The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-01-13

Total number OF deaths reported for the month,
81, viz Il males and Is females. 32 Hawaiians
and 5 foreigners.
am, your Exceilcncy's Obdt Servant.
JOHN ii. Brown.
Agent Board of Health.
SPors, do you say-dark and unseemly spots?
And, let US ask, who can say that HE is free
from spots? The bright star of our system, the
fountain of life and light, the sun himself-is
not free from spots. Every individual character,
every nation, however exalted and intelligent,
has had and will continue to have it's spots. To
hide is not to cure them; what we have to do
as Christians is to prevent or ameliorate them, SO
far as in our power. The surgical operation of
cutting out does not always cure the sore. but
not infrequently kills the patient. Public opin-
ion is often a better cure than the severest law,
and sometimes it is the wiser plan to influence
public opinion to action and make the best of an
evil, rather than to enforce harsh laws which
have the effect not to eradicate but rather to
drive the evil into dark corners, with consequent
accumulated evils and eventually crimes.
We are led to these reflections in view of the
apparently large increase of late years in the
number OF births of illegitmate children in these
oAnHN AN SHoS wv AOhAS "a "hO1
infant lips will never learn to lisp the name of
father. This is a well-known fact and if a
false delicacy should admonish US to keep silence
upon a subject that may reveal q dark spot in
the character of Hawaii mel, we prefer to listen
to the dictates Of humanity and speak the truth.
1t is not our purpose to particularly investigate
the causes which have led to this state of things,
although one Of the most obvious of causes will
be found in the reckless importation of several
thousand male immigrants in a country where the
female sex is already in a most unnatural and
dangerous minority. But we may say, just
here, that the fact of the large increase in illegi-
innate births, though abstractly an evil carries
nevertheless a redeeming consideration, mas
much as it indicates an advance in the feelings
of humanity. The surplus in the present number
of fatherless children is balanced by so many
less cases of abortion and Observation-Disclosures
of the innocents. ANY one who has resided
twenty-five or thirty years in these islands must
be aware of the fact that the crimes which we
have named were ~fearfully prevalent among the
people, a result, in most cases, of the then strin-
gent and inhuman laws in this particular. Since
the repeal of these laws, many thousands of in
fants have been suffered to live, and hence in a
great degree the present apparent large increase
of illegitimate births.
Nature is always true to herself. Our native
females, reared in the soft climate of these tropic
isles, have in their hearts the same maternal in
stincts as the women of other races and other
chimes, alike with the lioness or tigress. In
fanticide amongst the Hawaiians was more
the result of fear than of other causes. Abor-
tion and infanticide are crimes so unnatural
and SO opposed to the feelings of a simple and
kind-hearted people like the Hawaiians, that,
the fear of the law removed, it is not a matter
for surprise that to-day they are rare, and are
confined rather to the rich and the outwardly
respectable. 1t is quite probable that the crimes
of infanticide in almost any populous city of
enlightened and Christainized Europe or America
exceed. in number during a single year, the
number of illegitimate births that happen on
these islands. \
We are far from desiring to apologize for
lllegitimacy but rather that, we say, than in
fanticide, which means so many women made
mothers who fall SO below humanity that a
blush of shame (if such is lefty must sufuse
their cheeks to look in the eyes of the lowest
animal sucking Its young. Wo to a nation
when its women fall so low.
We have deemed the present an opportune
moment to introduce this subject, when the new
and praiseworthy societies for hOOh dhui-pre-
s~ervation of the people-are initiating their
measures. And further, to make an appeal in
the cause of humanity to those whose gentle
hearts are ever open to appeals on behalf of the
unhappy and unfortunate; and who, let us ask,
are more unfortunate than those little waits of
humanity whom a hard fate has thrown upon
the world-a hard world, at the best. We
appeal ON behalf of these unfortunate little waits
of Hawaii mel, to the generous-hearted Christian
ladies of the land to those mothers, around
whose knees the happy faces of their own little
ones nestled 30 costly but recently on the festal
eve Of Christmas-we ask these to take into their
kind consideration the fate of these little unfor-
Inmates. We suggest no plan we advise no
course to pursue; we leave the fate of the father
less ones for whom we plead in the hands of
those wish to earn the blessing of Him who
went about doing good, and who said Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"
The agent of the Board Of Health and the
Deputy Marshal, on account of the nature of
their official duties, are both in a position to give
on the subject under discussion, to