The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-04
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
Annual Meeting
Held Last
Night.
interesting Paper Read
By President N. B.
Emerson.
Officers and Members Elected.
Letter From H. S Townsend
In Philippines.

TIE Hawaiian Historical Society held
it's annual meeting at the Library last
night. DR.. ". B. Emerson, president, in
the chair other members present
were Prof. Alexander. Chief Justice
Frear. Judge s. B. Dole, W. F. Allen,
Miss Mary j. Allen, A S. Hartwell, JOS
s. Emerson. W. E. Rowell, w. w. Hall.
Rev. O. P. Emerson, Ed. Towse, Rev
w. d. Westervelt, w. W. Hall. c. L.
Rhodes and wife, Edgar Wood and
David Dayton.
Reports were had from Chief Justice
Frear as recording secretary, Miss
Hillebrand as treasurer and librarian
and Prof. Alexander as corresponding
secretary In his report Prof. Alex
ander mentioned the opening of Ha-
waiian Hall in the Bishop Museum as
an suspicious event of the year. He
had received a letter from H. S. Town
send. former inspector of schools for
Hawaii, telling of verbal condolences
between Polynesian and Philippine lam
guages. The receipt was also ac-
knowedged of a book on Guam written
by former Lieut.. w. E. Stafford OF the
navy. who was aide to the first Gov
ernor of Guam. the work having been
published by the Smithsonian Institu-
ton. In conclusion Prof. Alexander
called attention, as he had done before,
to the desirability of having complete
Bibliograp ply of the Hawaiian Islands.
President Emerson stated that Mr..
Bryan. who had gone away under sad
bereavement was secretary of the COM
had been unofficially called, and the
society must not consider from the alb
sence of a report that the committee
was dead. This was in reference to
statement by Prof. Alexander that the
committee had made considerable prog
ress.
Raymond H. Arnot of Rochester, N.
Y, was elected as a corresponding
member, and Rt. Rev. Bishop Henry B.
Restarick, B. L. Marx and Miss Hille-
brand were elected as active members.
The following officers for the current
year were elected:
President-Dr. n. B. Emerson.
Vice Presidents-Judge S. B. Dole,
Jos. s. Emerson and w. F. Allen.
Corresponding Secretary-Prof. W. d.
Alexander, LII D.
Recording Secretary-Chief Justice
w. F. Frear.
Treasurer-W w Hail.
Librarian-Miss Hillebrand.
An amendment to the bylaws, moved
by Judge Dole. was carried reducing
the initiation fee from IS to 81.
Prof Alexander read. as a prelim-
mary paper. the letter from Mr.. Town
send previously mentioned. 1t said
that, while there We're no relations be-
tween the Malay and the Polynesi4n
languages. there were a number of YER
bal condolences. Those Philippine
peoples had a decimal system like the
Hawaiians. The writer said he longed
~ ~ nav lAlS SletS III tue
Philippines being already longer than
he at first intended.
Mr.. Roweu asked if the Hawaiian
decimal system was original
DR.. Emerson said it was complicated.
1t was a system of As multiplied by TO-
The question of its originality was not
clear at all.
Judge Dole thought it had been
taught the Hawaiians by the mission
aries.
Prof Alexander said what the mis-
sionaries did was to extend the system
beyond counting 40. on to 400, 0Oo 1t
was based on the four fingers of each
hand. The Tahitians went by 2's, or
one finger of each hand. The first ten
numbers were common to the Pacific
islands and Madagascar. Answering
a question, Prof Alexander said he did
not attach significance to the coinci-
dance OF names of objects mentioned
by Mr.. Townsend.
President Emerson read the paper of
the evening, which proved to be a
beautiful literary composition. Its
topic was The Poetry of Hawaii The
author explained that most of it was
prepared as the introduction of a book
on the Literature of Hawaii" as yet
unpublished. but &scarded for that
purpose As with all primitive peo-
pies, literary expression among the Ia-
hahs chiefly took the form of poe
s. Dr- Emerson spoke of the diff
cuity of getting true Interpretation of
ancient Hawaiian meIes. as the lyrical
80 possns 81 Hawaii were called. Those
sI9 1saess their meaning were passing