The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-07-16
Correspondence Of the Pacific Com. Adverti.er.I

TEE
efficient cooperation of the community here, in
order to secure sympathy and cooperation abroad,
appointed me to lay before the pubiic a statement
of facts in regard to the college. This appoint
ment 1 received a month ago, but, owing to a
pressure of duties OH my return home from Oahu,
have not been able to attend to it until now.
Meanwhile / have been panied to see statements
and insinuations in the Advertiser, presenting the
case in a false light.
The Punahou School, out Of which Oahu Col
lege has grown, was established in lS4l for the
education of the children of the American lis
sionaries 1T the islands and was supported by the
A.. B. G.. F. NJ, who also supported the mission.
As the people here began to appreciate the bless
ings brought to them by the mission, and to feel
their obligations to support their own institu-
tons, the American Board began gradually to
withdraw their patronage. Many of the churches
and congregations assumed the entire support of
their pastors, and all the rest contributed more or
less toward their pastors support. The Seminary
of Lahainaluna was transferred to the Hawaiian
government, and in the year 1853 the mission
ries and churches here assumed the position of
an independent Christian community, and the re-
lation of the American Board to this new Christ
ian community was so modified as to resemble
that sustained by the Home Missionary Society
to the Christian community in the new settle
ments in the United States.
In this new state of things the Board were de-
sirous of placing the means of educating our chill
dren on such a basis, that they might be freed
from the burden of supporting the Punahou
School. For this end the school must be endowed
with such a sum, that it's interest would pay the
salaries of the teachers. But the Board assured
us that we could not obtain the sum necessary,
unless our institution possessed a character of
pernnanence, which nothing but a charter incor-
porating it as a college could give it. !.
Although We did not then feel the immediate
pressing necessity for a college, yet it was mani
fest that this necessity was very near at hand,
that the same causes that had demanded the es-
tablishment of the academy would soon require
the college too for the great ma jority of parents,
whose children will soon need such an ~institu-
ton, could not afford to send their children to
schools thousands of miles distant in order to Sc
cure a liberal education, and the anxiety that
aflict the parents heart in exposing his children
to the dangers that beset them far from home,
would deter many, and thus leave the intellectual
wealth of the nation undeveloped. We felt there
fore that we must have an institution OF our own,
that our children need the home Influences in
forming their characters, that they need the re-
straints and guidance which none but parents can
give we therefore applied, four years ago, to
the Hawaiian government and obtained a charter
for Oahu College.
We applied to our friends, the A. B. c. F. NJ.
to select and send us a president one year
elapsed and sill they had not found the man.
At this tire Mr.. EGG. Beckwith, who had es-
tablished a high reputation as instructor of youth
by his success in the Royal School, determined to
resign his post there and return to the United
States. We invited him to Punahou, and chose
him as the first president OF the college. Although
he was unwilling to settle down for life to teach
the primary branches, which We're his chief en-
ployment in the Royal School, yet he consented
to take hold and help build up a college. And
this has saved him as a teacher to the islands IA
he had not gone to Punahou, he would have been
in the United States long ago, Neither he nor
his brother George, our professor of languages,
is dependent on Punahou for a place or for a liv-
ing. fhe high order of talents which they pos
sess is always in demand. Their consenting to
remain with us was a self-denying act, on their
part, arising from a desire to do good to a needy
community.
The trustees, in common with others, whose
children have enjoyed the privileges of the Puma
hou School, have a very high esteem for Mr.. Dole,
and feel grateful for his long and valuable SER
vices in the Punahou School. He carries with
him the hearty gced wishes and esteem of all the
trustees. as the following resolution adopted
unanimously at the time will show.
:" R%esolred, That, in accepting the resignation
of Brother Dole, we beg to assure him of our I'M
diminished esteem and sincere christian affection,
and our grateful sense of the earnestness, zeal
and fidelity with which for fourteen years past he
has lahpred to promote the intellectual advance
ment and spiritual good of the pupils placed I'M
der his charge. We also desire to bear testimony
to the untiring fidelity and kindness with which
his companion has discharged the duties which
have devolved upon her, in the department in
which she has been called to labor and our most
cordial good wishes and earnest prayer that Gods
blessing will accompany our brother and sister
into any new sphere of labor upon which they
may enter" !
The trustees accepted Mr.. Dole's resignation,
not because they undervalued his services or his
worth, but because they believed they could THUG
secure a permanent institution of high charactef
for the good of the whole community. Their
motives have been upright and disinterested, there
was no selfshness about it and they are willing
that the whole world should know all that they
have said and done in the whole matter.
We never expected to have a full blown college
all at once; but we have been preparing the way
for something as near a college as our circum-
stances will admit.
We have not neglected to teach the preparatory
branches, and the teaching of these branches
must of necessity form a department. in the cole
lege, until superseded by establishment Of acade
mics and preparatory schools in the country. 1T
will take time to get a college in the true sense
of the term Rome was not built in a day-but
if we never begin we never shall have one. It 81
easy to sneer at our i~ncipient efforts, and SO per~