hundred and ten schools, having an attendance of over seven thousand children." Even in 1873 Mr. Nordhoff said, "The natives of these islands are, there is reason to believe, the most generally educated people in the world." Yet, with the phenomenal advance in intellect and morals which this race has made, there is a most rapid and melancholy decay of their physical organization. With an abundance of schools and churches, there are every year fewer scholars and worshipers; with an admirable system of government, there are constantly becoming fewer to govern.
The successive census returns tell this sad story: In 1832 the inhabitants of the islands were 130,313; in 1836, 108,579; in 1850, 84,165; in 1860, 69,700; in 1866, 62,959; in 1872, 56,897; in 1878, 57,985.[1] And even this seeming arrest, shown by the last census, in the process of decay in the native race, is not real; for during the last six years the Hawaiian population decreased over four thousand, the total gain being caused by an increase of foreigners to the extent of over live thousand. The Government, in a frantic effort to save itself from extinction, is importing immigrants: during the two years ending in 1880 it introduced over nine hundred Portuguese from the Madeira Islands, and more than eleven hundred Polynesians from the Gilbert Islands. Besides these, many Chinese have come. We are told, moreover, that the physical type of the natives has deteriorated; that the great stature and forms noted by the early visitors to the islands have passed away.
The history of the Hawaiians for the last sixty years might be almost condensed into three words—Christianization, civilization, extermination.
In 1860 Mr. F. D. Fenton was instructed by the New Zealand Government to prepare a statement with reference to the decay of the aboriginal Maori race, together with an investigation into its causes. His report, which is contained in Volume XXIII of the "Journal of the Statistical Society," shows a marked decrease, amounting to nineteen and a half per cent in the fourteen years from 1844 to 1858. This loss of numbers occurred in the absence of most of the causes commonly assigned for the decay of races. Mr. Fenton shows that all the tribes occupied healthful situations, that the climate was benign, and that the fertility of the soil was such as to secure an abundance of nutritious food. In fact, while the United States was increasing at the rate of thirty-five per cent every decade, this ancient race was diminishing at the rate of fourteen per cent every ten years; and, so far as the natural advantages of soil and climate are concerned, there seems to be little to choose between the two countries. Moreover, this deterioration was of recent origin. It was first noticed in 1841 by Bishop Broughton, and the Maories themselves say that it has commenced within the recollection of the present generation. The fact that there are more males
- ↑ Mrs, Judd, "Honolulu," vide Appendix, by Albert Judd.
