The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-04-22
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.


those verses 50 often quoted. buL no" more tuan
ever significant
Then shall be sung another golden age,
The rise q empire and q arts;
The good and great inspiring epic rage,
The rsest heads and nobiest hearts.
HS0t such As Europe breeds in her decay;
Sach as she bred when fresh and young.
When heavenly fame did animate her clay,
By future poets shall be sung.
Westward the course Of empire takes it way;
The frs. four acts already past,
4 aeh shall close the drama with the day;
Tines Eobest offspring Is the last"
Arts, sciences, and empire have indeed
travelled westward, and, taking root and -four
ishing on the farthest shores of the vast con-
tinent which in Berkeley's day was "a
treasure of natural resources yet untouched
are fastening the grand fulfllment Of destiny.
Ere long the iron-horse, whose sinews grew
and hardened on the Atlantic slopes, will pause
only at the Pacific strand on his screaming
race Of empire and epic rage and the riches
of China and the farthest Ind" will be
brought thither in argosies steaming and smok-
ing over whilom ocean solitudcs. And we, too,
far out amid the melancholy MAN, have
felt the magic influence of the coming era. We
cannot, if we would, ignore or shun the con-
tact of the living spirit that, from Vancouver
TO Mexico, animates the most progressive and
commercially aggressive race On Garth.
The time was, and quite recently too, when
to hazard the prediction that the Hawaiian
Islands were to enter, in the not distant future,
upon Il career of eminent agricultural and
commercial activity and wealth, would have
been TO earn the reputation of an idle dreamer
and enthusiast. But the history Of our past
ten years progress gives clear, solid and conclu-
sive proofs of the grand resources that lie for
the most part yet dormant in our grasp, and
lifts to view q corner Of the curtain which hides
the rich future in store for us. Our glowing
hopes are based on a foundation far better than
the precarious whale fishery, or money-sinking
mines, or even the dream, once INDUCED in
by some, of our becoming the entrepot or COM
mersial warehouse Of the Pacifc-they are
based on our pursuit Of the primary, the legi-
innate, the most honorable occupation of man
the cultivation of the soil.
To the man of forethought, objects do not
appear little because they are remote, and he
values present advantages and opportunities
mainly as they point out and conduce to the
ultimate end at which ne aims, while looking
forward into futurity and considering what will
be his condition in years 20 come: and thus he
lays out his farm and builds his homestead.
As with the individual, so ought it to be with
the state. The utmost care should be exercised by
those who are entrusted with the management
of affairs, that the foundations of the social
superstructure are laid with 4 view to the
future, sufficiently broad, strong and deep to
obviate the necessity, by and by, of v~exatious
and expensive alterations to meet new condi-
tions, or repairs to supply that which was care
1acS1- ~ inofEoianyl- i.,a IN H. ho1,-,Sn- !
Alas for the future of that political structure
which has fallen into the hands Of tyros and
thinkers, \ most selfish and blind governmental
policy is that which, adopting the maxim,
g after us the deluge," is content with feeding
upon the suficiency of the present, regardless
of the probable needs of the future.
The spirit of the age is said to be eminently
aggressive as well as progressive-that those who
will not sail or paddle with the current will in
the rush and sweep of the race. lose both oars
and rudder, and be rutblessly dragged beneath
the seething pillows. If the pilots of our little
ship of state are neither skillful, watchful nor
prudent, and waste their time in tri1ing and
costly experiments or a~pathetic Incidence, igno-
rant and careless Of the tide in the affairs of
nations as we'll as Of men that taken at the food
leads on 10 fortune, let us the foremost hands,
whose humble interests and destinies are all en-
barked here, keep a yigilant lookout for the
favoring airs and eddies of prosperity, and we
shall yet gain the port of our desires in spite of
bad Storage and unskillful navigators. Let us
too, thank heaven that We are happily situated
upon the world, not III it, SO that we are beyond
the strength of the tide. and while we hear the
roar and see the whirl of mad waters far out
in the stream, we may glide smoothly on our
course near the quiet banks, if not SO rapidly
yet none the less certainly in the direction of
progress without aggression.
Ours is a community composed of heteroge-
neous materials, curiously and unavoidably in
termingled. Having the yet undeveloped Ha-
differing manners and customs, opposite
systems of faith, and various degrees of blood
from the warm tropical TO the sluggish Arctic
compose the materials of our population, from
which in the coming years is to grow up the
that shall inhabit these islands. On us,
are Of this generation, devolves the task,
the serious duty, Of moulding and fashioning
these materials, and determining the shape they
ire to assume in the future and in this view,
very act of ours to-day becomes invested with
pregnant Importance. \ high trust, a grave
responsibility, is theirs in whose hands is the
of the rising generation of Hawaii
lei. In this, above all other departments of
government, there should be no ~frittering of time
IT money on experimental hobbies, no rough or
TASTY changes in systems that have hitherto sub
erved a good purpose, and no favoritism or os-