The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-10-12
Labor and Population Climate and
Physique.

To the Editor of The Pacific Commercial Advertiser :
SIR AS you seem disposed to unfurl your flag
IN defense of planters and plantations who appear
at the present moment to be threatened rather than
attacked by certain very heavy columns of the
heaviest kind of infantry, which are being mar
shaled in the Gazette, apparently with the object of
acting as a support and reserve when the real attack
commences, 1t may not be Improbable for some one
to take notes of the situation and report from time
to time to headquarters. And first I would observe
that mixed up with these threatening battalions
there are many true and valuable friends, and none
more so than a writer in the Gazette who signs with
q single star. We should not however neglect to
carefully watch this apparent commingling of friends
and foes, lest it prove merely a Tuse to disguise the
real end and object of the movement
The third battalion of q very imposing looking
division has just moved up (see Gazette Of October
9th, Labor and Population-No. 3'), and with
my glass 1 see inscribed on its banners the following
portentous and oracular motto, with reference to the
great probability (Which seems condescendingly adj
mitted) that " this is to become n sugar growing
country Let u.s. it says, give up the idea
of an Empire of the Pacific based upon a condition
of labor, and Government incident to the prosecution
Of one industrial pursuit, and that the cultivation
and manufacture of sugar; history does not justify
such expectations" What may be the full meaning
of this ~sibylline utterance, L am unable to report, I
suspect however that it is merely a species of Indian
war paint designed to overawe and intimidate a
neighboring tribe, already somewhat aroused at the
warlike preparations going on. From a cursory ex-
animation of the heavy columns " over which this
AOdSo l. du luCHUc1 " Nuiuk LldJ whenever
it may be necessary to bring your artillery to bear
ON them, their imposing numbers will only prove so
rnuch 50 food for POWDER
Among this homogeneous crowd / also notice a
well known s. lighting colonel u who boldly unfurls
bis banner to the breeze, on which / see the simple
hut touching inscription. y. o. c." This officer
bias had the repute of ignoring the adage that " dis
erection is the better part of vaior,' and indeed he
is supposed to be so full of fight" as to be ready
to attach himself to any chieftain who may offer
him a job in that line. He however sticks faith
fully and with a pertinacity worthy of a better
cause to his principles, and is so far deserving
of respect. He seems TO have been warned not TO
be too rash. and although imagined to be virtually
a leader of the before mentioned :" columns he
has only Sd far openly distinguished himself by
getting hold OF a discarded big gun, the old Tory
British Quarterly ReUie1, which be offers to his
chief with a modest hope that it may be of some
use.
But while noticing the movements of those who
seem inclined to make a dash at planters and plant
ations If they get a fair chance, we must not neg
lect to see to the equipment of our own troops, and
to be careful that there be no disaffection in the
ranks, while some of our regiments may perhaps
be d" reviewed with advantage before real action
commences. For the present / will only refer to
an article in your paper of the 9Th inst, headed
" Climate and Physique" 1t is short, compact and
well worded, but is it not open TO the following
criticism?
1t attempts to deny the proposition I" that man
hourishes best in n temperate climate - by referring
US to the splendid physique of many tropical races,
"a fact which nobody ever doubted) but it finally de-
stroys whatever significance there may be in its Illus
trations, by showing that after all, it is mind or
intellect, not physique, that is the requi-
site in the progress of races, and in this intellectual
superiority it gives an exaggerated preeminence
to the mind of the Teuton-the inhabitant forsooth
Of a temperate climate
May We not ask for a little more light on this i'm