The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1860-04-19

%. popular education
The reader will now Judge which Is correct on
this pint, the Polsnes,qa u the 4drerfiser.
We now resume the consideration Of the r.
form proposed by the editor Of the PotyHesian
in oar schools. In lieu IF the 2oJ government
free schools, with their SOS pupils. taught in
the native language, he proposes u substitute
some los English schools, supported at an annual
cost # SoI ZOO. these % BE- divided of into four
cla--@.-Pro'osfoa,, Ca'ho6c boys and girls.
Il u see how this plan would work. Hav-
ing made the coat. let u trv it on and So how it
viii TT. one inevitable result would he, the
total abandonment of about one-half Of the chill
drcn IF the country % hopeless ignorance and
vice. For the education OF these four OF FIVE
thousand children. there would be no provision
whatever and in the present state Of this le0-
PIE, they would grow up . ignorant a. the cat
tie that roam over the plains.
The editor admits that Ignorant masses q
people ar vicious masses, and the assumption l.
based upon the experience of some SIX thousand
years, more or less" d. But vicious masses Of
people he adds, are the greatest obstacle % a
well ordered society and good government. -
Very true and Yet at one sweep he would con-
sign oue-half Of the rising generation u that
very ignorance. which l. the parent Of vice. and
the lane Of g0od g~oyeHneat. He would have
one-half Of the nation al darkness, tie other all
light one-half Of the body polite full of life
and vigor, the other half palsied from head 10
foot and what sort of a body would that be?
The English only being taught. and TO about
half the people, Of course no more printing would
be done in the native. as it would be Of no use
no one Is % lie taught 70 read it. And one-haif
- ~
at an election. OF a notice in u newspaper, the
laws By which they must be governed, or even
the Bible or Catechism. which our editor i %
rery aaItous, Of late. that all should learn. What
religion would he have taught this ignorant mass
Of one-half the people? The religion Of igno-
rance? Probably that being called the - mo-
Their Of devotion" Still it Is to be admit
ted that he Is quite consistent in advocating
this course. since he regards all instruction in the
native tongue Is q humbug at best. although he
did once, in Il Iucid moment, admit that it had
been AN - element in the civilization Of this
country.
Let US now see how his :. double set Of dcnom-
national free schools. male and female, Protestant
and Catholic, would work. In order 10 try it,
there must be, he supposes, not less than twenty
-'- - 49, 20 NAH-A-A III q III
trict but where, beyond the limits of the three
principal towns, will he find Il district ON the
whole group where not less than twenty-five
Protestant boys or twenty-five Protestant girls,
or at least twenty-five Catholic boys or twenty
Catholic girls live in such proximity to each
other us TO render it possible to be thus gathered
into four distinct and separate schools? And if
the number Of any fails below twenty-five, what
then ? They can have no school. Of course, and
must run wild, To be the curse OF the country.
plan Is utterly impracticible. and the Won
der Is that it should ever have been seriously
proposed. The fact is well known. not only from
official documents, but from common observation,
that owing to the spaIseness Of the native popu-
.lation, except III the larger towns, all the chill
1ren Of a suitable age, of every class combined,
who live near enough together to be daily assem-
bled. are no more than sufficient 70 make one re-
spectacle school, all PIT fogcth7- and in many of
the districts, it is quite difficult, we are informed,
10 assemble enough children daily together to
make a school Of thirty or forty scholars, owing
10 the great distance they live apart and as is
shown by the official reports, many of the free
schools are ON that account very small. Now an
attempt to quarter off these scattered children
four distinct and separate schools, Protest
Catholic, male and female. would be simply
FOLLY. The plan proposed in the government
paper, betrays in its advocate an entire ignorance
IF the condition of the people. and none but 4
mere theorist, destitute of all practical wisdom,
utterly unacquainted with the situation ct
he people, would make such a proposal.
Moreover, the denominations are not equal.
n some localities the Catholics are most numer-
80 900. - = II H. =.
1ut One Protestant LEFT, as the editor rcioices to
ell his readers but generally the contrary is
he fact the Protestants are by far the most
BY the last census of 1888, there
II ,40l Catholics and 81, $40 Protestants in
he kingdom. Now the Protestants, with this
advantage of numbers, might stand
ONE chance Cor English education they might
Iivide off the boys and girls in some localities, If
hey chose to do 50: but what is to become Of
he Catholics? Being greatly in the minority,
nd then snb-divided into boys and girls schools,
he only result would be-, no schools at all. Nor,
n this plan, would the Protestants find it prac-
icable to have very many.
But let us admit that they couH be thus divided
Il, would the SSI 900 voted by the legislature
up port los English schools? Let us see. ssh
90 equally divided among los schools, would
How $50 t. cach,-a sum that would be little
than a competent salary for a good female
eacher and even were such only employed, a
irge sum must be made up for buildings and fix
ures. Taking this into account, it is question
be if even half the number of English schools
Duld be established and carried on with the
bove amount. lie proposes a salary Of $500
II each man and woman.-married Of COURSE
tho could teach but one school. los times
1880 amounts to S162, 900. This would be a
luch more sober and matter of fact calculation
han the one proposed, especially if the necessary
uildings and fixtures are taken into the account.