HONOLULU.

New Zealand Herald, 30 March 1876, Page 3

HONOLULU.

A MEMORIAL of rather an extraordinary ' character has been presented to the Hawaiian King. In this memorial it is stated that 1 thirty-three years ago there were 100,000 . people in Hawaii, and that now natives and foreigners number barely 50,000. The rate of decrease is stated to be at the rate of 1000 a year. The memorial purposes to introduce people of akindred race to recuperate the \ Hawaiians. In a reply, ministers go over q every place from which people could be j procured, and seem to give the preference to ] Chinese. The ministers say ;—" We need ( only glance at the map to see that the shores c of that great continent nearest to as are -r occupied almost entirely by China—that t astonishing Empire whose people have not a only maintained their existence, may we q not say, as a civilised nation from long before r the time when our ancestors were covering \ their bodies with war paint, but who are now 1 by far the most numerous separate people on t the face of the earth, and who are to-day i overflowing, not only into all the neighbour- t ing Archipelago of Malaysia, but are holding their own as . an industrious people f amongst and in spite of the 1 hood- j lums' of California, and the c roughs' of ( Australia. It is Chinese who constructed j the railroads of Peru, have dug the coal mines of Borneo; nay, they have been in ] request to build the railroads in Bengal, the s very home of the cheap Hindoo labourer, j But what they still more regret, is to find that you consider that the introduction of t Chinese must, from their unchaste character < aggravate the sterility of Hawaiian women, f If this be true, the introduction of Chinese i should be stopped instanter. It is no doubt < true that the disproportion of the sexes is an 1 evil in any country, but it is a period of trial i which many countries have of necessity to < pass through, and from which they recover ] in due time. In remembering the evil doings - of some of the worst of the Chinese, however, I we should bear in mind that an outcry would i : j probably be made when a low Chinese is j discovered sinning, when the same crime' t would hardly call for remark amongst a r j similar class of natives.- We should, also 1

bear in*finndrthe fact that soine'of-tlie largest, " • familiea-whigh; have been - borne . women hare been by and. I that even the lower orders of Chinese, and' • we say'this with regret, are,*"we~beUere,. reckoned by the Hawaiian women to make more faithful and than the similar class of Hawaiians. The progeny also of these two races seems so far to confirm your view that the mingling of Hawaiians and Asiatic blood , may r prove a success, so far at least as the Chinese are concerned. • Of the* result of a union with other Asiatics, of the less robust Hindoo for instance, with an Hawaiian woman, we have little experience ; it is to be heped that; such an experience may be soon afforded." The whole discussion is very curious. jLittle is said as to" the causes of the decrease of the Hawaiians. If the Chinese are introduced in great numbers it is not improbable they may obliterate the decaying Hawaiians.