Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 30: Letter # XVIII - part 2. November 14, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 9:10 am Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands November 14, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@webtv.net. donkeyskid@msn.com. November 14, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture Isabella L Bird Bishop Letters " Six months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands." Letter# XVIII - Part 2 Transcribed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++ Letter # XVIII - Part 2 " Six Months Among the Palm Groves Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands " The dwindling of the race is a most pathetic subject. Here is a sovereign chosen amidst an outburst of popular enthusiasm, with a cabinet, a legislature, and a costly and elaborate governing machinery, sufficient in Yankee phrase to " run " an empire of several millions, and here are only 49,000 native Hawaiians; and if the decrease be not arrested, in a quarter of a century there will not be an Hawaiian to govern. The chiefs, or alii, are a nearly distinct order; and, with few exceptions, those who remain are childless. In riding through Hawaii I came everywhere upon the traces of a once numerous population, where hill slopes are now only a wilderness of guava scrub, and upon churches and school-houses all to large, while in some hamlets the voices of young children were altogether wanting. This nation, with its elaborate governmental machinery, its churches and institutions, has to me the mournful aspect of a shrivelled and wizen old man dressed in clothing much too big, the garments of his once athletic and vigorous youth. Nor can I divest myself of the idea that the laughing, flower-clad hordes of riders who make the town gay with their presence, are like butterflies fluttering out their short lives in the sunshine. " ... a wreck and residue, Whose only business is to perish." The statistics on this subject are perfectly appalling. If we reduce Captain Cook's estimate of the native population by one-fourth, it as 300,000 in 1779. In 1872 it was only 49,000. The first official census was in 1832, when the native population was 130,000. This makes the decrease 80,000 in forty years, or at a rate of 2000 a year, and fixes the period for the final extinction of the race in 1897, if that rate were to continue. It is a pity, for many reasons, that it is dying out. It has shown a singular aptitude for politics and civilization, and it would be interesting to watch the development of a strictly Polynesian monarchy starting under passably fair conditions. Whites have conveyed to these shores slow but infallible destruction on the one hand, and on the other the knowledge of the life that is to come; and the rival influences of blessing and cursing have now been fifty years at work, producing results with which most reading people are familiar. I have not heard the subject spoken of, but I should think that the decrease in the population must cause the burden of taxation to press heavily on that which remains. Kings, cabinet members, an army, a police, a national debt, a supreme court, and common schools, are costly luxuries or necessaries. The civil list is ludicrously out of proportion to the resources of the islands, and the heads of the four departments--Foreign Relations, Interior, \ Finance, and Law (Attorney-General)--receive $5,000 a year each ! Expenses and salaries have been increasing for the last thirty years. For schools alone every man between twenty-one and sixty pays a tax of two dollars annually, and there is an additional general tax for the same purpose. I suppose that there is not a better educated country in the world. Education is compulsory; and besides the primary schools, there are a number of academies, all under Government supervision, and there are 324 teachers, or one for every twenty- seven children. There is a Board of Education, and Kamakau, its president, reported to the last biennial session of the legislature that out of 8931 children between the ages of six and fifteen, 8287 were actually attending school! Among other direct taxes, every quadruped that can be called a horse, above two years old, pays a dollar ] a year, and every dog a dollar and a half. Does not all this sound painfully civilized? If the influence of the tropics has betrayed me into rhapsody and ecstacy in earlier letters, these dry details will turn the scale in favour of prosaic sobriety! I have said little about Honolulu, except of its tropical beauty. It does not look as if it had " seen better days." Its wharves are all well cared for, and its streets and roads are very clean. The retail stores are generally to be found in two long streets which run inland, and in a splay street which crosses both. The upper storekeepers, with a few exceptions, are Americans, but one street is nearly given up to Chinamen's stores, and one of the wealthiest and most honourable merchants in the town is a Chinaman. There is an ice factory, and ice cream is included in the daily bill of fare here, and ice