The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-07-01
ROAD SUPERVISORS REPORTS FOR THE YEAR 1857.

I also append the report of the President of the
Board Of Education.
beg to call your attention to a law which will be
brought before you, to give parents greater control
over their children than they have at present-the
law, as it now stands, being n dead letter, for it is
only in cases of truant children over fourteen years
of age that the Judiciary has any power to act; and
that power is to send such children to work on the
reef. In the company of thieves :
The relation between parent and child is too sacred
not to be jealously guarded by a wise and considerate
government, and II becomes the duty of the Legisla-
ture to see that no third unauthorized party be per-
mitted to step in and weaken that relation of author
ity, obedience and love. I believe that no law can
convert n careless, negiectful and Indifferent parent
into a good and attentive one, but it may come to the
assistance of such parents or guardians by having an
enactment passed inhicting q penalty on every rela-
tive or other person who harbors or encourages away
= child from the home and authority of its parents.
I think also that the law should confer power on the
Judiciary to cause truant children to be arrested and
restored to their parents and homes
Social manners and social morals receive their
shape and development from home-education, what
ever be the color and polish impaired to them from
public education. However great the advantages
whicb this people have derived from the introduction
Of Christianity and purer ideas of its relation to God,
vet IL is undeniably true, for it is felt and seen in
almost every hamlet, around almost every hearth,
that. had the fifth commandment been as strenuously
;nsisted upon. as carefully expounded and inculcated
ss the fourth, the conformity to its behests could not
have failed to be a. strkingly observable as is the
conformity to the behestso Of that other commandment
In this respect the present might learn from the past:
Tor in the days Of Kamehameha |. parental authority
vss more efficient than now, and the care that parents
took of their children was greater. Then. obedience
vas the only system, the only rule. How that obedi-
snce was directed or misdirected it matters not now
20 Investigates. II existed, however, as q principle,
- . 80 70 which = better direction could have given
urvr development and greater results. But knowl-
edge came and spread its mantle Of light over the
lid. IL burned the idols and it rased the heiaus; it
- the pIow of civilization and Christianity through
IL lsngth and breadth Of the land, to prepare It for
~ harvest Of better things, but in so doing it up
rooted many . thrifty tree as well as q super-abun-
danos q veeds; and without intending it, no doubt,
but = . consequence. parental authority became
Iooaned-
Paradoxical As it may sound, nevertheless it is
urvtty clear that, a. . general thing. education has
kithcrto crested instead Of levelled, social distinctions
n this country. The education which the children
rosfve 4 : boon that Was not accessible to their pa
renAa Hence IL parents look upon the children as
ans;enfp thsmsdveas end are consequently 10th TO
W1Tod I'm vhsa they misbebave and are disobedi-
U5peuhts bok upon themselves ~ part and
paeua q - Psst. Whose snd-nsrhs-right and