I have descanted upon the outdoor sports of Hawaii. And if you would have the fever of city life in a rigorless climate, no city so gay as Honolulu. The hotel life is a dream of leisure, dining, teas, bridge, bathing, canoeing, and dancing in the immense lanais to the swooning Hawaiian strains or the latest mainland jazz, from stringed instruments and native voices.
One new activity I noticed was by way of well-coached companies in Little Theatres. The Lanai Players and the Footlight Players are notable among these. Talent is recruited from both amateur and professional material, even some of the older and most exclusive kamaainas taking enthusiastic part now and again in the excellent plays that are produced. Musical instruction and entertainments are kept at high standard in Honolulu. It is hardly necessary to mention that there are the best of moving picture houses throughout the islands.
In these latter days of the South Seas proper, one’s heart is wrung by the decadence of the natives through the ills of white civilization; and the influenza reaped its ghastly harvest everywhere. But Hawaii fared not so ill from the dread scourge. The all-Hawaiians, though not holding their own in fecundity, are far from presenting a puny appearance—the splendid creatures! Thus, the traveler who would gaze upon the pure Polynesian in his native haunt, may still have curiosity gratified. If he be in San Francisco, New York, or Los Angeles, he may step out and secure steamship reservations at branch offices of the Hawaii Tours Company. And here let me say it is in sheer good will that I pass along this information, unbeknown to said Tours Company. My pleasure it is to share My Hawaii with the whole world. Many is the letter that weights my morning mail, telling me Our Hawaii has sent the writer out upon the blue Pacific. Never was I more gratified in this connection than upon a day when we went to meet Princess David Kawananakoa and her children, arriving from New York. Stepping from the gangplank to the wharf, a bright-faced woman made straight for myself, stretching out her hand: “You are Mrs. Jack London? Charmian London? Well, I want to tell you I am here to-day because I read your book, Our Hawaii. Oh, yes, and your Log of the Snark, too. I fully expect to get to the South Seas because of that! And there are others aboard who can tell you the same story.”
It saddens me to read the cold, hard figures of the official census of 1920. The only race registering a decrease is the native. The total pure-Hawaiians are given as 23,723—a decrease of 2,318 in ten years. The Asiatic-Hawaiian has doubled, However; and the Caucasian-Hawaiian risen from 8,772 to 11,072. Total population of the Territory, 255,912, of which 109,274 were Japanese.
Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalananaole has announced that at the end of his present term he will end his service as Hawaii’s representative in Congress, which began twenty years ago.
“I can best serve the ends of my own people by acting as a member of the Hawaiian Rehabilitation Act Commission,” he says. “I feel that I have done my duty to my country and my people in the past twenty years in Washington. I want to use what knowledge and influence I have in making the Hawaiian home laws a success. I succeeded in getting the Rehabilitation Act through Congress, and will continue to work on the successful carrying out of the law. The rest depends on the Hawaiian people.”
The Rehabilitation Act provides homesteads on the islands for people of Hawaiian blood as an aid to the rebuilding and perpetuation of the race. The act was passed on the ground that foreigners were taking up all available land and crowding out the natives.
When Princess David returned that winter of 1919-1920, she said it was to stay. For years she had lived in the eastern capitals, or sometimes in California, more especially San Diego, where once I visited her. She has made good her intention, busying herself with affairs in Honolulu.
Vividly there arises the memory of the great reception staged at her own house on that day of her landing. Owing to another engagement, I arrived in the latter part of the festivities. The sumptuous beauty, in a princess-like holoku of black charmeuse and lace, crowned and garlanded with golden ilima, sat in state near one end of her enormous lanai, still receiving the homage of her people. All official Honolulu dropped in during the afternoon. The orchestra played incessantly but unobtrusively, its haunting airs threading into the universal loveliness of low laughter, fragrance of jasmine and plumeria, exquisite tints of hibiscus, and the gentle pomp and happiness of the occasion.