OCR Text |
Show DECAY OF TUB SANDWICH ISLANDS. IS-LANDS. According to t he Hawaiian correspondent corres-pondent of the New York Observer, the population of the Sandwich Islands is rapidly decreasing under those influences influ-ences which many believed would have a contrary effect. In short, civilization civiliza-tion and Christianity seem to have promoted rather than hindered national nation-al decay, and while the natives no longer long-er worship idols or broil missionaries, and are better fed, better clothed, and better sheltered than under the ancient an-cient regime, they are dying out as fast as our own Indians. In 1823, the native inhabitants of these islands numbered 142,000; in 1S42, 130,300; in 1S46, 108.500; in 1850, 82,400; in 1S53, 73,100; in I860, 6'J,T00, and in 1876, 63,000. In forty years, if these figures bo correct, there has been an actual decrease of one-ball. It is stated that marriages are very rarely followed by offspring; that evon the more intelligent classes regard the birth of ohildren as a misfortune, mis-fortune, and that there are many villages villa-ges where not a single child is to be seen. When the natural source of supply sup-ply is thus cut off. it is no wonder that hairjileie are abandoned, houses empty, and the traveler can ride for miles through the country without meeting a single human being. The causes of this extraordinary change for the worse, we leave to the investigation of those philanthropists and physiologists who believe breeches and Bibles to be the grand panacea of all the ills which flesh is heir to. There are now about 2,500 Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons residing in the Sandwich Islands, Is-lands, and thc?e are reinforced by ,-500 ,-500 Chinese. Tho latter, it is thought, will soon monopolize tho entire agricultural agri-cultural interests of the ojountry. |