The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-03-05
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
MARCH 5.

THE intellectual and physical Improvement p[fhe
native race of these islands should be sought for by
every true philanthropist residing here. Though in
ferior in every respect to their European or American
brethren, they are not to be, for that cause, wholly
despised. They are and must ever be dependent
on the foreigners capital, superior knowledge and
skill but this very dependence and inferiority give
reasons why their Improvement should be sought.
They are destined to be laborers in developing the
capital Of the country, but their value as laborers
is increased or diminished in proportion as they are
improved in their physical and intellectual condition.
We have exemplifcation of this in our everyday in
tercourse with them. In proportion as they come in
contact with the foreigner, and acquire correct
habits, skill and industry, in that proportion do they
rise in our estimation, and command a higher re-
ward for their services.
Schools have been established and maintained
among the natives, first by the benevolence of Amer
lean and French Missions, and more latterly by the
Government itself Butt the mere art of reading and
writing is not all that is needed in improving the
native race. That is but an elementary step towards
making man useful. The next is to excite in him an
ambition to be useful and to excel, whether as a
laborer, an artisan or a trader. To do this is not the
work of a moment, but of years. And where indo-
lence and ignorance are as deep seated in the brain,
bones and marrow of a people as in the Hawaiian, it
requires all the energy and incentives that can be
brought to bear on them, to rouse them from their
native inertia.
Excepting the system of public schools now sup
ported by the Government, it has done and is doing
very little to improve the condition Of the natives.
What they now need is knowledge on the practical
duties of life. They have been taught to read and
cipher, and to worship the Almighty, but here the
Government appears to consider it proper to stop,
and let the people help themselves, without encour-
aging them to labor by showing them how. To do
this requires system, and must be the work of years.
To undertake to translate and publish all the val
liable books which could be, found of utility, is i'm
practicable; the best practicable way is to publish a
good weekly newspaper, so conducted as to create
and maintain an interest among them, in what is
going on in the older countries, and in the arts and
sciences. But that the Government do not wish to
undertake any such work, they have given too much
proof.
Two years ago, if we reco1lect Alright, a bill was
brought into the Legislature to commence a native
paper, to provide for it a competent editor, and to
place it on such a basis as to be of practical benefit
to the native race, at an annual expense of not over
1900 or $4,000. This measure passed the popular
branch of the Legislature, but was strenuously OPP
posed and defeated in the Upper House, on the plea
of economy, and by the same ministry which had the
boldness to demand 100000 for the military. That
the present administration have no desire to ele-
vate the native race, but rather to place them under
military bondage, is quite apparent, for we are not
aware of a demand being made in any ministerial
report to the Legislature for an appropriation to es-
tablish a native paper. Had such a proposition been
made on the part of the ministry, it would, unques-
~tionably, have been carried.
Since our last issue, the Haze Hawait has appeared
in a new dress, much improved, rejecting credit, as
a private enterprise, on its editor and publisher, who,
if we are correctly informed, publishes it by order of
the Board of Education, but receives no aid from the
Government in its publication, not even in the print
ing of it, but has to pay for it at the Government
press. The Haze HaWaii, as published during the
past year, has been a complete failure, perhaps with
out any fault of its publisher, and, unless there is a
manifest improvement in it, its influence will be as
limited as every former attempt to establish native
We anticipate nothing better, unless a
decided effort is made to give it a character and
make it instructive.
The present editor of the Haze, whose knowledge of
the native language is somewhat limited, has enough
on his hands to do, if properly done, without editing
that paper. The proper course is to employ a person
solely for this object, let him devote his time and at
tention to selecting and translating valuable, instruc-
1--WE ana interesting articles Tor IT, procuring Illus
trations from American or English journals, and not
leave its pages to be stuffed with the worse than use
less twaddle and nonsense that have filled most of the.
numbers during the past year, rendering it ~uninter-
esting to those for whose benefit it is intended. 1t is
no wonder, then, that packages of the Haze, sent to
the various islands, lie unopened and uncalled for,
when SO little interest is excited among the natives
towards it.
1t is a burning shame to this Government that its
are so niggardly in providing mental enter
tainment for those who cannot provide for them
selves. They can, year after year, collect, with I'M
relenting rigm, the taxes which fall heavily on the
shiftiess natives. and expend of it $4,000 to $4,000
to support a newspaper for those who do not really
need 1t, but when the question comes up for provid-
ing instructive mental entertainment for the native
race, they turn their backs on the enterprise, and
even order that every paper printed shall be paid
for. The Superintendent of Public instruction is
mainly responsible for this deficiency; for had he,
while Minister of Public Instruction, made the
effort to secure an adequate appropriation
for a substantial native neWsnaner We sbopld have