INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.
Between the years 1850 and 1860 a large part of the government land was sold to the common people in small tracts at nominal prices.
The rapid settlement of California opened a new market for the productions of the Islands, and gave a great stimulus to agriculture. For a time large profits were made by raising potatoes for the California market. Wheat was cultivated in the Makawao district, and a steam flouring mill was erected in Honolulu in 1854. The next year 463 barrels of Hawaiian flour were exported. A coffee plantation was started at Hanalei, Kauai, in 1842, and promised well, but was attacked by blight after the severe drought of 1851-2. The export of coffee rose to 208,000 pounds in 1850, but then fell off. The export of sugar only reached 500 tons in 1853. The sugar mills were generally worked by oxen or mules, and the molasses drained in the old fashioned way.
THE UNFINISHED ANNEXATION TREATY.
The year 1853 was rendered memorable by a terrible epidemic of small-pox, which carried off several thousand people on the Island of Oahu. During that and the following year there was an active agitation in Honolulu in favor of annexation to the United States. The king favored it as a refuge from impending dangers. The missionaries generally opposed it, fearing that its effects would be injurious to the native race. The negotiations were carried on between Mr. Gregg, the American Minister, and Mr. Wyllie, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a draft of the treaty was completed in June, 1854.
The representatives of France and Great Britain remonstrated with the king against it, while the heir-apparent was also opposed to it. The negotiation was still pending when the king suddenly died on the 15th of December, 1854.
His adopted son and heir, Alexander Liholiho, was immediately proclaimed king, under the title of Kamehameha IV.
THE REIGN OF KAMEHAMEHA IV.
Was uneventful. He was married to Emma Rooke, a chiefess partly of English descent, who both by her character and her