The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-09-23
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Abbertisfr,
SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER %,
Reformatory School.

The Gazette gives us a chapter on the Reform
atory School, the whole sum and substance of
which is. an extremely weak attempt to excuse
the desire of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to
divert the results of a public charitable institu-
ton, founded and maintained by the funds Of the
nation, to swell the proceeds of a private specu-
Iatfon. OF all men in the country, one would
suppose that the Kings Ministers would be the
last to allow to attach to themselves the shadow
of an imputation of a desire to get " cheap
labor - for their private enterprises from such a
source. But what are the facts? "The pro-
prietor of the Kaneobe Plantation, himself a
member of the Board 4" of Education, and a
Minister Of the King, proposes to take ten of the
larger boys the strongest and likeliest and
place them on his plantation. They were to be
indentured as apprentices, and to be well in
structed : in all the branches of the sugar man.
ufactory.' The first branch in the manufacture
of sugar, is Of course, planting the cane. Other
branches follow in succession-hoeing stripping,
cutting and carting to the mill. These important
parts of the process of manufacturing sugar, are
now performed by either Chinese coolies, or
native laborers, under contract, and this was,
without doubt, just what it was intended the boys
from the school should do. No one, we think,
will seriously contend that the ten boys were to
be put at once into the boiling house, and in
structed in sEthe art and mystery " of making
sugar on a plantation of so magnificent proper
tions as even that of Kaneohe. 1t would indeed
require the making of a considerable amount of
&c arrangements {" before the manager would be
prepared to receive the ten apprentices who were
to be IS well INSTRUCTED " in the use and manage
ment of defecators, McOnie's clarifyers, the art
of lining, vacuum pans, train of kettles, strike
pans, and thermometers,-to say nothing of the
art of charcoaling When we alluded last week
to the possibility of such an idea being enter
tanned, we plead guilty to an inclination to speak
satirically, seeing that we added but were
they simply to learn how to hoe and strip cane
for their poi and odoriferous salmon together with
lodging" &c. But it seems that we were mis-
understood, or perhaps we should say, we I'M
Willingly gave the Minister a hint, by which he
assumes a virtue, though he have it not. So,
speaking plainly, we do not believe that it ever
was the intention to treat those friendless boys
with any more distinguished consideration"
than that shown to any other field hands. 1t is
asserted that the arrangement intended Z" was
very acceptable to the boys themselves" We
have the statement of a boy who left the school
about the time that the ten were selected by the
Minister, that they were trembling IN their shoes
for fear that they should be sent to Kaneohe,
against their wills, (though their fears were we
doubt not groundless) and that he himself con-
sidered it a piece of good luck that he got a
chance to go elsewhere
tn - I-
the R~eformatory School, and the Representatives
the people who advocated and passed it, and
the nation at large which looks hopefully for its
results,-have never intended, or for a
single moment imagined that the school was to
become merely a place of detention for truant
md homeless boys until they should be culled
tut by some wealthy government official, to
as laborers in his cane fields. The object
s set forth in Section 3 of the Act, the latter
,ortion of which reads as follows
And the said Board Of Directors (meaning the Board Of
ublic Instruction. shall have power TO place the said children
ommitted TO their custody during The minority of said chill
rem, TO such employments, and cause them to be instructed
such branches Of useful knowledge as may be suitable TO
heir years and capacity ; and they shall have power, At their
secretion, TO bind out the said children, with their consent, as
pprentices, during their minority, TO such persons and at such
laces, % learn such proper trades and employments, as, in
heir Judgment, will he most conducive to their reformation
nd amendment, and will tend TO the future benefit and ad-
antage Of such children.
Surely there is an abundance of other and far
employments and occupations to which
hose children can be devoted, than their becom-
Nc mere delivers on a sugar plantation.