The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-10-17

ISLANDERS
.GiIbertese People
Will Leave This
Afternoon.
Much l)nseIfishness Is
Shown by Those
With Money.
Fifty at Least Are Provided for.
Special Agent Goes to the
Lahaina Colony.

The British ship Isleworth, due to
leave for Ocean Island via the Gilbert
group this afternoon at five o'clock,
will carry on board at least fifty home
sick Gilbert Islanders, the happiest
crowd that has ever left these Islands.
After an absence from their native
sands of nearly twenty years, the
hearts desire of these poor people,
many of whom are halt and manned
and nearly blind with old age and the
colder temperature of Hawaii, many
of whom had lost almost their last
hope of seeing their "ain countree'
once more, they return with rejoicing,
many of them helped by the generos-
ity of their fellows who have been sol
fortunate as to scrape together more
than they need for their own fare.
It seems that some must be left be-
hind and the scenes of separation will
be intensely pathetic. Those who
must wait for public or private bounty
to determine their lot of going or stay
ing, are making desperate efforts to
raise the necessary s.. For some time
the Gilbert islanders have controlled
the industry of making so called ma
tive hats and today and again tornor
their stock. The women are frantically
endeavoring to finish partly braided
hats, while their fingers, trembling with
excitement, can hardly ply their task.
while the men are vending their wares.
Most of the poor fellows have but
| little English at their command and
| wander through private gardens car
rying their hats at a loss how to get rid
of them Three or four sold means
| all the world to them, the realization
| of a hope as great as that of a man
| liberated from prison. and their mute
| look of appeal should tempt many a
| dollar from sympathetic pockets.
| The Rev. Mr.. Bingham in explaining
| the opportunity of return to them at
| Kalihi camp yesterday made an appeal
| for generosity to those who had some
| money laid by that was responded to
with an unselfishness that would put
| many more civilized colony to shame.
| One man who by dint of hard work
and self denial has amassed riches at
| the rate of S14 savings for every year
| he has been in this alien cline, paid
| $40 for his own transportation and
| that of his family and gave $780, sixteen
| per cent of his entire fortune. to the
common fund. This means that five
| at least of his compatriots will rise
and call him blessed when they reach
home where he will arrive happy in the
| possession of capital of 5000,
| enough to make him rich man in
| Gilbertia. Julia, woman who had
| S54, paid s24 for her husband, her child
| and herself, and then gave one-third
| of the remainder, $40, for others to
| share in her joy. So with the others
| until the twenty-one who had money
had given in all for fares and food
$500 where a fourth of that amount
| would have been all that was neces-
sary had they acted on the principle
| that '.Self preservation is the first law
| of Nature"
| Four hundred dollars is the sum
fixed by Mr.. Arundel of the Isleworth
for carrying fifty of them home. La
haina, the chief hat making colony, is
yet to be heard from, where twenty
others have considerable money saved
| and held in trust for them by Mr..
| Bingham. Charles Isaiah, of the Ha-
| waiian Board of Missions. the Gilbert
Island evangelist, left for Lahaina on
Thursday night to explain matters and
| will doubtless bring back most if not
all of the little community with him
| III the hlIldu lOIlOTIOW III llIilG To IHdhS
| the Isleworth.
/ AT eleven o'clock this morning, the
Islanders will leave Kalihi where dur
I, ing yesterday, Gilbert men from Pearl
| Harbor arrived. Not until the last
moment will it be known how many
| can go as after the first fifty fares viii
| be reduced to SIS a head, the average
price lowering as the numbers increase.
| $1,000 will see them all ready with only
| food to be provided. They viii sleep
| in improvised tents on board the Isle
| worth, their fare will be scanty, con-
sisting chiefly OF rice, but their hap
| piness will far outweigh all disad-
| vantages. To those left behind the
| situation will be a cruel one but Mr..
Bingham, whose efforts, with those of
| British Consul Hoare, have been in
/ defatigable in their behalf. has hopes
| of sending all away by the aid of sub
scriptions. The sum of S. with the
| addition of little rice suffices for one
| and none will be left for lack of rations
| as all will go short If needful and
| share alike. Five dollars is A small
| amount but it will round out the earth
" measure of Gilbert islanders hap
| piness.