The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-05-04

long and 20 miles wide, its area being
42lO square miles Sugar, coffee. pine
apples, bananas and all other tropical
agricultural products are grown here.
The crater Maunakea is here It is es-
timated that there are still about 3OO.-
600 acres on this island of good agri-
cultural land belonging to the state
We arrived at Hlo, the principal port
of the island, about noon, and spent
the balance Of the day driving about
! the city and seeing the sights. /
should think it had about 2OOO inhabi-
tants. Nearly all the retail business,
as in Honolulu, is in the hands OF
Chinese. and Japanese
The foreign imports into Hilo in
creased in value from SiO6 600 I'm 1896
to 81 ,4S3 600 in 1906.
The foreign exports from Hilo. eX-
, elusive of inter-island business. in
creased in value from SlS93 GOO in
1896 to $5751 900 in 1905.
1t is ON this island that nearly all
the coffee is grown. A 'arge forest
of timber is growing here that i'm fin
ish rivals the best mahogany 1t is
| rapidly coming into use. | saw houses
finished with it, and furniture manu-
featured from it that was as beautiful
as anything ] ever saw We soon for
got the discomforts of the voyage in
! the enjoyment of the beauties of the
| scenery. We stayed all night at this
| place and early the next morning got
/ aboard the train for the volcano. The
/ railroad is completed to within about
nine miles of the crater, the balance
of the distance being by stage. The
saying, 1t always rains at HilO,
proved true. Certainly we made the
! trip in deluge of rain good share
/ of the time. But we did not mind
that. Our route was through sugar
plantations and tropical forests the
/ entire distance, jungles of wild ba-
nanas tree ferns, ten, twenty and thir-
/ ty feet high, forest trees covered with
climbing vines, orchids hanging from
the forest trees, thimbe berries grow
ing everywhere in full fruiting, the
ripe ones hanging in tempting prOx-
unity to the stage as we drove along.
Such scenery as this compensates
for the suffering we underwent to
reach it,
We arrived at the Volcano house
about noon, got good dinner then
mounted our horses, some OF which
were mules, and started for the era
ter There are really two craters.
! The first one is a depression, below
| the surrounding country, 900 feet deep
with nearly perpendicular sides, oc-
: cupying an area of about four square
miles. The floor of this crater is
! mass of cooled lava, broken into ali
( kinds of fantastic forms and resem-
! bling in appearance hardened pitch.
, Ii is full of creviCes and Chasms from
ually ascending. In some places the
heat is so intense as to instantly if
mite inflammable material. Near the
center of this is another crater of
much smaller dimensions about
40 feet deep, at the bottom of which is
a cone of fire. The walls of this crater
are also nearly perpendicular and one
can approach to the edge and look
( down into it. A trail has been made
along the wall of the big crater down
mile, then we zigzagged across the
lava bed to the crater of living fire.
took a good look into ii and made up
my mind it was good place in which
to cOnsign my Republican enemies,
and for all good Democrats to avoid.
| did not stay long. | was informed
that one very bad Republican who
had been in the habit of swearing at
his good Democratic neighbors, after
looking into that pit, never swore
again. II certainly would make Il
good refoTmatory for a lot of them.
In my own case, notwithstanding my
many virtues, was impressed with
the idea that perhaps ! had better at
tend church with greater regularity
than | had been doing in the past .
The heat and steam was not confined
to the crater itself, but hundreds OF
jets were coming through crevices in
the surrounding country. 1t is a great
show and well worth going to see.
But the most interesting subject in
the islands is the people themselves.
The census of 1890 gave a population
of $4,000, of which the Hawaiian peo-
pie comprised about thirty per cent.
Physically, they are large, well built
people, self-indulgent, hospitab'e aud
generous, but not addicted to work .
Since annexation has taken place max
ing them American citizens, they have
| developed into great politicians and
demand their share of the Offices, and
sometimes more than their share,
as they cast the majority of the
/ votes. had heard much Of the beau
ty of the native women, but that is