The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-05-06

and native race are about equally
divided. The proceedings are conduct
ed in both English and Hawaiian, as
many OF the members understand Eng
iish but inDerfectly, ants all the ma
tives prefer to speak in their own
tongue. The interpreter, who stands
by the Speaker, is the most conspicu-
Gus parsonage IN the assembly. and
he translates into Hawaiian every
word spoken in English and into Eng
nsh every word spoken in Hawaiian.
The character OF legislation favored by
such a body is shown by the fact that
last year. at the close Of the session,
the lower House voted to destroy all
their vouchers. in order that the details
of their expenditures might not be
known. to the public. The Senate IS
composed of better men than the house.
and this fact. together with wise,
upright, and careful Governor. pre-
vents much bad legislation. The is
lands suffer from the lack of good Leg
islation, but that is not so great an
evil as to suffer from bad legislation.
The present delegate to Congress is
Prince Kalanianaole. a purebIooded
Hawaiian. He received the greater
part of the white vote against r. W.
Wilcox. the former delegate. who was
of mixed blood
The school system of the Hawaiian
Islands is excellent. and nearly all the
children of school age are in attend
ance OF the 1905 pupils in the
schools in 1902, the Hawaiians number
ed 7,772; the whites. including Portu-
guese. 5.611; and the Chinese, Japanese,
and other races, 125. The schools are
each year giving increased attention to
industrial education, which is proving
Of great service to the natives. All
instruction in the public schools is Civ
en- In the English language. OF the 500
teachers 149 are Hawaiian or part Ha-
waiian. Nearly one-fifth of the native
Hawaiians are being educated in pri-
yate schools, most of which have been
endowed by wealthy Hawaiians. Many
OF these are boarding schools. where
the children spend several years sep
arated from the unfavorable Influence
of their homes. This is found to be very
beneficial, especially for the girls, who
acquire habits of tidiness and thrift
which they could not obtain while re-
siding in their own homes.
There is very little race prejudice in
the islands. although the race question
is very complicated. While was stay
ing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in.
Honolulu, the battle-ship Wisconsin
was in port, and the fashion of the city
gave a dance in honor of the naval
officers. Among the company I saw
four OF part Hawaiian blood--three
ladies' and one gentleTnan-and they
seemed to be as much at ease as any
in the party. The young ladies were
in nearly every dance, and were ap-
parently very popular with both off,
GERS and civilians. Two of the young
ladies were of mixed Hawaiian and
Chinese blood.
Most of the native Hawaiians are
poor, and earn their living by days
work, though a very few of the de-
scendants of the old royal family and
chiefs still own considerable tracts of
land. The common people, even under
the ancient regime, owned very little
land. There is abundance of work on
the islands, and the natives are fairly.
industrious-not as Industrious as
Americans, and far short of the Chi
nese and japanese but compared with
other races emerging from barbarism.
.
climate they may be termed indus
trious. Many are employed as teams
ers. hack-drfvers, sailors, stevedores,
workers at odd jobs. They are better
at work by the day than by the month,
and they especially dislike work call
ing for a regular routine or repetition
of the same thing. They are also bet
~
seems to burn their fingers. and they
proceed to spend it as quickly as pos
sible. generally using very little judg-
7nent in the purchases they make. This
lack of thrift is one of the greatest
hindrances to their material advance
nent.
Another deficiency of the Hawaiians,
not shared to the same extent by other
undeveloped races, is the lack of imam
cial responsibility. It is hardly proper
to call it dishonesty. for that implies
deliberate purpose to possess that which
is not ones own. With the Hawal1ans
it is rather sin of omission than OF
commission. They contract debts and
neglect to pay them. or use trust funds
and do not replace them Probably
they would pay if they had the money
and could spare it conveniently. but II
is not important enough to cause them
to economic and save UP the money 10
meet their obligations. This racial
weakness is so generally recognized
that natives are rarely employed IN
positions where money is to be handled.
The most striking illustration is that
Hawaiian churches do not trust one OF
their own number as treasurer but