Note 40 — Chapter IV · AGRICULTURAL TRIBES.

In Hawaii four social ranks existed. The members of the third rank, according to Ellis, “are generally called haku aina, proprietors of the land.” “In the fourth rank may be included the small farmers, who rent from ten to twenty or thirty acres of land; the mechanics, … indeed all the labouring classes, those who attach themselves to some chief or farmer, and labour on his land for their food and clothing, as well as those who cultivate small portions of land for their own advantage.” “Sometimes the poor people take a piece of land, on condition of cultivating a given portion for the chief, and the remainder for themselves, making a fresh agreement after every crop.” Hale states that formerly there were no landed proprietors; all the land was “the property of the king, and leased by him to inferior chiefs (hatu aina, landlords), who underlet it to the people; as the king, however, though absolute in theory, was aware that his power depended very much on the co-operation of the high chiefs, they became, to a certain degree, partakers in his authority.” Remy tells us that the land belonged exclusively to the great chiefs, who leased it and received considerable rents. Chamisso and Marcuse equally state that the land belonged to the chiefs40.