HAWAII. THE INHABITANTS. The Characteristics of the Kanaka Strange Mixture of Races in the Islands The Deficiencies of the Kanaka - Leprosy and Its Treatment - Orientals Are in a Majority-An Extremely Mixed Population - The Chinaman a Model Citizen The Japanese Are Inclined to Be Unruly - The White Laborer Cannot Work in Hawaii - The Importation of Porto Ricans Will Hawaii Become Japanized? At the time of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands their inhabitants were a semi-barbarous people, living in an extremely primitive state. Their form of government and their social condition were elementary; with a few insignificant exceptions, they could boast of not even the most simple arts. Their religion was crude and their language limited to verbal expression. The mental capacity of the natives was and is very limited. They appear to have always been absolutely lacking in originality and inventiveness. Diligence and ambition are quite foreign to their character and their efforts are as they have ever been restricted to the demands of necessity. Much, if not all, of the explanation of these traits may be found in the peculiarities of their physical condition and environment. Living in a climate more genial perhaps than any other in the world, and one which combined with a fertile soil to produce almost spontaneously abundance of food, their actual needs were no more than those of man in his most primitive state. Practically isolated from the world, they were neither disturbed by conflicts with neighbors nor aroused by emulation of superior achievements. Thus there was nothing to withdraw them from the life of natural indolence and easy stagnation, whose effect was pronouncedly marked in their mental and physical characteristics. They were stout, but fat rather than muscular, and well formed, with features betraying a trace of Aryan origin. The caste of chieftains displayed a distinct superiority of mind and body over the common people. Their complexion is a dark olive and their hair black and usually straight. A feudal system existed in the group and seems to have been of ancient origin. The various Islands were in the possession of independent kings, in whom all property rights were vested. The people were divided into two castes, nobles and the serfs. The former enjoyed the distinction of descent from the gods. A chief held a certain extent of land during his life or during the pleasure of his sovereign, and the grant included the enjoyment of the fruits of the labor of the serfs who lived upon it. When the chief died his holding reverted to the king. |