The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-25
THE PORTUGUESE EXODUS.


tuguese from the Hawaiian Islands, IN
teiIigent men of that extraction, nov
citizens of the United States, assigl
reasons for the movement which, Il
any event, whether sound or not, de
serve public consideration. They claim
that Portuguese labor made the plan
tations a success, but that the mer'
difference of ten cents per day led u
the substitution of japanese. .rhey fur.
Their claim that the Portuguese cannot
live so cheaply as the japanese, anc
that nearly all the money they carr
is spent here and distributed among
merchants and small traders and
mechanics, while the japanese live
mainly on the products of their own
country, to which they send all their
profits. This it is insisted is the re-
suit of a policy that is penny wise
and pound foolish
But their complaints do not stop at
this, point They assert, as the fact is,
that the Portuguese inhabitants con-
si.st chiefly of families. which are
thrifty, Industrious, and we'll versed IN
small farming. In other parts of the
United States, they are welcome and
are deIuged with invitations for per
manent settlement Here they declare
it is Impossible for them to secure
homes owing to the policy of holders
of large tracts of land, backed by the
Territorial government 1t is the gen
eraI aspiration of their countrymen, as
they say, to own their homes in fee,
and to develop them in such a manner
as to make them productive. In this
Territory, they find themselves blocked
in every direction. The sensible men
who discuss the question. furnish Illus
tration upon illustration of this fact.
For example, they point to the Punch
bowl district in Honolulu, inclusive OF
the crater, which, if divided into small
tracts and made available for settle |
ment on reasonable terms, they feel
certain could be speedily and densely |
inhabited and cultivated, with the re-
suit of adding largely to the local
wealth and population. But they state
that, under what they consider the
present suicidal policy of the Territory,
the greater part of this district is held
under a lease, which has yet about
eighty years TO run; that the Portu-
guese can only Obtain short terms, at
'sall the traffic will bear and that.
when these terms expire. renewals can
only be had at exorbitant rates, which
no class of citizens can afford to pay.
and not even then with any prospect oe
ultimate purchase.
The situation on and surrounding
Punchbowl is applied by these critics to
group of islands. In Hawaii, it is as
serted that, in North and South Kona
and in other districts, an average fami-
v could almost if not quite earn it's
subsistence on ten or twenty acres of
and, if title could be acquired, but
hat land owners and the government
viii not furnish such opportunities, and
lnder the leasehold system, forest res
.rvations and in numerous other ways,
absolutely stop immigration and set
dement,.
Finally it is positively declared that,
f the planters would adopt the plan
# encoura ging Portuguese laberers and
he grouping of families on the plan
ations in lieu of the present system,
I the Territory would stimulate small
arming by the application of the prin-
.iple of the National Homestead Law,
md if a preference were discriminate
ngly shown for the addition of per-
nanent CITIZENSHIP our population, es-
in diversified farming and hor-
iculture, not only would the present
.xodus be arrested but a large and de-
irable immigration would follow.
1t is evident that these points will
Justify and indeed demand careful ex-
animation and reflection. In ireland,
md everywhere else, the plan of land
ordism and the concentration of land
enlarged individual fortunes
out it has always failed TO produce
general prosperity. If the Territorial
ands were administered by the Fed
,ral authorities, the same beneficent
under our free and liberal
Institutions, would follow in the Ha-
vaiian Islands that have been expert
,nced in every State and in every other
Territory within the Union. 1t is GER
ainIy within the province and within
he power of the executive and legis-
alive branches of the local government
o analogue our system to that which,