Hawaii Holomua, Volume II, Number 41, 21 February 1894 Edition 02 — I. FOREIGN POPULATION. [ARTICLE]

I. FOREIGN POPULATION.

As will be seen in the preneral PopuIation Table A ? berewith annexed, eliawn from the oAieial censns taken on the last tlay of December, 1890, the popolation uow living ou these islands is made up of very heterogeuous elements. In a broad way, at the above date. it was composed: lst, of 45.5 per ceut. of Nutives,—puro or Haif-castes: 2d, of 1>0.74 per cent. of Asiatics, principully transient eoolie laborers for tho 64 sugar plantations; and 3rd, of 24.13 per cent. of all other foreigners and their direct descendants (Hawaiian-born), this element including 9.57 per cent. of Portuguese laborers and 4.57 per cent. of their youug children born here. In the total of this population, the Araeriean usurping elemeni is only a lilipntiuu faction of 2.14 P er cent. of the whole. or of 4. <2 per cent. as compared with the Jsative element alone, who are tbe rightful owners of the country. And moreover, this small fraction of 2.14 per cent. is far from being unanimous for annexation, while it is also uearly couut6rbalanced by the English, 1.48 per cent. or more than balanced by the English and German elements together, 2.63 per cent. I uder another broad poiut of view, the populaiion was composed, in 1890, of 49,372 foreigners of all kind. ngainst onl_\ 40,622 Natives. Put here, it is necessarv to eall apeeial attention to the startling fact, —proved b>' the census (eolnmn of variations)—that the bulk of the foreign element is very far from beiug stabie; in the maiu, it is transient, not settled, and therefore hardly entitled to a voice, or at least to a prepouderant one. in tbe Governmeut of the Kingdom. In fact, the foreign eleraent, as seen in the Ceusus, is composed princi* pally, (90 j»er cent.) of laborers introduced at ditferent times for the sugar industry, the majority of whom cannot be exp©cted to remain after the expiration of their Iabor eontracts, as the country otīers them but very litfcle inducements for settlement. The census also elicits these facts: lst, that while the pure Ao/iuea are decreasing, their natural descendants and successors, the Hawaiian hcdf-ca*Us, are rapidly increasing; 2d, thut theChinese, Portnguese anJ all

other foreigners. exeept the English. are decre«sing in vanons proportions, while the Japanese. iotroduced within the last siv years. have been up to tiie presont iime. ponring in so as to threaten toconstitute a prevniliug eloment in a very uear futnre. A rapid review of these vari<>ns classes will make the raatter still plamer. A—The Japancse have all been mtroiluced gradoally smce 1S8J. on’y 116 of them being found in the Census of that dats; they oome under a three year dntract. at the end of whieh the m.sjority of thera r> turn to Jap«n. so that their number in this conntry ean only be k>-pt op by fresh importations: bnt. it has just transpired that, at the request of the Piauters who have snddenly decided to stop all firth r Japanese immigration, the Provisiona| Government are prepariug to resume the imp»rlation of Ciiincse, to tho amount of 5,000, a fact quite coutrary to American principles. Have the Planters and Government reulisetl the dan»ers of tho past unlimited importations, and have they got scared of the Japs., who elaim equal civil rights and privileges to those assumed by the white fore guers ' B. —It would be rather difficu!t to st.t« exactly when tho lirst Chinese Ianded iu the group. bnt they had graduallv iucreased to 1.00 in 1866; however, it was onlv after the impet-is given sngar by the Amenewu Reciprocity Treaty,* th*t they were introducod in large nurabers, as laborers, and they re,iched their maximum ( a little over 10 00<1 ) in 18b9, since when they huve decreased, ou aecount of the planters, prefereuce f>r Japanese labonr. Amongst the n.imber of Chinamen now f >und on the Islands, on!y a eouple of thonsand contmue as plantation workers, tha others have iuv,ided many lines of occupation formely he!d by Natives or white Foreigners. and thev constitute the bulk of honaeholel sorvants, w;;shermen, retail deders, fculors, shoemakers, gardeners and f;.rraers, especially rico growers. As aoeh, they are stable as long as the country is prosjK'rous or their bnsiness profitable; but the drenn of every one of them. is to return eventually to the Flowery Empire, as soon as they have saved monev enough. C, Tiie Portaguese were intrododed direct frora Madeira and the Azores after 1876; and from 436 at tliat date, rapidly grew to over 12.000 ( includiug their Hawaiian born childreu ). But t iey have beeu steadily goiug away since 1885, as they have ceased to be in favor with the planters, who accuse them of being too expensive siuce the introduction of tlie eheap Japs; and those who yet r*?m iin wouhl right now emigrate “ eu inasse ”, if they had the raeans and an >tlier bandy plaee to go to. But the new stringent emigation laws of America aml the geueral depression iu that conntry make the matter more difficult for them. B. Concerning the otber foreigners. wbetber imported as laborers or free-emigrauts. it ean a!so be said that the majority of them are transient, as tlio pnneipal object of nearly all of them,-fr»m the rich planter and tlie thriftv merclm:it down to the poorest clerk or meehanie, —is to make as mueh money in as short a tirae us possib!e, and then go away and enjoy it elsewhere. The only foreigners from whom might be exi>ected a stable resideoce, are the owners of real estate, but their total nurabor on!v arnount to about 1029, out of whom Ii 7 onlv* f«re Americans, while 169 are Britishers. Aml yet it is a f.iction of tbese transieut fore’gnsrs, inst g ted by fcho r»p cious descendmts of the B'-st>)n m ssionaries, who clamour for uonexation. aud would fain irapose it bv force on the stable classes. on the unwilling Natives, n>t for tbe g.»od of tho eo mtry, but for the beuefit of their own trmsieat selfish interests!! (*) This Treaty was »rantH by Ameiiea t o King Kaiakana thrungh a «ntiment of geaerusily. a» a «peeinl f<»Tor and heip to the decr«*a«ng Xatire Race; m miiity it has b«nelited only a few foreigners and L»rgelv tbe Asiatks.