Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1862-06-14
Ghe polpnesian.


POLITICAL ECONOMY, &C., &C., &c. lCoatinuedl
HAMA, MAUI, April 3, 1862.
We have seen what has been done; we have now
to what ought to be done. The problem, it
seems to me, is both very grave and very difficult
To some it may, on the contrary, seem very simple
We have had they will say, in what regards the
morality of the sexes, very faulty, very vicious
system. Away with it therefore-blOt out these
enactments from our statutes.
| confess this is not my opinion. L am, and
ever have been, so far conservative, that, before
pull down, should wish clearly to see how | am
to build up. | believe that the not attending to
this principle has in fact been the main cause of
the deplorable condition to which things have been
brought. They who, forty or fifty years ago, re-
garded with attentive eye the aspect which these
lands then presented, saw doubtless that, putting
the religious question out of view there many
and mighty social reforms called for. The error of
those, to whom the Legislative power then FELL lay
not so much in the objects ut which they aimed, as
in the means by which they sought to attain them
They overrated their powers. These were sufficient
to destroy, but not to build up; and so where they
conceived they were erecting temple, they now
look Il ruin.
The warning of this example ought not to be
lost on future legislators. They ought distinctly
to place before themselves the ends In view, and
carefully examine the means to attain them.
First, then, the people are perishing. The old
dying off, there no young ones to take their
places. Even while these pages are going through
the press, have letter from friend, who has
had every opportunity of observing, stating his be-
lief that, if something be not dOne the will be
almost extinct in twenty-five years. The snip leaks,
all our pumping cannot free her. Of what avail
then, charts, compasses. quadrants and all the
navigators' art. Unless we find the leak and
stop it she is about to 90 down beneath
| There is mystery in the causes which thus
menace this people with extinction. The first and
most prominent one is that women do not bear
children. | have stated what think are the rea-
sons of this deplOrable and undenable fact. |
may add that have often asked natives from what
they conceived it to proceed. They have replied
| In several different ways. Some of which, that it
would not be proper here to discuss may have their
part in it; but the most common answers have
been two, which are, in fact, One-lst. The little
care which, IN these days, mothers take of their
| daughters. I'd. The premature llcentlOusness of
the girls-the meaning is more precise in their
own language-nO ke kOlOhe lOa keiki mdhine
na1nud ka ku p0no. In my opinion, however,
the fault lies with both sexes, for may observe
that native women married to foreigners are often
mothers.
What of all things therefore we need is that the
union of the sexes should give children. Now,
there is one circumstance favorable to this, par
ticularly worthy of note. The race IS naturally a
Uery prolific Missionaries and others have
given very full accounts of the evils which beset
the people in the old times. They tell us of ever
recurring and devastating war and deadly strife;
of murders, oppression of chiefs, unnamable icen-
| tiOusness and human sacrifices. These would seem
to have been sufficient to have kept down the popu
lation, and yet, such was the exuberance of life,
| that intanticide, prevailing to an extent which,
were it not well attested would be incredible, was
| called in another agent to repress redundant
numbers. Could we then reproduce some-even
mOderdte-purity of manners in the youth now
growing up, or hereafter to grow up, there would
| seem nothing to prevent their multiplying abun-
dantly, and again replenishing this our land.
As an instance somewhat similar, and full of
| hope for us, NAV adduce the course run by the
mutlDeers of the Bounty, and the women they took
with them to Pitcairn's Island. For years, ter
rible disorders prevailed among them; drunken
ness, licentiousness and murder had nearl exter-
minated them The very extremity of peril brought
a remedy. They turned in simple faith to Heaven
| to help them against themselves. Peace and purity
reigned, and in Incredibly short space OF time,
the island, on which it at one time seemed prob
| able they would leave no other memorial than dry
bones bleaching in the sun, became filled to over
flowing with happy and an amiable people.
Let US then what agents it is possible for US
| to raise up to combat and subdue the deplOrable
prevailing license. | hold, as have said already,
that the spirit of the laws ought to be in accor-
dance with that of the people. 1t is among the
people themselves, therefore, that have to seek
for these agents, IN their ideas OF good and bad IN
| their notions of right and wrong.
They are of the races who consider the woman
subordinate to the man-made to minister to his
pleasures and add to his comforts. Hence when
she is led asray, the chief punishment, according
! to their notions, should fall on him who has led
her astray. The operation of the existing laws
| runs counter to this idea. Man and woman
punished alike. Hence, as we have seen parents
and husbands generally do their utmost to screen
hOth nd in tha nd
abettOrs of disorders which they ought to be the
instruments to repress. l would propose to
place them in what may be termed their natural
position, that of the guardians of female virtue, by
making it their interest," it is their duty, to re-
assume that Office
This phrase redsSume requires perhaps some ex-
PLANTATION. l grant that the restraints on females
in the ancient times, though effective, we have
seen, in so far as the population question is con-
cerned, had respect merely to what IS physical.
They were something after the fashion OF the pa
rent who keeps his child from plucking unripe
fruit from tree in his garden. he does so be-
cause he thinks it both bad for the health of the
child and loss to himself. | grant that the idea
of female chastity, essentially associated with
moral virtue, had scarcely a place in the native
mind. But this alters not the case, for 1t is OBJ
yiOus that If on reassuming their places as the
guardians of chastity, parents and husbands
be moved by the feeling that bodily purity is in
timately connected with moral excellence, so much
the better will it be in the view to which we are
confning ourselves, for so much more energetic will
be their action.
would remark also that whereas at present we
stand out an anomaly among nations, by such
change in the operation of the laws, we should be
bringing ourselves into closer analogy to other
civilized communities. To say nothing of France,
if we take up a series of American or English jour
nails we are pretty sure to find cases where DANA
ges have been awarded for seduction of wife or
daughter, but we shall in vain search for single
instance of wife or daughter punished for the Of
fence of adultery or fOrnicaIion. And again, 1
would say the measure have to propose is no new
thing, but one which, years ago, Mr.. Wylle re-