The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-06-03
(For the Pacific Commercial Adver,iser.)
Bishop StuIcy's Pastoral Address.

lContinued from our previous issuel
On page % the Bishop gives US some of his views
on schools. 1t is too large a subject to be disposed
Of in a few hasty sentences, but l will briefly notice
a few points. In the first place, let me remark that
the labors of the American Missionaries in the cause
OF education need no defence nor apology. They
need not shrink from a comparison of results with
any similar mission in any part of the world. AS
Mr.. Dana says, " They taught the whole people to
read and to write, TO cypher and to sew They
laid the foundation of q system of national schools,
which they resigned into the hands of the Govern
ment twenty years ago. They also established NAH
uOl labor eohnnls OF Hi1o, Kohaln, Waialua and
Waioli, and a normal school, or college, at Lahaina-
luna, besides leading the way in raising up female
boarding schools. 1t would be absurd, however, to
require or expect infallibility Of them. 1t should be
remembered that this mission was in many respects
an experiment, and that many new questions had
TO be met and solved without any prece1ents to guide
them. The experience of the mission to these islands
will doubtless be of service to similar missions all
over the world. Let the fault finder remember the
proverb, g Let not him who putteth on his armor
boast as be that putteth it off" II the common
school system has been left for several years past
without an efficient head, if the schools have been
neglected, and in some districts suffered to fall into
decay for want Of sufficient inspection. it has not
been the faul; of the missionaries.
The Bishop thinks that the demoraliziDg effects of
Having the sexes taught together in the primary
schools, have more than counterbalanced all the ad-
~vautages of learning to read and write. Now, the wri.
ter of this article would prefer the separation of the
sexes in the schools wherever practicable, especially in
those taught by native teachers. But it is a great mis-
take to suppose that it would be of much avail to sep
arate the sexes during school hours, when they are
together the rest Of the time, in the surf or on shore,
and, above all, when they are exposed in SO many
cases to the most polluting influences in their own
homes. The stale and ridiculous charge is repeated
in this pamphlet that the natives have become dirty
and miserable because the missionaries tabooed their
bathing in the sea, the only foundation for it being
the fact that they always opposed the practice Of
boys and girls bathing together, a matter of much
greater Importance than their attending school to-
gether. Again, in the thinly settled districts this
policy would have prevented there being any schools
at all, and, by doubling the number of school houses
and teachers, would have increased the expenses Of
the schools far beyond the means at the command Of
the Government. Brit few practical men will agree
with the Bishop when he says that it would have
been &C far better to have confined the common school
system to boys and educated a few of the girls in
family Neutrality-suspicious.. That is. he would have
left the great mass Of Hawaiian females in o state of
brutal ignorance and degradation, while a select few
should have been trained in the English language,
and in the habits and sentiments of civilized society.
The result, as the experience of forty years teaches
US, would Inevitably have been that these select few
would have learned to look down upon their coun-
trymen and women, to despise their native language,
and to seek alliances only among the lower class Of
foreigners. But we will return to this topic again.
The ability to read and write is generally consid-
cred as an immense step from ignorance and bar
barism, a step the importance Of which can hardly
be exaggerated, and which almost Of itself marks
the transition from the merely animal existence Of
the savage TO the reading, rejecting, conscious life
of the civilized man. Many a man who has learned
to read when late IN life. has considered the priyi-
of reading the Bible AS an ample reward for oil
his labor. But. as the Bishop does not consider its
perusal 50 profitable, or even safe for the common
people, he does not regard the ability to read and
write as Of much value.
1t appears to be the fashion to decry the quantity
and quality of Hawaiian literature. Now, there
been published in the Hawaiian language. be-
the Old and New Testaments, more than two
lundred different works, and mere than two hum
million pages. Many of these are TRANSACTIONS
n adaptations of standard works in the English lam
-nage. After considershle investigation on this snb-