Nuhou, Volume II, Number 12, 22 August 1873 — Our Tropical Islands. [ARTICLE]

Our Tropical Islands.

The native populaiion of the group of islaiids constitūting the Hawaiian Kingdom is now only .50,000,. and the decrease is at the rate of 2,000 a year. In twentj-five jears a native or kanaka will be a euriosity. In ten years from this time the native population will cease to be the eontrolling element, or one whieh will help or hinder theproguess of aoy «eheaio jbr a new adjust« of the Governnient f 4 A eitizen long a resident of the ialands, furnishes the following statements showing thc annual eost of the Hawaiian Government: Fōr the s uppor t of Royalty. $ 31 } 250 For tlie Legislature and Judiciat's* 44,225 For the Military and Foreign Affairis'. •««•••* 47,050 Fot the Interior Departmeht.................,...... 230,638 For the finance Department.... ....... 37,075 For the Attorney-Generars Departnieut 48,604 Fōr the Bureau of Publio Instruction ......... 46,280 For the Interest on National Debt*., 35,000 T0ta1.... ....... ...$520,122 The duty paid to the Unitea States on Hawaiian sugar, in 1871 ? was $300,000 ; to whieh may be added 5 per cent. commission on duties advanced, or $15,000. Putting these items together we have a total of $850,000 as a part of the cost of sustainīng the Hawaiian independence, This is equal to a tax of $17 per head for every man, woman and clnld in the Kingdom or 4J cents a pound 011 tlie annual product of sugar of 20,000,000 pounds. The entire tax is not levied on sugar, it is true, but as this is pow the only important productive industiy of the country, it has to bear the greater pa,rt of the lmrden. The aftnexation of the islands to the United States

would save the planters not lesB.tban three cents a"pound on sngar r In faCt, when Minister Harris weM ;for a recii)voeity treaty he desired agood thing. Minister MeOook, in seconding this eflbrfc and in going to Washington to lobby for it, desired also a go6d thing—and aecording to rumors he got it —that is he made his u expenses. The Hawaiians missed a mātter 6f half a million or more by the failure of the treaty. and then fell baek to wateh the nest opportunity. Many thought it eauie the other day when the line of kingly succcssor6 heeame extinet Bot two thousand white men drawn irom various nationalities, although transacting nearly all the business and payingHhe bulli of the taxes, hesitated to say to 50,000 natives the time forannēsation hns eome; and so,a native was placed 011 the throne, who Is mueh an Am|erican as a native ean be 3 and the struggle ag a inst the inevitable will go on possibly ibr five or t£n years more.

The populatlori 6f San Domiago is set cloyii'at about 150,000, aiul the puf)lic debt ll- about $1,500,000, wlueh Is supposecl to l)e about the aetual sum 'paiel fbr a territorj aud adTautages cqual to thr§e-fifths of Sau pomingo. In fiiet, what Coūgress deeliued to do, hae been done in a more irftiirect, but iiot less positive way. An Amei'iean eompanj has for all praetleal bought San Domingo. Bamana will be madi a li*cc port, and a liiie of steamers will beorgani ed ut onee to ply between that port and New York. An express eompany is übout to be org<uu ui and a newspaper nt onee, The entne estent ofeoast purehnsed has not becn named in any iloeuineiU we Imve seen. But the puieha?e iueludes ihe entire j>eninsula of Samana with t!ie harbor of Puerto Platte on the north side, and the great of Samana extending up on tKc south side o! thi> peninsu]a more th;m thirty miles, An uuiepe udeni govenunent to be set up 4 and then Sun Domingo wil! reeede and the oew Repubht ioom up m inJhe fbregroand.

What thc plaotor6 of Ilawaie faile<J to do, leee! than a BCore of Amenea-n uiercliant6 have done j | tor iSan Domingo, They have taken u bankrup( ) islandj agreed to pay all the debts and to btart it lon a new eourse of prospcrity. Hawaii ruiesedj ' the opportunity and waits. San ī)omingo niiesed j | one opportunity, or rather appealing to i j failed, but the projeetors went around to the rear i ; and accomp]ibhed the It hus been 6aid ; thafc Ouba would be eheap afc $1.00,000,000, and j | this was about the amount whieh it ie supposed j the - Faderal Government was willing to pay at: one time. San Domingo is said to be eheap at $50,000,000, it being worth more, aere for aere 5 } than Cuba, and for coinmercial purposes the bgst iisiand of the whole Wesfc īndian group. lt is also the key to the Carrityeau Sea, and the bay is in convenicnt prosimity to £he route taken bj the Pacific Mail steamers. Quite a number of Congressmeh who failed to find any pluins in the i Credit Mobilier aeheme, it is said, liave found sat-1 isfactorj ones in San Domingo,—s. F. Eulhlin. [How free and easy they dispose of us over in Frisco. But they are mistaken in eomparing us. jto the Dominican mulattoes, Tliose people have | not ? and have not had for a lōng time, anything | like a government or naiionaUty. A Legislature and a judiciary hardly existed iu the conntry, und > nd national sentiment. Baez was master when Leferon or Cabral were not. Baez farmed out or hypothecated tlie revenues s whenever lie pleased, a la Shah. And he had mismanaged eo, till neither he nor any 6f his Ministers could get a salary out bf the revenue. Wlien we were in Washington in 1869, we were requested to go to San Domingo bv Avgenarde, the Dominiean Eu- ] yoy ? who oftered us the position of c£ Ministro de Hacienda ? ,? or Min]&tei of Cultures and Immlojratioii, a new nosition, but we founu that tliere : was no salary attached, but would get a eon-, cession " of wild land ? out of whieh we might| make what we could ; but we thought Lanai was| was a surer thing. However, if we had taken hold in San Domingo, we mlght have stood a ehanee to have plundered a plum " aloug with some of those Credit Mobilier gentlemau so admiringly pointed out by our Ameneau eotemporary. We are afraid fbr the sake of some of oui eanguine friends in San Franeiseo aud īlonolulu, that Pearl Harbor does not ofier the same elianee for > 4 plums "as Samana Bay,—En. Nunoi .]