Template:570-571

-p570-

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

-p571-

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 Frye. Are they capable of self-government?

Mr. Jones. I should say not; although I should be willing to give