The Chinese in Honolulu [pp. 467-475]

MILLS'S INSTITUTE. BOARDING SCHOOL FOR CHINESE YOUTHS, HONOLULU.
FOUNDED BY MR. AND MRS. F. W. DAMON
the life and thought of the people among
whom they lived. So that as the rising
tide of immigration flowed to these
shores of newcomers found the way to
denization well prepared and comparatively easy. So strong was this influence
that it was not neutralized even by the
large volume of assisted and imported
immigration, which the developing sugar
industry brought in prior to I88o. In
the years immediately following I88o,
the fast growing immigration due to the
sugar industry might have completely neutralized the occidentalizing influence of the earlier
immigrants if other influences
had not been at work. These
earlier immigrants had thoroughly adopted the new country
as their home. Many of them
had become Hawaiian citizens.
They were married to the women of the country. They had
children born in the land. Yet
they retained that characteristic
of the race which makes it the
duty of clansmen and families
to look after the individuals of
the clan or family. And in furtherance of this obligation, they
joined with others to reduce to
469
a minimum the evils of indolence, lack of
regular employment, and vagabondage,
which always follow a large contract or
imported immigration as soon as the
term of years for which service has been
contracted begins to expire. The result
was that in I886 or I887 laws were
passed restricting immigration and encouraging the departure of those who
would otherwise become either idle,
criminal, and vicious, or add to the mass
of inert, unprogressive body of Chinese.
CHINESE HOSPITAL