He has not only, as I showed you above, a favorable climate and an extraordinarily fertile soil, but he has a laboring population, perhaps the best, the most easily managed, the kindliest, and--so far as habits affect the steadiness and usefulness of the laborer--the least vicious in the world.

He does not have to pay exorbitant wages; he is not embarrassed to feed or house them, for food is so abundant and cheap that economy in its distribution is of no moment; and the Hawaiian is very cheaply housed.
But bad management by no means accounts for all the non-success.

There are some natural disadvantages serious enough to be taken into the account.
In the first place, you must understand that the rain-fall varies extraordinarily.

The trade-wind brings rain; the islands are bits of mountain ranges; the side of the mountain which lies toward the rain-wind gets rain; the lee side gets scarcely any.

At Hilo it rains almost constantly; at Lahaina they get hardly a shower a year.