The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-10-07

THE system which has been in vogue in
China for ages, of making learning the road
to employment in the State, and cOmpeti
tive examinations the door to emoluments,
has been held up to the admiration of West
rem nations by a hundred writers since China
became known to the "outer barbarians."
1t has been initiated to a certain extent by
Great Britain and some of her colonies, and
just now there is a disposition among some
leading American Statement to go a little
way in the same direction in regard to the
Civil Service of the United States. That
this system, admirable in theory, is not an
unmiXed good has often been cleverly
argued, and in the extract fIom the North
China Herald, which we print to-day, we
have the evidence of facts presented, which
show that positive evils may flow from
what at first sight appears to be the very
wiSeSt of devices.
The lesson to be learnt from the state of
things disclosed in the article we refer to
has no immediate bearing on our own
affairs, so far as the public service is con-
cerned. Blu it has a bearing on the social
conditions of all countries in which educa-
cational facilities of high order exist. 1t
appears 10 be everywhere the direct result
of the better education which the young
folks of the present day have the advantage
of that the manual labor with which their
fathers were content is deSpised, and every
method of making a living which is deemed
more respectable is Iun after. Hence all
the avenues to certain walks of life are
crowded with aspirants, just as the " eX-
pectant :" scholars of China crowd the door
of the pnblic service. In the old world, in
America, and in the British colonies this
tendency has long been noted, and deplOred,
but is nevertheless being steadily Intensi-
fled. We are not without symptoms of it
here, and they are manifest among Ha-
waiianS as well rs amongst white people.
Throughout all that has come under our
notice of what has been said and written on
this matter, which IS becoming a crying
evil in some communities, nothing piac-
teal in the way of n remedy has been put
forth. But the growing desire manifested
in all civilized countries to provide techni-
cal educatiou-a practical training in the
industrial arts-for the rising genetation is
a step in the right direction. 1t will,
if thoroughly prosecuted. do more to pro-
vide AN antidote than anything else. 1t
gives education the right turn, and famil-
iarizes the young mind with the arts on
which all civilization rests, and interests
ii in them at the most receptive period of
its history. The education which occupies
the whole early life of q boy with the same
subjects, whether he ne the SOP of a mil
liouaIe or of a laboring man, must te one
sided, and could not fail to produce the re-
suits which are causing so much anxiety in
crowded communities. a thorough admiX-
ture of technica instruction into our courses
of education is the one great desideratum of
the day, and no country needs it more than
Hawaii. 1t Is, however, easy TO say that
this is the case, but difficult to define how
il is to be accomplished. The history of
the endeavOrs of the past thirty years to
add instruction in scientific subjects to the
curriculum of schools, teaches two plain
lessOns-first, that such changes cannot be
accomplished in a day, and second, that
perseverance will accomplish any desir-
able thing. The warming of the one lesson,
and the encouragement of the other, are
before us as a help to accomplish this other
reform.