KINGDOM IN HAWAII.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 388, 20 March 1937, Page 3

KINGDOM IN HAWAII.

Effort to Preserve Race. Nearly one hundred years'ago, a group of Maoris purchased, for 10,000 dollars in gold, the island of Niihan. the most westerly of the Hawaiian group, and stocked it with cattle- and sheep. Today, the Island, 10 miles by four, has one white man, two Japanese, and 200 purebred HavJiiians —'probably the largest compact group of that race (writes a special representative from Honolulu to the Melbourne Herald). Owned by the Family, who live on the neighbouring island of Kawai and permit no stranger to land, it is a private feudal principality, complete with vassals, seneschal and manor house —a jealously-guarded world in itself. The Family permit the Governor of Hawaii and his health and school inspectors to land. The son of the elderly Scotch superintendent, the only white man resident on Niihan. is allowed to visit his father once a year. The Family lay they prohibit visitors because they Want to keep their faithful Hawaiians uncorrupted. On Fence All Day.

An inquisitive travelling salesman once persuaded the captain of an island freighter to land him on the beach. A sentry was posted over him, with orders not to permit him to leave a small area near the beach until the freighter’s boat returned for him. A gale blew up and It. was evening before he Was taken off. In the meantime he had sat on a fence all day in a tropical sun, with no more nourishment than the odour of dinner and supper watted seaward from, the nearest habitation. The islanders rarely leave. If they do without permission they are not allowed to return. They are.forbidden to smoke or drink. The superintendent alone is allowed his pipe. The local school goes far enough to allow the children to learn the Words of hymns —old dissenting hymns, translated into Hawaiian— which are sung in the chapel, without benefit of organ or other musical instrument. The minister is a local-born Hawaiian, who is also schoolmaster and registrar of births, deaths and marriages. When he was young, the Family him to the Norma! School afr Hofiol ilu.

Children of 12 and 13 do not speak a Word of English. But their Christian names ‘tyre Biblical English David, Samuel and Malachi, or Lily. Rachel and Lydia, tacked on to polysyllabic Hawaiian surnames.

Play Crickets. Niihan knows nothing of the tele' phone, telegraph, wireless, phonograph or moving pictures. In emergencies, the superintendent lights a beacon fire, and the Family send a boat to investigate. Otherwise, communication is confined to a Japanese, with a small sampan, who makes- a weekly trip for supplies. The Family, having been Bsritish subjects up to the present adult generation, have apparently never become reconciled to the fact that Hawaii became American territory in’ 1898, Even the cattle are an English breed. The only sports ‘are cricket and volley-ball. The head of the Family visits Niihan once a year, and dines in state in the old manor house, hand-carved furniture imported from England and New Zealand 100 years ago.