The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-08-04
ATKINSON On
PORTUGUESE
Race With a Record
They Can Be Very
Proud of.

EThe Portuguese who came to this
| country as immigrants, and their de-
| scendants have record here of which
| any people may well be proud, - said
Secretary Atkinson, head of the Board
of immigration which is now moving to
get more of these same people from the
Azores, yesterday.
IF l remember correctly, there We're
IL 400 Portuguese brought to this coun-
try to labor in the cane fields These
figures included men, women and chill
dren. The Portuguese are essentially a
family people. We have in the country
now IS,000 Portuguese, some of these
same people and their descendants, and
that despite the fact that great many
have gone away. OF those who are here,
[ understand that there are 1000 today
at work on the plantations.
''That this large proportion of the
original immigration and the descend
ants of the original immigrants have
staid on the land is proof enough, to my
mind, that if we had continued to en-
courage the Portuguese to come we
would have had class of laborers
working the plantations who would
have staid on the land-white men, a |
class of very valuable citizens Those |
who have staid on the plantations, un-
derstand me, are not all field laborers. |
They have gone into other and better |
classes of work, improving themselves
have staid. That is the vital point. |!
We need citizen laborers who will stay
on the land
A GREAT RECORD.
stCertainly, the Portuguese in Hawaii
have a record to be proud of. Some of
the Best men that we have are of Portu-
guese birth or descent. Let us take a
few instances of men that we all know.
There is my good friend Frank An
drade. He was an immigrant baby,
brought to this country by his parents.
He has worked his own way, saved
money and gone to college. He is a
man, if there ever was
one, and he stands high in this com
nunity as lawyer and citizen, and has
oeen one of the most valuable legisla-
,ors the Territory has ever had. M. A.
ionsalves came here as an immigrant,
md has made himself substantial and
7alued citizen. Another Portuguese
who stands high in the community is P.
y Dias, formerly in the employ of
Iackfeld & Co., and there is J. G. Ser
40 and j. Canario, of Hilo.
81 Alfonso, also of Hilo, holds a gov Y
position and is the editor of
Portuguese and English paper which he
onducts very ably. j. A. Osorio has in t
crested himself largely in homestead G
matters on the Big Island, putting upon c
ublic lands settlers of Portuguese {
lood who will develop them. Indeed, a
nost of the successful homesteaders in v
he Territory are Portuguese. They go
n the land to stay, to make their homes q
nd to rear their families. q
KEEPERS OF STORES. y
% All through the Territory there are
torres kept by Portuguese, and these {
are men of worth and in
egrity Such man is Silva, who keeps II
ne store at Eleele, A. Borba of Wal o
lku and Antonio Fernandez who runs P
le hotel at Paia, Maui. Then, in an q
her line, there is Joe Mendez, luna at c.
ailua, and NJ Arruda, who has been III
cad luna at Kahuku for a good many
ears, ever since he came to the coun- Z
V, and who has amassed a comfortable