water is supplied without limit, but lately the machinery has only worked in spasms, and the absence of ice is regarded as a local calamity, though water supplied from the waterworks is both cool and pure. There are two good photographers and two booksellers. I don't think that plate glass fronts are yet to be seen. Many of the storekeepers employ native " assistants;" but the natives show little aptitude for mercantile affairs, or indeed for the "splendid science' of money making generally, and in this respect contrast with the Chinamen, who, having come here as Coolies, have contrived to secure a large share of the small traffic of the islands. Most things are expensive, but they are good. I have seen little of such decided rubbish as is to be found in the cheap stores of London and Edinburgh, except in tawdry artificial flowers. Good black silks are to be bought, and are as essential to the equipment of a lady as at home. Saddles are to be had at most of the stores, from the elaborate Mexican and Californian saddle, worth from 30 to 50 dollars, to a worthless imitation of the English saddle, dear at five. Boots and shoes, perhaps because in this climate they are a mere luxury, are frightfully dear, and so are books, writing paper, and stationary generally; a sheet of Bristol board, which we buy at home for 6d., being half a dollar here. But it is quite a pleasure to make purchases in the stores. There so much cordiality and courtesy that, as at the hotel, the bill recedes into the background, and the purchaser feels the indebted party. The money is extremely puzzling. The islands, like California, have repudiated greenbacks, and the only paper currency is a small number of treasury notes for large amounts. the coin in circulation is gold and silver, but gold is scarce, which is an inconvenience to people who have to carry a large amount of money about with them. The coinage is nominally that of the United States, but the dollars are Mexican, or French 5 franc pieces, and people speak of "rials," which have no existence here, and of "bits," a California slang term for 12 1/2 cents. a coin which to my knowledge does not exist anywhere. A envelope, a penny bottle of ink, a pencil, a spool of thread cost 10 cents each; postage stamps cost 2 cents each for inter island postage, but one must buy five of them, and dimes slip away quickly and imperceptibly. There is a loss on English money, as half-a-crown only passes for a half-dollar, sixpence for a dime, and so forth; indeed the average loss seems to be about twopence in the shilling. There are four newspapers; the Honolulu Gazette, The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa ( the Independent Press), and a lately started spasmodic sheet, partly in English and partly Hawaiian, the Nuhou (news has since expired) The first two are moral and respectable, but indulge in the American sins of personalities and mutual vituperation. The Nuhou is scurrilous and diverting, and appears " run " with a special object, which I have not yet succeeded in unraveling from its pungent but not always intelligible pages. I think perhaps the writing in each paper has something of the American tendency to hysteria snd convulsions. though these maladies are mild as compared with the " real thing " in the Alta California which is largely taken here. Besides these there are monthly sheets called " The Friend," the oldest paper in the Pacific, edited by good " Father Damon," and the " Church Messenger," edited by Bishop Willis, partly\devotional and partly devoted to the Honolulu Mission. All our popular American and English literature is read here, and I hardly seen a table without "Scribner's" or "Harper's Monthly," or " Good Words." I have lived far too much in America to feel myself a stranger where, as here, American influence and customs are dominant; but the English who are in Honolulu just now, in transitu from New Zealand, complain bitterly of its "Yankeeism " and are very far from being at home, and I doubt not that Mr. M---, whom you will see, will not confirm my favourable description. It is quite true that the islands are Americanized, and with the exception of the Finance Minister, who is a Scotchman, Americans "run" the Government and fill the Chief Justiceship and other high offices of State. It is, however, perfectly fair, for Americans have civilized and Christianized Hawaii-nei, and we have done little except make an unjust and afterwards disavowed seizure of the islands. On looking over this letter I find it an oola padrida of tropical glories, royal festivities, finance matters, and odds and ends in general. I dare say you will find it dull after my letters from Hawaii, but there are others who will prefer its prosaic details to Kilauea and Waimanu, and I confess that, amidst the general lusciousness of tropical life, I myself enjoy the dryness and tartness of statistics and hard uncoloured facts. I.L.B +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next - Letter # XIX File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/letterso109nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 10.9 Kb