HONOLULU, Hawaii, capital and princi pal city of the Hawaiian Islands (now a United States Territory), and commercial metropolis of Polynesia; the business heart of the central Pacific. It is 2,089 miles southwest of San Francisco, in lat. 21° 17' 56" N., long. 157° 51' 48" W. It lies on the southwest side of Oahu (the third island df the group in size and north west of Hawaii, with a safe harbor formed by a natural breakwater of coral reef, pierced by a bioad Opening. A fine lighthonse here throws a light visible for 25 miles. With its natural advantages and the absence of. rivals, the city occupies a unique position. from its central location it is a common point of touch for the three great trans-Pacific steamship routes from the United States and British Columbia to New Zealand and Australia, from the same to Japan, China and the Philippines and from South America to Japan and China. Several independent steamship routes also run from it. It has regular communication with San Fran cisco, Vancouver and Seattle, Peru, Auckland and Sydney, New York and Roston, Yokohama and Hongkong, Liverpool, Glasgow and Bre men, besides other places. The steamship line to Sydney touches at Fijis; the line to Auck land, at Apia, Samoa. From Honolulu it is 3,850 miles to Auckland, about 4,000 to Sydney and 3,445 to Yokohama. It is the port of for eign trade for the archipelago; about 1,000 vessels and many millions worth of products pass in and out of it annually. There are numerous wharves and warehouses here and a government custom-house. (For the items of the trade, 'see HAWAII thereat items are sugar and molasses, rice, coffee, hides and wool).
Honolulu lies at the mouth of the valley of Nuuanu, which runs back between two high ridges to a pass between two peaks about 3,000 feet high in thereat eastern range of moun tains; the view from the brink of the pcdi or precipice at this pass is one of the notable sights of the neighborhood. The climate is mild and equable and many sufferers from lung troubles in the United States seek it for I sanatorium. The extreme range of temperatures is 52° to 88°, average 70°. The rainfall is very irregular, but never slight; from 40 to 60 inches annually. The island is volcanic, the bordering reefs coral; hence the city Streets are macad amized with coral and lava, porous rock making good surface drainage.• The eity is well laid out in American fashion; being indeed a mod ern American place; the old one-story wooden huts, mingled with grass huts among the trees. have mostly given place to cottages, unpreten tious indeed, but neat and comfortable, and mak ing of a beautiful and picturesque whole of luxuriant gardens and surroundings of tropical trees, with which also some the streets are abundantly shaded-- the great Norfolk pine, papaya, bread-fruit, mango, and monkey-pod, umbrella-tree, tamarind tree, algaroba, bamboo and koa, date and cocoa royal palm and poinciana regia, alligator-pear, china rose bush, blooming all the 'year round, etc., many with rich and fantastic blossoms, others with great parasitic ferns, besides Peach, 'olean der, banana, guava, orange, citron and others.
The flowers are also of great beauty and lux uriance.
The city has nearly 200 acres of public parks. There are all modern appliances and services for civilized work and comfort; several first-class hotels, physicians, lawyers, daily and weekly i newspapers, banks and theatres, insurance of fices, several hospitals, a public library, etc. There are 32 public schools, including a high school and normal school, with a total attend ance of over 5,000 pupils, besides. 37 private schools, with an attendance of 2,700 pupils. There are a number of churches, • Protestant and Catholic; the city is the seat of a Roman Catholic and an Anglican bishop. It is also the residence of the government officials, and the consular agents of many European powers. It has waterworks owned and operated by the Territorial government and furnishing excellent water, pumped from artesian wells, supple mented by water from the adjoining valleys. Ice is made by machinery. There is an electric street lighting system operated by the govern ment, and an electric street railway system, built and conducted by a chartered company; a telephone system; and there is a submarine cable to San Francisco and wireless telegraph to the neighboring islands and to the United States. Of manufactures the number of dif ferent lines is upward of 30, of course chiefly for local needs; the largest branch is foundry and machine-shop manufacture. Next to this is rice-milling. Minor industries are ice, har ness, leather, jewelry, soap and shipbuilding.
The chief building is the former royal palace, now the executive building, in the Italian style, finished in 1882. The judiciary and other goy eminent buildings are near it. The most inter esting place is the museum, with many curious relics of early Hawaiian history, corals and shells and other native curiosities, land and marine. The chief in interest and value is the great feather war-cloak.of Kamehameha I, the founder of the monarchy, valued at $150,000. This was the chief treasure of the former sov ereignty and was used as a mantle of state by the sovereigns. It was made of yellow feathers from the memo bird, found only in the moun tains, each bird furnishing only two small tufts of feathers for it, one from under each wing, It is four' feet long and has a at the bottom of 11% feet. Nine generations, were employed in making it.
Honolulu harbor was discovered by Captain Brown in November 1794. The city as a mod ern foundation dates only from 1816 when John Young, an Englishman, and a faithful counsellor of the king, Kamehameha, advised its fortification. Previously it had been only a native village of huts, of little commercial im portance. In 1820 it was made the capital of the archipelago, and afterward became the seat of government. Population about 63,000. Of the population of 52,183 in 1910, 15,618 were Hawaiians, 9,674 Chinese, 12,093 Japanese, 6,147 Portuguese, 4,233 Caucasian-Hawaiiars and 9,200 other Caucasians.