Your ShelfYour Projects

HAWAII

17%

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 13.

Read the full edition

HAWAII.

HAWAII embraces several islands in the Pacific Ocean, 2,100 miles west of San Francisco, and 3,440 miles east of Japan, the largest being Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Nihau, and Kahoolawe. The total area of the islands is 6,640 square miles, with a population in 1890 of 89,990, less than one-half being native. The census of 1890 showed there were 34,436 natives, 6,186 half castes, 7,495 born in Hawaii of foreign parents, 15,301 Chinese, 12,360 Japanese, 8,602 Portuguese, 1,928 Americans, 1,344 British, 1,034 Germans, 227 Norwegians, 70 French, 588 Polynesians, and 419 other foreigners. It is estimated that when Captain Cook discovered the islands in 1778 the population numbered 200,000, since which time the natives have rapidly decreased. The capital, Honolulu, is in the island of Oahu, and has about 21,000 inhabitants. The latest religious statistics reported 29,685 Protestants, 20,072 Roman Catholics, 3,576 Mormons, 72 Jews, 30,821 undesignated. In 1892 there were 168 schools and 10,712 pupils, of whom 5,353 were Hawaiian.
When the islands were first visited by Captain Cook, they were under the control of several chiefs, one for each island, but Kamehameha, the chief of the principal island, attacked and overcame the chiefs of the other islands, and about the year 1800 united them under his government. In 1820 missionaries from the United States were sent to the islands, and through their influence the natives finally gave up their idolatry, professed Christianity, and in turn have sent missionaries to the islands beyond. The government of the islands under Kamehameha I. and Kamehameha II. was that of an absolute monarchy, but Kamehameha III. in 1840 gave his subjects a constitution, and his successors reigned as constitutional monarchs. In 1887 a new constitution was granted, which vests the executive power in the sovereign and his cabinet, and the legislative power in 24 members of the House of Nobles, 24 representatives, and the 4 ministers of the cabinet.
Queen Liliuokalani, eldest sister of the late King Kalakaua, succeeded to the throne on January 20, 1891, on the death of King Kalakaua, but she was deposed on January 15, 1893; a Committee of Public Safety was formed, and a deputation sent to Washington to ask the United States Government to annex Hawaii. The provisional government has since had control of the islands, and consists of an executive council of four members, who administer the executive departments of the government, and an advisory council of fourteen, who have general legislative authority.
President Harrison was in favor of the annexation of the islands, and recommended this to the Senate, but the Senate adjourned without taking action. President Cleveland has announced that he is opposed to the annexation, and at this writing the Congress now in session has requested the President to give them all the information he has as to what has been and is being done on the islands looking to a change in the government.
—Gospel in All Lands.