Jere Krischel at 17:09, 21 December 2005

2005-12-21T17:09:58Z

Jere Krischel at 18:44, 11 December 2005

2005-12-11T18:44:10Z

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5 7 0 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
The CHAIRMAN. Signed by the cabinet of which you were a member?
Mr. JONES. I think that was. That had passed the House and was
signed by the Queen, and was also approved by Minister Wilcox. That
is my impression. You refer to the distillation of spirituous liquors?
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
Mr. JONES. Yes, there was a bill of that nature passed; and I think
that was approved by the cabinet. Of course, it had passed the House,
and we were bound to recognize it.
The CHAIRMAN. That was a bill amending a statute that had been
on the statute books for several years ?
Mr. JONES. Yes.
Senator GRAY. Was that the distillation bill, so-called?
Mr. JONES. Yes; there was a distillation bill passed.
Senator GRAY. It is the bill to which Mr. Emerson, the last witness,
referred?
Senator FRYE. Yes.
Senator GRAY. And that was the bill that came to you in the regular
course, and was approved by your cabinet?
Mr. JONES. Yes. I am not very positive about that; but that was
a bill in the interest of commerce. We did not oppose anything that
passed the House; anything that passed the House we had to accept.
Senator GRAY. That was a bill that regulated the liquor traffic ?
Mr. JONES. Yes; it was to encourage home manufacture. It was a
bill that I took very little interest in.
The CHAIRMAN. I have a copy of the bill here. I wanted to ask
Mr. Jones whether under the constitution of 1887 it was requisite, in
order that an act of the Legislature should become a law, that it be
signed by the Queen and one of her cabinet.
Mr. JONES. Yes; it was not valid until signed by one of the cabinet.
The minister of the interior had to approve all bills; otherwise they
were not valid.
The CHAIRMAN [exhibiting blue print heretofore used in the examination].
Look at that blue print and state whether you are familiar
with it.
Mr. JONES. Yes; I am familiar with it—very familiar.
The CHAIRMAN. IS it a correct plat of the city of Honolulu and the
buildings mentioned there?
Mr. JONES. Yes; and it is very accurate.
Senator GRAY. I would like to premise the two or three questions
that I desire to ask Mr. Jones with the statement that I have no criticism
at all to make upon the desire that he and other good people of
Honolulu evince for a change of Government in Hawaii; in fact, so far
as I understand his statements, I am inclined to sympathize with the
desire. I beg him to believe that I only wish to get at the facts and
not his reasons for a desire to change the Government—the facts that
relate to our attitude in the matter.
Mr. JONES. Yes.
Senator GRAY. I am going to ask you in regard to this native population
about which I, for one, have very little information. The subject
is quite interesting to me. You have been in Hawaii how many years?
Mr. JONES. I have been there thirty-six years, and, outside of my
business I have had a great deal to do with the natives. I have taken a
great deal of interest in them.
Senator GRAY. For that reason, what you say about them would be
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 571,
very interesting. In the first place, are they a people of fair intelligence?
Mr. JONES. Fair intelligence?
Senator GRAY. Yes.
Mr. JONES. Yes; they are. And many of them are excellent mathematicians;
they seem to take hold of mathematics.
Senator GRAY. Are any of them teachers?
Mr. JONES. They are educating them in that direction. The Kamehameha
schools, founded by Mrs. Bishop—she was the last of the
Kamehameha family—are very liberally subsidized by her husband,
who is now living. They are preparing a good many young men for
teachers, and they are doing very well. There are two young men in
New York now receiving higher education at some normal school—
getting instruction to become teachers.
Senator GRAY. I did not know that they were so far advanced as
that. How long has education been general among the native population?
Mr. JONES. Oh, ever since their language was reduced to a written
language by the early missionaries. I think it is almost impossible to
find a Hawaiian who is not able at least to read and write. They have
what we would call in this country a common-school education. They
were educated in the Hawaiian language, and are now being taught
very largely in the English language, it being their preference.
Senator GRAY. Then, there has been quite a generation, as things
go, who have been under the influence of the common-school education?
Mr. JONES. Oh, yes; more than a generation.
Senator GRAY. Do they take much interest in the politics of the
islands? '
Mr. JONES. Yes; they do. They have taken a good deal of interest
in politics, and they are very easily influenced for good or for evil.
Senator GRAY. Are they an amiable people, generally?
Mr. JONES. Very amiable; yes.
Senator GRAY. Are they treacherous; have they the characteristics
of our North American Indians?
Mr. JONES. NO ; but they are untruthful—not what we would call
treacherous; I would hardly call them treacherous; but sometimes they
are untruthful.
Senator GRAY. Have any large number of them accepted the Christian
religion?
Mr. JONES. Yes; there are some of them very exemplary Christian
men and women.
Senator GRAY. How is it among the masses—are most of them educated
in the ordinary tenets of Christianity?
Mr. JONES. Yes.
Senator GRAY. AS are the ordinary masses of the population in
some of our States?
Mr. JONES. I would say that they would compare very favorably
with the early Christians of Corinth, and those to whom Paul gave his
instructions. I do not wish to convey the idea that the Hawaiians are
a treacherous people by any means; but they do not hesitate to tell little
taradiddles to cover up.
Senator GRAY. That is the propensity of all inferior races?
Mr. JONES. The Hawaiians are called a good-natured people.
Senator FKYE. Are they capable of self-government?
Mr. JONES. I should say not; although I should be willing to give

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Jere Krischel at 17:09, 21 December 2005

Jere Krischel at 18:44, 11 December 2005