The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-05-20

0
ton, w. E. Stafford, who. under the
first American administration of the
Island Of Guam, filled the roles of
judge of the first court of appeals,
auditor of the treasury and registrar
of lands, as well as representative of
the governor, pending the prepare
ton of the official residence for the
seat of government, delivered an ad-
dress.
After a brief historical sketch of
the discovery of the island ny Ma
gellan. the inhuman treatment of the
islanders by the Spaniards and by
early buccaneers and freebooters, the
change of the island group to Islas
Marianas, in honor of Mariana Of
| Austria, who endowed the island with
fund for educating and Christianiz-
ing the natives, the expulsion of the
Jesuits from the island and the gen
eral conditions on the island before
i the American occupation, Mr.. Stafford
spoke of the seizure of Guam, in June,
1898 by the U. S. S. Charleston,
while on her way from Honolulu to
the Philippines.
During the first administration of
the Americans many problems not
easy to solve were encountered. The
natives said they had been told they
would not have to pay taxes 1t did
not Occur to them that roads would
have to be kept up, bridges repaired,
and school teachers paid for the in
struction of the young. Peonage
found to exist upon the island was
promptly abolished, taxes were 50
levied that certain individuals who
had become possessed of thousands
of acres of land on the little island
turned q part of their possessions in
to the government, and bona fide
farmers were enabled to purchase
small farms. Brandy made from CO.
coanut sap was very cheap and
abundant, and it was found necessary
to prohibit it's manufacture and sale,
owing to it's demoralizing effect upon
the enlisted men of the station. An
order prohibiting concubinage was
followed by numerous weddings, but
the problem of granting divorces tc
those who had formed new alliances
presented itself and the divorced peo
pl could be married only by the civil
authorities, as the Catholic Church
could not recognize the validity OF
the divorces.
,Diminution Of Food Supply.
The order for the native families
each to have a certain number OF
hens, brood sow, etc, which caused
so much merriment among the news
papers, the speaker explained, was a
necessity, owing to the serious dimi'
mutton of the food supply by the ar
rival of a great number of consumers
on the island and the visits of ships
en- route for the Philippines, which
laid in large stocks of supplies from
the island. The order forbidding the
transfer of land without sanction Of
the governor was necessary to check
mate spectators who were trying tc
buy up valuable land along the water
front. which would be required fol
government purposes; It afterward
prevented the purchase of land or
the island by certain Japanese living
there.
Mr.. Stafford spoke of the important
part played by agriculture in the
daily life of the natives, none o
whom devoted himself exclusively q
trade, but only engaged in sucI
occupation as shoemaking, carpentry
house building, etc, during intervals
between his work on the ranch. In
dian corn was introduced at an earl!
date by the Jesuit missionaries
corn, for forage purposes, by the re
cent governor, Captain Dorm, United
States Navy. Captain Dorm, it wal
explained, did much for the reviva
of rice culture, one of the primitive
industries of the land, which was be
coming abandoned, and took active
measures to force the native children
to attend school.
illustrated With Slides.
The lecture was illustrated by
number of slides, some of which ha'
been furnished by Captain Dorm TO
the occasion. They gave a good gen
eral idea of the island, the people
the fruits growing on the island an'
the indigenous vegetation.
A series of slides was used by thu
speaker to illustrate the work of thu
agricultural experiment station. es
tablished on the Island in 1908, espe
cially its cultivation of forage crops