Race Question Solved in Hawaii

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 260, 24 January 1928, Page 1

Race Question Solved in Hawaii

Colour No Bar in Happy Honolulu AMERICAN TRAVELLER’S VIEWS “The race question has been solved in the Hawaiian islands. The people there meet on a basis of culture. There is no colour bar.” THE Hawaiian group, to Mr. Harry ■*" H. Willock, Is the “blessed isles.” “During the next 20 years the Pacific will be the centre of world happiness,” he.said yesterday on the Tofua. Mr. Willock is a member of thfe board of the Western Penitentiary, a large prison at Pittsburg, U.S.A. He has been a petroleum oil refiner, but he _,has, taken an interest in the civic and social life of the community. At present he is on, a tour of the Pacific, and later he will visit Australia, China, Java, Japan and Korea. “I want to see the Pacific so that X shall be able to read of it more intelligently and see the people and how they live,” he said. Speaking of Honolulu and Hawaii generally, Mr. Willock said that there is no segregation there. All races attend the same churches and the same schools. A race is growing up which is distinctly Hawaiian and is working for the good of the community. Honolulu possesses many wonderfully endowed schools, to which colour is not a bar. “Education, plus a long period under national control, with missionary guidance, has done this,’-’ he said. “Religion alone has not been responsible for it.” “In all my travels I have not seen anything equal to what has been done, and is being done, in Ha waii. Everybody is pulling together for what is best.for the community.” Then Mr. Willock turned his attention to Samoa. “You have to go through a long period of Intelligent undoing in Samoa before peace is ultimately restored,” he said. “The great weakness in criminal law in America is the long drawn-out criminal proceedings, plus a political police force,” said Mr. Willock. “The British system is the best. It is swift and certain, with reasonable punishment, whether the offender is a lord or a commoner. If anyone commits a crime he pays the penalty. Swift punishment is the best prevention of crime.” “There Is q;uite a movement on foot In America toward the farm prison,” he continued. “But the whole thing with criminals is how they are treated. If you treat the men in a military fashion you won’t get anywhere.”

Mr. Willock said that in America no criminal Is allowed to leave prison if he is illiterate. If he is illiterate when he is committed to prison he must attend classes and qualify for at least the fourth standard. We simply say to the man, ‘You’d better attend classes,’ but vie say It with a smile. There are no scowls in our prisons.” “Has Prohibition caused more crime in America?” the newspaper representative asked. “In one way, ‘No,’ ” he replied. “Perhaps it has increased crime, but the benefits of Prohibition have more than equalled that. The people of the United States are more prosperous. Perhaps that is not altogether attributable to Prohibition, but it has cerainly helped a great deal. Look gt the increase in the savings banks! ” “But you can still get liquor in the States?” “Oh, yes,” said Mr. Willock, and then, with a twinkle In his eye, “you have had laws against theft and murder, but we still hear of them being committed.” At the prison with which Mr. Willock was concerned there are 1,200 inmates, and the same prison authorities control a prison farm of 6,500 acres where there are 800 Inmates.