HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

Mt Benger Mail, 12 October 1938, Page 4

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

THICKLY POPULATED AND WEALTHY GROUP. Although situated iu the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Islands are among the most densely-populated areas of the world. On some six an a-half square miles of land there 13 a population of nearly 500,000. The islands also have both the largest active volcano in the world and the large.-t dormant one. This information was given to members of the Wellington Rotary Club by Mr Victor Jones, secretary of tbe Wellington Y.M.0.A., who was the speaker at the club s weekly luncheon.

One’s first impression of Honolulusaid Mr Jones, might be one of bewilderment (because of the multiplicity of races living there and until one had these people in proper perspective the feeling of awkwardness remained. Living there were not only English, American, German and French people, but also Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans Portuguese, Spaniards, and Porto Ricans. Yet before a visitor had been there long he would discover that each race group appeared to fill a specific need in the community.

THE . LANGUAGE PROBLEM. Out of the chaos of languages had been evolved a kind of pidgin English by which white men were able to converse with the other races. It would be interesting for a member of a New Zealand Rotary Club to attend a meeting of the Honolulu Club. He might find the secretary was a Japanese and that the Chinese sitting beside him was president of a bank. Such an assemblage of people of half-a-dozen nations made one appreciate _tho ideals for which Rotary stood.

ARMY, NAVY, AND AIR FORCE. The group was very rich. The sugar and pineapple industries represented an income of 90,000,000 dollars a year, and tourist traffic yielded some 8,000,000 dollars; but the biggest permanent economic factor was the concentration in the group of a considerable portion of the armed forces of the United States. To witness an assemblage of 40,000 men of the navy at Pearl Harbour was a never-to-be-forgotten sight; and it was also most impressive to see the up-to-date and fully mechanised units of the army parade at the Schofield barracks or the air force units at the Wheeler Field. It made one think that New Zealand was fortunate in having near at hand so friendly and powerful a neighbour.