ON THE SHORES OF KAUAI, THE "GARDEN ISLAND."
The trip to Kauai, the "Garden Island," from Honolulu, requires but a single night, but is a rough passage. At Waimea Captain Cook made his first landing on the Islands. Here, too, is the ruined fort built by a Russian trader, and over which the Russian flag was raised.
The trip through the Waimea Gulch, which is called a miniature Grand Canyon of the Colorado, rewards the traveler with magnificent scenery. At the deepest part the cliffs are 3,000 feet high and the valley is a mile in width. It is said that "in the decomposing rocks the colours are as vivid as though volcanic fires were still at work."
On the shore, at the extreme western point of the island, are the Barking Sands, a row of sand dunes. "The wind on the sands makes them rustle like silk; to slide down them produces a sound like thunder; to stamp on them makes them cry out in different cadences." Not far away is an old bathing beach, where a bath was supposed to bring good luck.
At Hanalei River is one of the most ancient of the deep-water fish ponds. According to an old tradition, this was built in a single night by Menehunes, a mythical race of dwarfs, who were noted for their industry and mechanical skill and their feats of engineering.
Everywhere one is struck by the preponderance of Japanese among the inhabitants. Since this great war broke out, Japan has taken from Germany the Ladrone Islands, just north of Guam, on the way to the Philippines. She has also taken the Marshall Islands, which bring her outposts fifteen hundred miles nearer to the Pacific coast of America. If we are inclined to be a bit pessimistic over the future fate of Hawaii, perhaps a piece of recent news from Nippon may encourage us.
Japan has just passed a law permitting Japanese to become American citizens. As nearly half the present inhabitants of the Islands are Japanese and 4,000 Japanese children are born there in a year, this is an interesting consideration when difficulties between Japan and America are talked of. The Japanese-American Citizens' Association was organized by a few Japanese who are citizens by right of birth, and has grown to a membership of more than fifteen hundred. It takes an interest in municipal affairs, discusses the questions of the day, and teaches young Hawaiian-born Japanese the principles and duties of good citizenship. Rev. S. Sokabe, of Honolulu, gives its members the following advice:
"Hawaiian-born Japanese have a great mission to-day. The Japanese of Hawaii must become the pacificators should trouble come between Japan and America.... You owe it to yourselves to do this. Learn to be good American citizens, and then you will be able to help in case of trouble. You can do more to keep peace than ambassadors and ministers.... If trouble should come with Japan, you must remember that you are the sons of the President, not the sons of the Emperor."
Under the old Japanese law Japanese born in Hawaii were still subjects of Japan. Under the law lately enacted by the Diet and House of Peers of Japan, which went into effect June 1, 1916, all Japanese born in a foreign country have the right at the age of fifteen to decide whether they will become subjects of Japan or of the country of their birth; they must, however, first get the consent of their parents before giving up their citizenship in Japan.