The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-04-23

We have attended the native Ha-
waitan church. in which the singing.
preaching. etc, We're in the native
tongue. The tunes were all familiar
but the words strange. This church
was organized in 1925 with the first ten
converts 10 Christianity in the Hawai-
ian islands. The adjoining grave ward
contains the dust of early American
missionaries mingled with that of their
converts. There. too is the stately
tomb of King Lunaljlo. who preferred
a sepulchre amongst his people to
more pompous resting place in the
royal mausoleum.
On an old aIgaroba tree near the
centre of the city is a tablet certifying
that it was the first specimen of its
, KIND planted in these islands by a
Catholic father in 1885. Now the alga-
robas with their ferny. lace-like foliage
are numbered by thousands on all the
Islands, the seed being carried by birds
and winds. Here we have seen a palm
of peculiarly symmetrical growth, the
leaf branches spreading fan-like from
the ground. This. we learned is the
travellers palm The thick stem of one
of its leaves being punctured for as
coplouS stream of pure water guShed |
forth and we could readily fancy the
joy of thirsty traveller in a barren
land who luckily found a travellers
palm. Certain articles of food are very
dear here. For example eggs are often
from five to eight cents apiece For |
some reason it is difficult to rear young |
chicks. they being subject to a distem- |
per of the eyes and head. Milk, also, |
is dear. twelve cents quart Cows are |
annoyed night and day by fly which |
worries them greatly. Horses are not |
thus afflicted. Many food stuffs, in |
Guiding large quantities of potatoes. are |
brought from the states as they do not |
thrive well here
me first rice that we saw growing in
drills in shallow water. we mistook for
onions. 1t was some eight inches high.
When we saw it more advanced. it hid
the water from sight and resembIed a
verdant field of grass. When fully
grown it attains a height of two or
three feet and looks, we are told, like
a field of oats. Five crops a year are
raised here. We passed 1000 acres of
rice on our way to the Eva sugar re-
finery
Honolulu has just opened to the pub
lie an attractive and instructive aquari-
UNI similar to that at the Fish Com
mission in Washington. We had
thought that Bermuda took the palm
for beautiful fish but here we are amaz- |
ed at the wonderful coloring, markings
and shapes of the seventy-odd varieties
displayed far surprising all we have
previously seen
Great numbers of people are reported
as now coming on the steamers from
Sydney and Auckland bound for st.
Louis and just now the tourists are
rushing home to the States so that be-
fore these ships reach Honolulu all ac-
commodations are likely to be engaged.
And SO. although it is shortening our
stay a week or more. we have decided
to say farewell to this Paradise of the
Pacific and sail for home on a small
local steamer the Alameda. Our brief
visit to this island has been very de-
lightful and we say good bye with
sincere regret. Mark Twain has voiced
our own sentiments in the following
beautiful tribute to the Hawaiian is
lands:--
mo land in all the world has airy
deep, strong charm for me but that
one: no other land could so longingly
and beseechingly haunt me sleeping
and waking through more than half
a lifetime, as that one has done. Other
things leave me. but it abides; other
things change but it remains the same.
For me its balmy airs are always
blowing. its summer seas flashing in
the sun: the FLASHING of its surf beat
is in my ear: I can see its garlanded |
craigs. its leaping cascades. its plumy
palms drowning by the shore; its remote
SUBMITS floating like islands above the
cloud rack; 1 can feel the spirit of its
woodland solitude: I can hear the plash
of its brooks: in my nostrils still lives
the breath of flowers that persisted
twenty years ago.
MARY w. STORY.