OF GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY WITH THE ANCIENT HAWAIIANS.

The soil was the property of the king, who reserved one part of it for himself, assigning another to the nobles, and left the rest to the first occupant.  Property, based on a possession more or less ancient, was transmitted by heritage; but the king could always dispose, according to his whims, of property of chiefs and subjects, and the chiefs had the same privilege over the people.

Taxes were not assessed on any basis.  The king levied them whenever it seemed good to him, and almost always in an arbitrary way.  The chiefs also, and the priests, received a tribute from the people.  The tax was always in kind, and consisted of: 

Kalo, raw and made into poi; Potatoes (Convolvulus batatas, L.) many varieties; Bananas (maia) of different kinds; Cocoa-nuts (called niu by the natives); Dogs (destined for food);[3] Hogs; Fowls; Fish, crabs, cuttle-fish, shell-fish; Kukui nuts (Aleurites moluccana) for making relishes, and for illumination; Edible sea-weed (limu); Edible ferns (several species, among others the hapuu); Awa (Piper methysticum, Forst.); Ki roots (Cordyline ti, Schott.), a very saccharine vegetable; Feathers of the Oo (Drepanis pacifica), and of the Iiwi (Drepanis coccinea):  these birds were taken with the glue of the ulu or bread-fruit (Artocarpus incisa); Fabrics of beaten bark (kapa) and fibre of the olona (Boehmeria), of wauke (Broussonetia papyrifera), of hau (Hilasens tiliasens), etc.; Mats of Pandanus and of Scirpus; Pili (grass to thatch houses with); Canoes (waa); Wood for building; Calabashes (serving for food vessels, and to hold water); Wooden dishes; Arms and instruments of war, etc., etc.

A labor tax was also enforced, and it was perhaps the most onerous, because it returned almost regularly every moon for a certain number of days.  The work was principally cultivating the loi, or fields of kalo, which belonged to the king or chiefs.

The Hawaiian people were divided into three very distinct classes; these were: 

1.  The nobility (Alii), comprising the king and the chiefs of whatever degree;

2.  The clergy (Kahuna), comprising the priests, doctors, prophets, and sorcerers;

3.  Citizens (Makaainana), comprising laborers, farmers, proletaries, and slaves.

THE NOBILITY.  NA’LII.

The chiefs or nobles were of several orders.  The highest chief bore the title of Moi, which may best be rendered by the word majesty.  In a remote period of Hawaiian history, this title was synonymous with Ka lani, heaven.  This expression occurs frequently in ancient poems:  Auhea oe, e ka lani?  Eia ae.  This mode of address is very poetic, and quite pleasing to the chiefs.