The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-05-24

| ty, each succeeding one, was, with one
partial exception, an improvement up
on it's predecessor; and had it not been
| for the insidious destructive influences
at work this paradise of the Pacific
would have continued to be paradise
instead of becoming the graveyard and
inferno Of its native people. Up to the
time Of the unification under kameha-
meha there had been internecine wars,
but epidemic and contagious diseases
were unknown. The people were
healthy and stalwart, with according
to Cook-''a tendency to ernbonpoint.
The population at this period was esti-
mated to number 400, 000-perhaps a
rather high estimate, but there are
ample evidences showing that the is
lands then supported large popula-
ton. During the intervening century,
alcohol and the white mans diseases
have reduced the native) population
to 10000! Thus, in 1858 the population
had dwfndIed to 10000; in 1872 it had
decreased to $4,000; in 1884 to 10000; and
in 1896 to $1,000 These figures, taken
from the official census, show that the
decrease in population during the last
40 years. has been at the rate of about
1000 a year. If, therefore, this rate
witness the practical determination of
this great island race of persisted
past"
But there is yet more to tell-more
of the blessings" 1t was not suff1-
cient, apparently, to bring diseases
and death to this people; to SOW the
seeds of final extinction; to appropriate
it's substance and it's trade. Notwith-
standing these wrongs the decaying
remnant of the native population out
numbered the whites by about five to
one; they still owned their country;
they had their queen and their govern
ment. A few short years and these,
too, would have passed away owing
to the deadly processes at work, and
the country would have then have fall
en-, for good or evil, into the hands of
those who had brought the blessings"
But patience and greed were never
known to inhabit the same breast, and
SO the tragedy had to be pushed to it's
bitter end. 1t was thought to be wise
and humane and honest to bring the
monarchy to it's knees (this was the
official phrase), to forcibly dethrone |
the queen, to take the government and
the country from its robbed and |
wronged owners, and to set up a So
called republic under which the natives |
were not even allowed to voteI
In fairness it should be stated that |
all these things occurred prior to the |
annexation of Hawaii by the United |
States. Annexation has simply per-
petuated the wrong. 1t is also true |
that under American rule the native /
Hawaiians have been given the fran
chise; and they showed their opposi- I
ton to annexation by returning, at /
their first election, a royalist local Leg /
islature and a royalist delegate to the +
United States Congress.
The decay and subjugatfon Of the |
Hawaiian race have been attributed to /
several causes;a but the explanation
which is generally accepted, and which
serves to still the conscience of all good |
men who feel an underlined responsible |
ity for the wrong that has been done.
is that it is the inevitable result of an /
inferior race coming in contact and I
in racial competition with q SUPERIOR
an outcome of the law of the survival I
OF the fittest; and that there is there
fore no cure, and only a philosophical
regret, for such a condition in the sup
posed natural order of things.
This popular misapprehension and
Inisarplication of Darwin's admirable
theory Is only another evidence of the
truth that q little knowledge is a dan
gerous thing. No one will deny that
there Is difference between the An
gio-Saxon and the Hawaiian. The one
belongs to an advanced, the other 10 a
primitive race. Each has its place in
Mature. and the two are no more. COM
parable than musician is comparable
with a mechanic. Now please observe.
the contest of the survival Of the fittest
Is not between two different races or
species. any more than between nusi-
clan and mechanics it occurs between
individuals Of the same species. Or be-
tween musician and musician. It is
because of this that the highest and
the lowest forms of life co-exist at the
present time, with innumerable inter-
mediate gradations. For the same rea-
son the Indian prince co-exists with
the pariah; the competition is not be-