The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-04-06
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOrttl5er,
SATURDAY. APRIL 6.
The Reformatory School,.

Our article upon the keiJrlaatoTy Schoo!' IN
the issue Of the 2sth ult., was written under the
impression that the original Act Of 1864, institu-
ting the School, was still in force, whereas we
have since asccrtaincd that It was repealed IN
1870. and substituted by another. The new Act,
while it is more comprehensive in its wording
than was the first. Is yet substantially the same
in its provisions, emitting, however, the PROPOSE
ton expressed in the 9th Section Of the old Act,
that the School was to become self-suppOrting.
The hope of arriving at any such healthy condi-
ton of things is evidently abandoned after six
years of trial, and the present Act provides Tor
the establishment of other " Industrial and Re
formatory Schools in any part of the Kingdom,
where the same shall be deemed necessary, and
when funds shall be available by Legislative ap-
propriation for that object" That the establish
ment in several other parts Of the Kingdom OF
Schools of this character would be extremely
desirable now, will not be denied, but the con-
summation of that end is not among the probabiE-
ties in the present state of the finances and under
the present Ministry, whose benevolence towards
the nation takes the form of providing hotels,
rather than schooL-houses, for the people.
We have been informed from an official source,
that the statement that some of the boys belong
ing to the Reformatory School had been sent to a
plantation on Maui, is correct. They were stout
young men, eighteen years of age or thereabouts,
for whom the officers of the Board of Education
had been unable to obtain suitable situations as
apprentices in the city. Their characters and
general conduct is said to have been such that
their presence and influence in the School was an
- l., ~ o,,ro iDp,ot aa They went tn the
plantation of their own free consent, under terms
and on conditions deemed by the officers of the
Board as particularly satisfactory. They are to
be lodged apart. and kept as far as possible from
associating with the common hands employed on
the plantation, and be given every opportunity
and encouragement TO learn and advance. IN the
em~ployments of the sugar-house. 1t Is a we'll
known fact, and explainable by the ordinary
rules which govern cause and effect, that the
moral atmosphere about a sugar plantation Is
never of the purest. The particular one, however,
TO which these native waits have been sent, has
the reputation of being one Of the best governed
in this respect, and the manager is said to bear
the perhaps anomalous character of being a strict
and hard worker and at the same time a popular
man with the natives. He can however be both,
if he thoroughly understands the hawaiian char-
acter. Under all the circumstances, perhaps the
disposition which has been made Of these particu-
lar bows is the best. But we contend that the
true idea of a national Reformatory School,
properly carried out, would be where the boys
could be classified, and taught some useful trade
or occupation in the School itself, and not be
( sent to plantations for the reason that they were
bad characters, or that the management had
nothing for them to do. The proposed end,-
their reformation, lis not likely to be accomplished
by such a course. Consequently the School, to
become effective for real good, must be re-mod-
eled upon a broader basis than it possesses al
present.
The writer of the following communication on
the R~eformatory School will observe that we, nc
more than himself, join in any d" senseless clamoi
for its abolition" But we distrust any policy in
its future management that looks to facilitating
the placing of the boys on plantations, as a
general practice. And unless such a policy is
carefully guarded against, we repeat that the
School may become, in the future, but "a
nursery for plantation hands -