The Story of Hawaii (Illustrated Edition). Fowke Gerard

incorporated places recognized by the Census Bureau. In agreement with the state, the legal consolidation of Honolulu County and city is not recognized for census purposes except for the Census of Governments.

      Census Tracts/Block Groups/Blocks

      Hawaii has 351 census tracts, 875 block groups, and 25,016 census blocks.

      Congressional Districts

      For the 111^th Congress (January 2009-January 2011), Hawaii had two congressional districts. For the 113^th Congress (January 2013-January 2015), Hawaii continues to have two congressional districts as a result of reapportionment based on the 2010 Census.

      School Districts

      Hawaii has one unified school district, covering the entire state and administered by the Hawaii Department of Education.

      State Legislative Districts

      There are 25 state senate districts and 51 state house districts in Hawaii. There is one state house district and one state senate district not defined which are comprised solely of water area.

      Urban Areas

      Hawaii has 23 urban areas; 3 urbanized areas and 20 urban clusters.

      Zip Code Tabulation Areas

      There are 94 ZIP Code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in Hawaii.

      Other Information Of General Geographic Interest

      The State of Hawaii is composed of seven main inhabited islands—Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau--and several smaller uninhabited islands along with the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The northwestern Hawaiian Islands are part of the City and County of Honolulu, except for the Midway Islands, which are under the control of the Federal Government and are not part of the state.

      Hawaii is the most isolated population center on Earth. It is 2,390 miles (3,850 km) from California, 3,850 miles (6,195 km) from Japan and 4,900 miles (7,885 km) from China.

      Centers of Population

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Year	North Latitude	West Longitude
20105	21° 06′ 55″	157° 29′ 04″
20005	21° 08′ 48″	157° 31′ 28″
19904	21° 10′ 34″	157° 34′ 14″
19803	21° 12′ 04″	157° 36′ 45″
19702	21° 13′ 38″	157° 39′ 20″
19602	21° 12′ 50″	157° 37′ 03″
19502	not available	not available
19401	21° 07′ 19″	157° 30′ 10″
19301	21° 04′ 09″	157° 26′ 00″

      ¹ Source: U.S. Census Bureau, recomputation for historical county level data which relied upon aggregate county level population data with an estimated county centroid resulting in a possible error of up to one mile. ² Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Centers of Population for States and Counties, 1974 ³ Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, recomputation from archived national block group/enumeration area data resulting in a possible error of up to 1,000 feet. ⁴ Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, recomputation from archived national block group data resulting in a possible error of up to 1,000 feet. ⁵ Source: U.S. Census Bureau, computation from national block-level data

      Most Populous, Largest, and Dense Areas

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      Hawaiian History

       Table of Contents

       THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE

       HAWAIIAN HISTORY TO 1898

       HAWAII AS AN AMERICAN TERRITORY

      THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE

       Table of Contents

      Early Hawaiian history is entirely legendary. There was no written language, although certain crude outline pictures and characters, apparently depicting historical events, have recently been found. These, however, have not yet been deciphered. The history, therefore, can be traced only through ancient "meles" or songs, poems without rhyme or metre, but strictly accented and often several hundred lines in length, which were handed down orally for many generations. Every high chief had in his retinue professional bards who, 'like the minstrels of England, kept alive the traditions of wars and of heroes and who, as well, chanted love songs and dirges and composed poems in honour of the chief.

      The Islands were settled as early as 500 a.d., a fact proved by the discovery of human bones under ancient lava and coral beds. The Hawaiian people are clearly of the Polynesian race, all branches of which can almost certainly be traced back to the Island of Savaii in the Samoan group. The Hawaiian language is but one dialect of the Polynesian tongue. Indeed, so similar are these dialects that an intelligent man, well versed in Hawaiian, can understand almost everything said by a Maori of New Zealand. Not only the people, moreover, but the animals and plants in Hawaii, are related to the islands of the southern Pacific. This means that the early settlers must have come from the south and southwest, whereas the prevailing winds and currents are from the northeast. Wonderful this passage must have been in any case, across two thousand miles of open ocean in canoes; still more extraordinary when the voyage was made against winds and currents.

      There were two periods of migration to Hawaii, but of the first there are few legends, although to it are ascribed certain temples and the great fish ponds along the coast of Molokai. In the eleventh or twelfth century intercourse with the south was renewed and in the songs are recorded many voyages both to and from Tahiti or Samoa, the voyagers travelling in fleets of canoes and steering by the stars. The canoes were probably built of planks, decked over, and large enough to carry a certain amount of live stock. For some unknown reason the period of this intercourse was very short. During the next five