The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-07-08

Mr.. EDITOR After reading your very just strict
ures upon the government press, my attention was
called to the review of the report of the President OF
the Board of Education by the government organ.
Your figures show the government to be a pecuniary
loser by sustaining that press; the said review does
away with the only other argument in its favor, its
power TO explain the measures Of government, &c to
yindicate its principles and rebuke faction and cap
tiousness.'
The organ condemns the President and The Board
by wholesale, protests against the reprinting .. Ia
waiian books because they are 9 literary abortionsH
t-Colburn's Arithmetic for instance-and because he
is IN favor of the speedy adoption of English schools
in place of the Hawaiian free schools. He would have
us believe that $3.50 scholars can be taught English
for SIS, 900 per year. That is, that good English
teachers can be had for So or SIS pr month, and
that all the former teachers of the Hawaiian people
are immeasurihly to blame for not having consecrated
their energies to teach a few individuals English and
abandoned the multitudes of the nation to ignorance,
a teacher often called : the DEVILS foreman
The Polynesiaa is not satisfied with this, it charges
the Board of Education with g keeping the ear and
breaking the sense of the law in regard to the I'M
sectarian character of schools. Nor is the editor con-
sistent with himself; he charges the President of the
Board as being sectarian and then rates him soundly
for not giving religious education enough. This cry
of sectarianism is only a blind, for the organ insin-
yates that it is the duty of the Board of Education to
establish any number of schools for Catholics, than
which there is no more sectarian sect in the known
world. The present number of schools is amply suf-
fcient for the wants of the people; there are now only
twenty-five scholars on an average to a school, and
by the present law the faith of no scholar is meddled
with. The people elect their school trustees and so
control the character of the teachers. The sectarian
plan which the editor so desires to see re-established
has once been tried and abandoned. 1t would not
work. If the editor would know why it was ADAM
doned and the present system adopted, let him exam
inc the reports in the Poiynesian of Mr.. j. F. b.
Marshall and E. P. Bond, Esq, two of the most un-
sectarian men this kingdom has ever seen.
But why does the government organ come down so
hard on the Board of Education Have they vio-
lated any law; They are sectarian. Is the law Sec
tartan I, No. Tho Board of Education is sectarian.
therefore the schools are sectarian. MIR. Government
Organ, did His Majesty appoint His Ex., Prince Lot
Kamehameha, His Honor, Chief Justice Allen and
Mr.. Armstrong as sectarian men, Please tell what
sects they belong to. VIII His Ex. the Prince, His
Honor, the Chief Justice, will the President of the
Board permit the law TO be violated Ii they do, is
there not a remedy' Who believes that the Board
of Education is sectarian Does His Majesty! does
the Prince does His Honor the Chief Justice !? does
the Priyy Council ? does the Legislature If they
do, will they not be punished for any violation of the
law What, Mr.. Editor, can be more factious, more
~captious than this: For a government organ, ere
ated, owned and supported by the government at a
yearly pecuniary loss to abuse the hand that sustains
it, to defame the highest executive and judicial ohi-
GERS of government aud to reflect upon the good judy
ment of the King, and that too in the very same
paper which contains the Appropriation Bill passed
by the Legislature, signed by the King, in which