The islands of the Territory of Hawaii, comprising an area of 6,407 sq. mi., have a total population of 423,329, according to the Federal census of 1940. Of this total, 258,256 persons reside on the island of Oahu, including 179,358 within the City of Honolulu Judicial District. The island of Hawaii, the largest in the Territory (4,015 sq. mi.), has a population of 73,275, including 16,580 in the city of Hilo; the island of Maui has 55,534; the island of Kauai, 35,818.
According to racial origin, the population was divided in the 1939 census as follows: Japanese, 37.36 per cent; Caucasian, 25.88 per cent; Hawaiian, Asiatic-Hawaiian, and Caucasian-Hawaiian, 15.39 per cent; Filipino, 12.63 per cent; Chinese, 6.87 per cent; Korean, 1.62 per cent; all others, 0.25 per cent.
Joseph Boyd Poindexter, reappointed Governor of the Territory by President Roosevelt, began his second term on March 12, 1938. In the 1940 election, Samuel Wilder King, Territorial Delegate to Congress since 1934, was unopposed.
On the recommendation of a report made in 1938, by a Joint Committee of Congress sent to the Islands to investigate the advisability of statehood for the Territory, the Territorial Legislature passed an Act at its 1939 session authorizing the holding of a plebiscite on the subject.
In this plebiscite statehood for Hawaii was favored by the citizens of the islands, the unofficial returns indicating 39,413 in favor, 19,911 opposed. The Hawaiian Legislature will now petition the United States Congress for statehood.
The tremendous expenditures by the United States Government for defense purposes have given the Territory comparative prosperity during the last few years, despite Federal legislation limiting Hawaiian sugar production. The largest army encampment under the American flag is located at Schofield Barracks near Honolulu. The pay roll for enlisted men, officers and civilian employees serving the Army in the Territory, in 1939, totaled $14,708,512.61. Fifteen per cent of the entire U. S. Navy personnel was stationed in Hawaiian waters in 1939, with a pay roll totaling $24,846,351.50.
A new weekly-scheduled air transportation service for passengers, mail, and express was established by Pan American Airways Company on Sept. 15, 1940, between Honolulu and New Zealand, via Canton Island and Noumea. This service is in addition to the Clippers already running on weekly schedule from San Francisco to Hong Kong by way of Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, Manila, and Macao. Clippers operating between Honolulu and New Zealand, and Honolulu and the Orient, carry a maximum of thirty-four passengers and have a crew of eleven. During the year ending June 1940, 1,234 people were brought by Clipper to Honolulu from San Francisco and from Hong Kong.
United States Department of Commerce figures show that commerce of the Territory of Hawaii with the Mainland during the calendar year 1939 was valued at $215,024,128. Of this amount, aggregate shipments from the Mainland totaled $101,817,230, making the Territory the fifth best market for products of continental United States. Hawaii was exceeded only by the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and France. Of shipments from the Mainland, metals and manufactures reached a value of $27,420,127, and food products, $24,166,012. The islands produce but 15 per cent of their own food necessities, and are entirely dependent upon importations for fertilizers, tools, farm machinery, and most of the seed used.
Shipments from the Territory to the Mainland during 1939 totaled $113,206,898, the principal shipments being sugar and pineapple products. A new export product, 'papaya,' appeared on the list during 1939 as a result of the lifting of a ban on this tropical fruit by the Federal Government. Shipments of papaya during that year amounted to 176,261 pounds valued at $21,368.
Sugar production is first in importance in Hawaiian industries. During 1939, about 968,390 tons of sugar, at a total value of $57,948,637.12, were harvested from 138,440 acres, and were ground in the Islands' 35 mills. Raw sugar shipped out of the Territory was valued at $53,973,169; refined sugar, at $1,244,791. At the end of December 1939, there were approximately 43,000 employees on the pay rolls of the 38 sugar plantations. These plantations represent an investment of $175,000,000, with an annual pay roll in excess of $27,000,000. Under the paternalistic system by which the plantations are operated, employees and their dependents are supplied with houses, water, fuel, doctors and hospitalization, in addition to their regular salary; many plantations have recreational fields, community houses, gymnasium, and motion pictures.
President Roosevelt signed a bill on Oct. 15, 1940, extending the Sugar Act of 1937 until Dec. 31, 1941. This bill establishes quotas of raw sugar for the various producing areas, but limits only the Territory of Hawaii and the insular possession of Puerto Rico as to the amount of refined sugar they may market on the Mainland. The limitation, 29,616 short tons per year for Hawaii, represents but 3 per cent of the average amount of raw sugar produced in the Territory and is seriously objected to as unfair discrimination and a grave violation of the equal rights to which the citizens of Hawaii maintain they are entitled.
The pineapple industry is second in importance. During 1939, about 80 per cent of the world's supply of canned pineapple products, or 848,003,809 pounds, with a value of $50,822,533, were packed and shipped by the eight canneries on the Islands.
Because the European War has curtailed Atlantic travel, the Hawaiian Islands are becoming increasingly important as a vacation ground. During the year ending Dec. 30, 1939, tourists numbering 24,360, visited the Islands, and 41,041 one-day tourists stopped off while their ships were in dock in Honolulu. A total of 65,431 visitors, spending an estimated $10,000,000 annually, made tourist-travel third in importance among Hawaiian industries.
Ranching is fourth in importance. A total of 1,477,346 acres of ranch lands on the various islands have approximately 118,335 head of cattle. The Parker Ranch on the Island of Hawaii is the second largest in the entire United States, being surpassed only by the King Ranch in Texas. The Parker Ranch comprises approximately 294,000 acres and has 33,000 head of pure-bred white-faced Hereford cattle.
The fortification of outlying islands is being pushed in connection with the program of strengthening the United States Pacific defense system and of improving and expanding our bases, in accordance with the 'Hepburn Report.' The United States defense line in the Pacific, erected on these bases, forms an irregular triangle, from Alaska to Hawaii to the Panama Canal. Hawaii has been described as the geographical and military keystone of this defense system, and there the major portion of the United States fleet will center. On the island of Oahu has been built the strongest fortified position in the world, Pearl Harbor, at a cost of $700,000,000 so far. The United States is constructing other airfields nearby, too, and $5,800,000 was recently appropriated to improve airdrome facilities at Kaneohe, also on Oahu Island. The 'two-ocean' Navy bill, passed during the summer, and providing the largest peacetime naval appropriation in America's history, is directed in part to this program of strengthening the Pacific naval bases.
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