Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 214, 12 Iune 1891 — WHAT OTHERS SAY. [ARTICLE]

WHAT OTHERS SAY.

That even a pretence of nativ? rule has hroken down iu the Hh"waiian Islan<.ls need purpripe no one. It arpenrs to he the destiny of the Polynesian races to wither I awav in presence of eivilization. | Kven in iliiii Xe\v ITobriclcs, v,here ! the natives have beon s*ibjtK*tcd oniy to the liujuanising iniluenee of th(i iiiissionaries, the objecis of so mueli cnre display. a low vitality arul aro rapidly deereasing in numbers, nnd the samo remarks aDplies to Haiuoa, Tonga ai><{ Fiji. We may exj»erience a s-īnti:nenlal regret -that races, interesti-ng in themselv« s, should be thus <ioonud to extinction, but after ali it ig onlv an exemplifieation in the kuman \vorld of a law of nature whieh decrees the survival of the fittest. Dut lor tlie operation of this law» the greater p.irt of the earth's surface wouid to-day in ] t!ie ocoupation of rares in a low stnce of barbarism.Js.'jnd who were

ivanting in the capacjty for nrogress. - Havo the blaekfeHow been ab3e to hold his own in these eoionieSi and even ander-' the fecuritv given bv Euroj>ean rule to life*aml propert} r . proved as proiific as the negroes in tne United »States, we wouid have found mirse!ves greatly embarrassed by the presence in large nnmbers of j>eoi)le who had put on but a thin veneer of civiiisat.ion. The difficulty is how to carry on in the transition period. The experirnent of native rul£ has 4 been tried not onlv in the Sandwhieh Islands, but in Fjji, Tonga and Samoa, and the result have been in no case satisfactory. There i8 a tendency to bring to the front white adventurers who have not the confidenee of their own eoim-

The position in Fiji be-1 eame so intolerable that the white residents had to urge Her 3rajesty?s Government to assume the sovereigntv, and- the 15aker episode in Tdnga did not lend encouragement to the systera. of a nominally indigenons (.iovernment. Ifc is obviously better even in the interest of the natives themselves that some civiii.<ed State should assume the responsib:lity. Bome kind of intervention will speedily heeome indispensable in Hawaii. ''A feeble minded Queenas she is described, dragged this way and that bv factions of white men, will obviousiy be unable to iiiaitain order amongst the most heterogeneous population in the southern hemisphere. The qucstion is, On whom does the duty of maintaining order rest ? It would be absurd for Australia to set up territorial rights so far froui her shores and it would be idle besides. beranse Australia could orilv act through the British Government, and we know by experience taat tne London authori-1 ties r instead of seeking opportunities J for extending their responsibiiities j in the Pacificj have sought to evade i them even iu close proximity to our own shores when active intervention i was dictated bv the interests of the; British Colonies. As a matter of fact, Hawaii has long been an American possession commercially, and even politically the influence.of the United States has been supreme. Lying in the track of the future cable between Austraiia and Ameriea, we could have desired that the islands should have belonged to the Empire, but the next best thing is that they should be taken possession jof by the United States. There are people who would begrudge to our trans-pacific cousins the fruit-s of their enterprises in Hawaii, but it is surejy better that the islands should be in their hands than in those of some aggressive European Powei'. \Ve..are the more called j upon tō be sympathetic with the Amcrk*anS'in this matter that wq ffere iiulebted to theenergetic action of the Kepuhlie for nrever»ting Sa- | moa being absorbed by Germanv, ! when our own suzerain stood timid- | ly bv.—Melhou-Hie Leuder, Mareh lJf,