Jere Krischel at 00:02, 6 January 2006

2006-01-06T00:02:24Z

Ken Conklin at 07:14, 2 January 2006

2006-01-02T07:14:50Z

Jere Krischel at 18:55, 11 December 2005

2005-12-11T18:55:01Z

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634 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
The CHAIRMAN. No suffering for want of proper clothing?
Mr. ALEXANDER. NO; and I do not think anybody suffers for want
of food.
The CHAIRMAN. I was going to ask you whether the food supply of
the islands is sufficient for the population.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes. One thing is, we have no poor laws, and
the people take care of each other, help each other to a great extent.
The CHAIRMAN. YOU have no poor system at all—no system of public
charity?
Mr. ALEXANDER. King Lunalilo left lands worth some hundred
thousand dollars which were devoted to the founding of a home for
indigent Hawaiians. That was near Honolulu.
The CHAIRMAN. IS that home kept up now?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Kept up now; but the natives will not go there
if they have any friends left.
Senator GRAY. DO they have a pride about it?
Mr. ALEXANDER. I do not think it is so much pride as it is to avoid
the restraint. They like to be with their friends and kinsmen.
The CHAIRMAN. I would like to ask whether the domestic relations
of the Kanakas are characterized by an affectionate regard for each
other, or whether they are indifferent to each other.
Mr. ALEXANDER. I think they are very kindly, much more so than
the other races of the Pacific Ocean, and much more so than in the
olden time.
The CHAIRMAN. Have you any Government hospitals in Hawaii?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes; we have a very good hospital in Honolulu.
It was founded by Kamehameha IV and his queen, founded by subscriptions
and supplemented by appropriations. It is a very creditable
institution. We have local hospitals in the small towns.
The CHAIRMAN, Maintained at Government expense?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes. Then we have a hospital for lepers. That
is out on an island by itself. They have a receiving hospital for suspected
lepers, where they are kept and attended until they become
hopeless cases, and then they are sent to Molokai. It is natually fenced
off by nature. I think I have a map showing it. (Producing map.)
The lepers' settlement is that little flat peninsula there. Here is a line
of precipices two thousand and more feet in height.
Senator GRAY. Is that island volcanic?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Volcanic.
Senator GRAY. Are there any settlements there?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Along the coast there. That peninsula is cut off
by precipices.
Senator GRAY. IS that where that priest was?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Father Damien? Yes.
Senator GRAY. Did you know him?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes.
Senator GRAY. IS their condition one of suffering from the disease?
Mr. ALEXANDER. They do not suffer much; it is the nature of the
disease. The Government has done everything it could for them—they
are well housed, doctored, and well fed.
Senator GRAY. Did not Father Damien die of it?
Mr. ALEXANDER. He did. Most of the old residents can see how it
spreads, can trace its lines. Some doctors maintain that it is not
contagious.
The CHAIRMAN. But they can see how it was spread in a
neighborhood?
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 635
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes.
Senator GRAY. Was that disease known there in olden times ?
Mr. ALEXANDER. About 18C0. It was unheard of there until I went
back from this country.
The CHAIRMAN. YOU understand the Chinese brought it in?
Mr. ALEXANDER. The native name for it is "Chinese disease."
The CHAIRMAN. Have you an institution or institutions for the deaf,
dumb, and blind?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Not the deaf and dumb, but we have an insane
asylum—at the present time in a creditable condition, since the revolution
of 1887.
The CHAIRMAN. Have you any penitentiary system?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes; we have a principal prison at Honolulu;
then we have smaller ones in different districts. When they are sentenced
they are sent out to Honolulu.
The CHAIRMAN. Persons sentenced to hard labor?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes.
The CHAIRMAN. Are those institutions sustained by the Government?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes. By the last census the number of convicts,
the number of persons in prison, was about one-third of 1 per cent.
That includes drunks locked up. It includes more than the regular
convicts. I think it was a pretty good showing.
The CHAIRMAN. Is the administration of justice there conducted
with strictness?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes; I think that is the best feature of our Government.
The higher courts have always been above suspicion, and I
think justice is more prompt and reliable than in most of the States.
The'CHAIRMAN. Do they have the jury system?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes; murderers are hanged.
Senator GRAY. HOW many executions do you have a year?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Oh, they are very rare.
Senator GRAY. Do you have them as often as once a year?
Mr. ALEXANDER. NO; formerly they were very rare; of late they are
more frequent, because of the foreign element that comes in. Strange
to say, of late the Japanese amongst themselves commit most of the
murders. The Japanese imported for labor are of the lowest class of
people of their country, and the murderers have been because of gambling
and quarrels about women. The murders among natives are rare
in Hawaii.
The CHAIRMAN. Take your school attendance and church attendance,
and the absence of mendicancy and poorhouses
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mendicants are unknown; tramps are unknown.
The CHAIRMAN. And the small percentage of criminals necessary
to be locked up in the penitentiary, yon think you have a pretty high
state of civilization in Hawaii, do you not? Taking it all together, is
not that your opinion?
Mr. ALEXANDER. I think that Ufa and property are as safe there as
in any place in the world.
The CHAIRMAN. Are the people turbulent, or are they quiet?
Mr. ALEXANDER. They are a rather qui6t people. They were governed
by an iron hand under the old chiefs, and they have been accustomed
to obey law, and they have not lost that respect for law. They
are a law-abiding people.
The CHAIRMAN. It is a country in which every right is regulated
by law, protected by law, or intended to be?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes.

Template:634-635 - Revision history

Jere Krischel at 00:02, 6 January 2006

Ken Conklin at 07:14, 2 January 2006

Jere Krischel at 18:55, 11 December 2005