The Hawaiian gazette., 1873-12-17

tAle Nela result llll lne luspecioI-Genersl o
Schools procured English maps, with the revers
ed position Of the Hemispheres and with al
names Of course ia English, fOr an Elen,eatzy
Geography n E7r-aiiaH!
The Incougruiiy Is simply astounding. And
none the less 50. surely, because the os,ensibls
reason given for the iusul; thus offered the Ha.
vliian people is one Of frirfirg extra cost "a
reason which does gross injustice to our liberal
Board OF Edacation, annually lavishing its tens
+ Of thousands FOR the national education.
True, many intelligent friends Of the Hawaiian
race think OF it as a trifing objection that Eug-
Esh maps and questions are inserted in Ha-
WAsiaa Geography. "Oh, you know the natives
desire to learn English and this viii be help to
them " But pui German maps in an elementary
geography for English and American pupils, with
German names Of course, and German questions.
and what then Yet the average English aud
American pupil would fad the German, as all
know, vastly less formidable obstacle in his pur-
suit Of the study, than the English is to the
average pupil IN Hawaiian common schools. In
fact, It is simply impossible for the children of
pronounce a large proportion of English names
Il, however, swine are koaorsd or fed by the Of.
Ter OF pearls. why then l have nothing to say
Yet / can't help thinking that they are thus nei-
aisr hon0rsi nor. fed, albeit they are tanialzed.
And just so are Hawaiian children, BY the offer
Of a school book thickly strewn with an unknown
tongue They are indeed invited to enter the
paths OF knowledge, but at every step of the way
obstacles are made to obstract their progress
therein Is this wise Is it jtlsre
Bat the evil OF introducing foreign tongue
into Ia H9zu1 Nsi," although serious evil, is
BY 40 means confined to the maps It involves,
besides. extensive aud most unWise changes in
the Orthography Of geographical names familiar
lied 10 The Hawaiian mind by the usage Of more
than fifty years-ihat is Of the entire period Of
The national lettered existence. Were any rule
followed in these changes, one might, at least,
find degree of satisfaction in the recognition Of
system attempted however strongly his better
judgment might protest against the evil done
thereby. But nothing could be more thoroughly
chaotic or SAVIOR more Extensively of a misplaced
diieitanteisn than the effort thus made to reform
Hawaiian orthography. Nor is the reason as
signed for this act Of violence done to the nation,
in any sense an extenuation of the offence To
commit grevOus error, by the introduction of
q foreign language SO largely into an elementary
school book, and then offer the uutoEard fact as 4
Al excuse for running riot through the native or
tbography. Is simply to make one huge bluuder
serve as pretext for another scarcely less in its
dimensions.
COufessedly, he must be a bold man who thus /
confidently inirades into the sanctuary of a na-
tons vernaeulAr aud unscrupulously deiaces its /
ume-honOred forms A language is by no means
70 be bungled into shape b! inapt hands. 1t is
the sacred birthrigbt of q race-the outcome Of I
ages Of nations experience-the record Of its
entire Life. Hands of, therefore, should be the
CRY from every friend Of Hawaii nei
To what useful end is the quiddling change of
Eael1Hi for example, into EnelaDa-and scores
Of jast such Why put Malaa UEuli for Ma
una 0m19ma0? and then Geriaaldaa for dina
0u'aom1o3 Aud why change Tsnesi into Tsness,
and Nu OisdE1 into M Orsliaas Ma I9I7a in
to Ma Koka2 Moaua AHu -4kdu into Araioa,
whilst the universal usage among native whale
men and through them among the people is
Aiioa And why San Franacseco, constantly
used If words are to be Hawaiianized why not
DO The work thoroughly? And why introduce
the hard English into Hawaiian, save to poster
the children? Bot enough of these questions.
These multitudiOOus changes smack Of boys
-rolie through the language. If is found IL the
bid form, yOu may be sure it is in the new. II
n the old we find E. replaces ii 10 the new. But
that IS not all. We have variety of forms of
he same word to relieve the tedium Of study: Now
i Is .Sasak1folza and then .Sos0kslona Now
BsriiaHia America aud then america Bs7-itania.
Nov -Auerioa Hula aud then Amsrioa Rmpu-
ia &c.
Now al this is legitimate if the object aimed
1t is to make confusion worse confounded" in
he pupils mind. 1t certainly will do this, er-
ec,ually.
But there are some other serious defects in the
translation Of = Ia HoHNa Nsi," some of which
certainly, an sorry to see in book for Hawaii
u children, inasmuch as they certainly have
ight to insist upon tue use Of pure Hawaiian in
be instructions given them and in the Text
Books provided for such instruction.
Bat what shall We say to the constant use OF
re for following the passive9 Ia hoopuniia
ne AZ Eai--- Ga uhiia ne ka ululaau," &c Or
4 { used for d in the same relation " Ia hoo
,ihais Ike one" And SO Of the excessive use
( 10 in all sorts Of relaiions-holo na moku no
IA IA. &c Pehea no Liberia " Ke imi nei ke-
,ahi poe no IA heleheena- &C. The fact is that no
Gems to act as factOt1m, answering to oil calls
5ut the translator does not seem to have had the
lightest idea that all these are foreign idioms
nd are only conceptions Of Hawaiian
Then We have mai simply, for from, n,at-B,7i
or mana mU, an entirely different idea, as no
aediOcre Hawaiian scholar needs be told
The use Of words in wrong sense is very OBJ
as ku for climate hioioaa for srsas,
lllG for lua. kaial1i for fresh ,rater shores, &c
The sYnisx Of the book is exceedingly bad.
There is universal confusion in the use of the
enses. The punctuation. too, is very faulty. In
be use OF the prOnOuns there is great awkward Z