The log cabin Democrat., 1907-05-02

products and occupants all belonged to the chiefs and the king. A system of taboo safeguarded the power of these; 1t was taboo and death for a common man to let his shadow fall upon a chief, or to stand when the kings bathing water was carried by, or his name mentioned in song. 1t was taboo for a woman to eat with her husband. It was taboo and death for a man to enter his canoe on any day named as sacred by the priest. So ran the end less system of expressions. despite which the race continued hardy and numerous, and against which the na. tion arose while the missionary ship Thaddeus was en route to the islands.
 Ripe for a new religion. having spurned the old, the natives gave eager welcome to the missionaries. The king and the chiefs were the first pupils, reversing the common expert ence, which is that Christianity works from the bottom upward. Within three months the king is said to have been able to read English. The New England devotion to education spurred the missionaries on, so that within two years the native speech had been reduced to writing and a spelling book printed in it. Within four years the chiefs formally agreed to recognize the Christian Sabbath, and to adopt the Ten Commandments as the basis of government. They also prohibited the practice of native women's swimming out to visit incoming ships for immoral purposes.
 Shaping a Nations Future.
 Extraordinary success attended the efforts of the missionaries That gen eration of Hawaians was practically conquered by them. Great revivals arose all over the group; hundreds and even thousands were baptised in a day; on one occasion Titus Coan baptised 1,200 natives, sprinlling them with brush. Not all held out, how ever. Churches and schools were established. The first of the former was grass building, like the native huts. It was shortly replaced by an other of similar material, which seated 1000 persons. When it burned, the present structure, on plain New Eng land lines, was built by devoted con verts, who quarried and carried the volcanic stone and dived into the sea for the coral with which to make lime. In this KaWaiahao church, which is now one of the sights of the city, many Hawaiian kings and queens Worshiped.
 As to education, it is enough to say that all the schools and academies and colleges on the islands, had their origin with the churches. Conspicuous among these is the venerable Oahu college, which, in it's Bishop museum, perpetuates the memory of the last of the royal line of Kamehamea the Great Punahou college enrolls the students of the best families of Ha- waii. Of so high a grade were the edu- cational institutions established by the missionaries that Californians used to send their children to Homo lulu to be educated. English is now IhO oiliy iohSo uoSO louSllC tO tlIC SAll- dren of this polyglot people; and the percentage of illiteracy on the islands is said to be lower than in some parts of New England. Nothing is more marked about the present-day re- ligious activity of the islands than the prominence given to education. h. dustrial schools, kindergartens and night schools are too common to enumerate. Seminaries for young women theological schools, and what may be styled academies" as we'll as the night schools, are, one or all, a department of the work of almost every religious agency to be found here, including the Buddhists Natur- ally, the printing press has been used from the beginning. and the oldest English periodical west of the Rockies is The Friend" which is still pub lished by the Hawaiian board, the local successor to the American board.
 Savages Turned Missionaries.
 The Kanakas, once missionary ob- jects, are now missionary givers. They support mission work among their own people, and for AZ years have been generous givers to missionary work on the Gilbert islands, and elsewhere in Polynesia. At least 20 native Ha- waiians have gone out as missionaries. There are now 75 ordained, native ministers on the islands. The theo- logical seminary for natives, the Mid Pacific institute, is just now expand ing, so as to include in one organiza. tion the boards three schools, which begin the new era with an enrolment of more than 300 students.
 The benefits to Hawaii from the