Hawaii Nei.

It pleases us to tell the friends of this archipelago about the entry of some specimens of this nation in the great year’s fair at London, England. They however did not reach there through the inquiry of a person from here, but it was by means of that famous guest, Lady Franklin, who visited here some days ago. It was she who placed several items of this land into a booth set aside for her in the exhibition building. And this is what a newspaper¹ said about the things Lady Franklin had readied:

The Hawaiian Islands were unrepresented in 1851, owing to the collection made there not reaching England till the Exhibition had finally closed, the voyage by a sailing vessel occupying five or six months. This year a similar fate threatened this remote group in the Pacific, and it seemed likely that the name of Hawaii would only be known in connexion with the International Exhibition of 1862 by a pair of silk banners in the nave, and a foreign commissioner with nothing to do. Fortunately, Lady Franklin, who has been making a visit to the islands, arrived lately in England bringing with her a small collection of objects of interest from Honolulu, leaving some other and more importantat specimens to follow; but these have not reached London. As this collection was made without any reference to the Congress of National Industries, it by no means represents the progress which the islands have made during the last few years in a commercial point of view. The Hawaiians grow sugar, coffee, and rice of very fine quality, and they also ship hides and tallow, but finding profitable markets on the continent of America, this produce never reaches England. The only two products of mercantile value shown in Lady Franklin’s cases are pulu, a silky fibre surrounding the base of the rachis of a large fern, and which is extensively used both in the islands and in America as a substitute for wool and feathers in stuffing mattresses and pillows, and the root of the awa plant (piper mephysticum), from which an intoxicating drink, having also medicinal properties, is prepared. The chief interest consists in the collection of things passed, or passing away, and things which belong to the new era of the North Pacific. Thus we have a beautiful fether tippet, and a kahili, or feathered wand, denoting rank and office; necklaces of golden plumage; a weighty collar formed of braided human hair. On display also were the clothes the ladies wear, as well as the hats; those things show how the Hawaiian girls adorn themselves.

In the Hawaiian booth there was the New Testament, translated into their own language by the American missionaries, as well as the entire Bible, and maps, and other school books. There was also a volume of the statute laws of Hawaii, and some newspaper from Honolulu printed in the Hawaiian language as well as in English, along with a copy of the King’s speech at the opening of the Legislature of 1862, and the constitution by which he protects his people. There is a picture of the King and Queen, We see boxes made of koa and hau woods, and they were crafted skillfully, also there were some volcanic stones and sulpher from Kilauea. And there was a piece of rock taken from the site of Cook’s death in the year 1778.

Give thanks to the famous one, Lady Franklin, the one who kindly sought out the items entered by Hawaii into the year’s exhibition in London. In the short days that the noble woman spent amongst us, she tirelessly searched for important and renowned items of our land, and she took them with her when she returned to London. She reached there after the year’s exhibition of that nation began, but the time to enter specimens was not over. Therefore, she immediately placed what she had gotten from Hawaii when she was living here, into the Hawaiian Nation booth set aside in the Exhibition Building. She did not get ready the things she took to enter in the year’s fair, but because our area was lacking, she placed the curiosities which she sought out for herself in that place kindly set aside for our Nation in the Exhibition Building.

It is truly regretable that some of the plants did not arrive, as well as some of the interior decorations made in this country out of koa and other large trees from our land, and also soap made here. For we can send over those things without shame, because its true beauty is clear.

Hawaii nei nearly went without anything to display had it not been for the uncomparable kindness of Lady Jane Franklin. Therefore with her is the warm aloha of Hawaii nei.