The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-04-25

The doctrine is pretty generally held in these
days, that the public press should be, not n mere
chronicler of passing events, or even q critic of
men and measures and an exponent solely of pub
lie opinion, but that it should also educate and
lead public opinion. And experience has proved
here, as well as elsewhere, that a large amount of
that element which We call public opinion, and
which plays so important Il part an regulating the
movements of governments, Of communities, and
of individuals, does indeed moro or less con-
sciously take Its cue from the press. But in order
to maintain its high position as a public mentor,
the press must be managed with watchful care
and discretion, SO that it shall not on the one
hand advocate pernieious or unsound doctrines
and unsafe measures, or, on the other extreme,
omit to devise, suggest and urge that which will
be for the general good.
1t would seem that just at the present %juncture
of affairs, if ever, is the time when the press of
these islands, distinctly and unequivocally assum-
ing the leading position which by the condition
of things belongs to it, should stand to the front,
and by every fair and legitimate means earnestly
strive to arouse 4 public opinion that shall result
in compelling the inception of governmental
measures for the Tecuperation of the nation and
the revival of the general prosperity. And here
in we propose to do our duty, much or little as
may come of it.
The nation and the country has retrograded-
the causes are immaterial in this connection-to
that degree, that unless measures of recuperation
are undertaken at once, without any further de-
Law than is absolutely necessary, the decline will
soon become u fatal collapse. Let the press there
fore open n discussion out of which 4 movement
may arise that shall lift the country from the de-
cadence into which it is falling and place it on the
highroad of national increase and prosperity.
We observed in our last, that our two great
needs are labor and capital. Get labor first, and
capital will follow. But population is the only
proper basis of labor. Our native population
has been and still is decreasing at 4 rate which
precludes any hope of an adequate supply of Ia
Dor from that source-eyen if there were not
other operating causes to the same effect. We
must therefore look abroad for recruits to the ma
ton. immigration must supply inhabitants as
well as tillers OF the soil for our almost deserted
vallies and plains, whereby our dormant resources
can be developed. We have had 4 great deal of
talk ard not long since, on this subject of Immi-
grafton, and now we want action. Immigration
Societies are useful in eliciting information, but
there must now be something done besides mere
talk towards accomplishing the desired end.
Our recently chosen and patriotic young King
has declared, in his speeches all over the country,
that 1.-The increase of the people; the advance
ment Of agriculture and commerce these are
the objects which his government will mainly
strive TO accomplish. VIII His Majesty's Minis
ters be found TO possess the enterprise and the
energy to actively second these noble aspirations
OF the King? Let US hope so; and that they
will comprehend the necessity and wisdom of
drawing upon the finances Of the country for the
means of carrying out the measures which shall
change for the better the general features of things.
The Hawaiian race is not dead, nor quite NOR
ibund, but s~leepeth. By assuming that it is
positively doomed to disappear from the face of
the earth, We are helping along that result but
If we assume the cOntrary-if we but Undue the
people with the idea that they have within them
selves the elements of recuperatiOn, and that they
are not a mOribund peoPle-they will live. The
race needs, to quicken it into renewed life, the
innoculatiOn Of fresh blood from 4 cognate race.
And, under the conditions Of civilization to which
this people has attained, the true policy is not to
go ackward to the peoples of the same aborig-