HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. =. BBB

Surveys of granta were of a similar character to those of kuleanas. Formerly it
was not the policy of the Government to have Government Jands surveyed as.
wholes, or to have their boundaries settled. Portions of Government land ‘sold to

private persons were surveyed at the expense of the purchaser. It was seldom the
case that an entire ‘“‘ahupuaa” was sold at once. , The pieces sold were of all sizes |
and shapes, sometimes cutting across half a dozen ahuptaas, and were generally
surveyed without reference to the surveys of adjoining land salesor awards. Hence
most Government lands at the present time consist of mere remnants left here and
there, and of the worthless and unsalable portions remaining after the rest had been
sold. It follows that, even supposing all the outside boundaries of a Government
land to have been surveyed and duly settled by the commissioner of bounda-
ries, it would still be necessary to locate on the ground all the grants and awards
contained within the land in question in order to ascertain how much of it is left.
Nothing short of a general survey of the country will bring to light all these facts,
will exhibit the Government lands in their true position in relation to other lands,
and enable the minister of the interior as well as applicants for land to- judge of
their actual value. It was considerations like these which induced the then minis-
ter of the interior, Dr. Hutchinson, to institute the Government survey in 1871.
An account of that survey, its objects, methods, and results, was published in pam- .
phiet form in 1889. |
a - WwW. D. ALEXANDER,

Superintendent of Government Survey.

In view of the foregoing observations it appears to me that if a
humane feeling towards the native population of these islands is to
have place in American thought there will arise a conviction that in-
stead of inviting immigrants from the United States or other countries. »

to these islands in the hope of obtaining homes, whatever of lands —

may be used in this way are more than needed by the native popula-
tion. They seem morever, to suggest that if the native: has not’

advanced in mental and moral culture up to the highest standard it

can not be denied that the policy of the Hawaiian Government in the —
distribution of its lands has been a great hindrance to him.

His advancement in the future under the conditions now surrounding
him are by no means encouraging. If his advancement should reach
the most desirable stage there will in all probability arise a discontent:
well calculated to unsettle any social fabric which sought to give it.
| permanency. .

It has been made to appear in official reports of the Hawaiian Gov-
ernment, and in magazine and newspaper articles, that the native pop-
ulation was dying out and would in a few years become extinct. The
best opinion I can obtain here is that the death rate no longer exceeds _—
the birth rate, but that there is a gradual increase in the native popu- |
lation. The extinction of the native, therefore, can no longer afford -
any excuse for any distribution of the land of the country | on that
account. |

Out of a population of 40,622 natives and half-casts, 23,473 are offi-
cially reported as able to read and write. They are generally allied in
their religious affiliations with the Protestant and Catholic churches.

Mr. Sereno E. Bishop,.an ardent annexationist, and with an eye
quick to discern all their faults, i in 1888 uses the following language:

The Hawaiian race is one that is well worth saving. With all their sad frailties,
they are a noble race of men, physically and morally. They are manly, courageous,
enterprising, cordial, generous, unselfish. They are highly receptive of. good. They”
love to look forward and upward, though very facile to temptations to slide back-

ward and downward. In an unusual degree they possess a capacity for fine and
ardent enthusiasm for noble ends.

Can a Christian civilization doom such.a people to annihilation by
any policy of legislation ?

I see in the letters from here to the New York World and Sun state-
-- ments that I had expressed my own opinions in reference to political