fact he
himself called it the Deserted Vii
|lage," and there are very many more
Sweet Auburns" in very many coun-
| try. We have the same tendency here.
Honolulu, small as it is, with it's forty
| thousand inhabitants is the Mecca Of
many nationalites on the Islands
Even the Porto Rican would rather beg
in Honolulu, than earn good wages
elsewhere.
But the matter is a serious problem
all over the world. There is a perpe-
tuaI filing up of the urban population,
and a depletion of the rural. The best
of the minds, the most active brains
go to the cities, leaving the dull and
the superannuated behind. As long as
the dregs can be filled from other
sources, why things go along fairly
smoothly. But we shall reach a time
when there will be no dregs left, and
we shall have nothing but an urban
population. What are we going to do
then? Is the negro going to solve the
problem for US in our own country.
Yet the negro has the same tendency
to go the towns, especially when he
has some education, so called. You
can study him as well in Washington
as anywhere. In Germany the Pole
and Galician solve the problem, and
the true German moves. In France
there still remains a sturdy peasant
class, but it is being slowly depleted,
In Great Britain or rather in England,
the tendency is all urban. 1t is a pro-
blem that many essays might be writ
ten on, none of which would come near
its solution. Meantime the movement
in Canada is only in consOnance with
all the rest of the world.