The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-12-16

that he had forgotten the language of the
Kanaka? He himself said to a gentleman,
a member of His Majesty's Ministry, that
he saw clearly hat the true way for a Ha-
waiian Minister serving a Hawaiian King
and people was to be able to address the
people of the country in their own language
and to go forth frequently and discuss pub
lie matters with them. This fact the pre-
sent Ministry fully realize and recognize,
and, as We have recently seen, have put
into practice.
HAMPTON, Va, Nov. 10, 1882.
EDITOR GAZETTE: In your issue of Oct. 18th
you criticise some correspondence of mine on
the Hawaiian question. You do not believe that
there need be any 90 conflict of races on your
Islands, aud that harmony may be restored by
a " healthy public sentiment" Just here IS the
issue. / do not believe you can create q healthy
public Halc1iidn sentiment. One need not live
long at the Islands to discover that. You may
create a healthy foreign sentiment, but how does
that help you? The sentiment which, after all,
controls is that which holds the political power.
There are about 5000 Hawaiian votes to about
500 white. If you cannot create a healthy senti-
ment among the 5000 what have you gained
Sound and healthy political views are based on
thrift, honesty, morality, and a certain amount
of good Physical condition, If the Hawafians
have these, there is something to work on. But
the Trustees of the Planters Company say in
their recent report, 1.-THE majority of the last
Legislature showed the utter indifference of that
majority for the interests of the foreigners and
producing element of the country" These legis-
lators represent the average native public senti-
ment. How are you going to change it? Ger
tainly not by your strong appeals in good En-
glsh which the native people do not read. The
HawaIians have got the political power, and it
certainly makes little difference if you change
the sentiment % the foreigners but do not
change that of the natives. If the Hawaiians
had been improving physically, morally and in
/ ~ I1Irr1. tho Loot hrr a
would be hope but their friend, DIR. Fitch,
makes out a bad case against them physically
and morally. 1t is said that public sentiment"
drove Moreno off; many believe that it was the
hosting OF the three great flags which did it. 1t
seems to me that the trouble arises from the gift
of universal suffrage to those who do not know
I what it means, and this involves the gift of po-
litical power. l have been told that Kamehameha
V. was opposed to the gift. But the good people
believed that the natives would be wise and
thoughtful, and say to the foreigner, "You are
wiser than we, rule u.s. But POlynesIan human
nature is like other human nature. When it
gets power, it uses it and then abuses it. Are
you not now getting thorns from the tree then
planted? You, the whites, are educated for
highly civilized institutions. You understand
them and want them. The Hawaiian was not
educated for them and does not want them. But
you are asking him to govern you by the rules
of the best civilization, which he has not got.
The Trustees of the Planters Company say,
GAS all eyes will not see alike, the majority
Snpulu rune III Tic resi- uCQulcoCG III SuCA u
manner as to make the decision perfect" This
is advice to white men. Now the Hawaiians, by
their actions, say, tWhat is sauce for the goose
is sauce for the gander. We are in a vast ma.
jority. We have twenty-five out of twenty-seven
votes in the Assembly. We like tuaus, and we
like coronations, and we like to hold the offices;
why don't you acquiesce, like a good little sweet
minority? We are well satisfied. You, the little
minority, wish us, the big majority, to do as you
think best When the English Tories are in
power they say to the Liberals, 'We viii make
laws which you don't like, we will make wars
which you don't like, we will impose taxes which
you don't like The world says, 'tGreat is the
majority; let it rule" Why should not the Ha-
waiians do likewise? You, by your instincts,
wish the Hawaiian to rule like an Anglo-Saxon.
He, by his instincts, wishes to rule, and will
rule, according to his education and traditions.
1t would surely be a remarkable event, reversing
all human experience, if the few highly civilized
people of a country, being In n small minority,
could by appeals to reason influence a race,
which is in a great majority, to rule by laws and
usages of which it knows nothing. You would
permit them to remain Hawaiians in all THEN
social instincts; but m governing you, you ask
them to spring to the heights of good admins
tration which it has taken the Anglo-Saxon five
hundred years to reach. 1t seems to me that
this is ignoring character and the law of growth.
1t cannot be done. No experience will justify
any right to expect that it can be done, N
principles which underlie the moyerN'"S The
social and political life in the Islo this ,ients of
as man, When you ap~peaLdnizznds are as old
wnom do you COLLATION. flor government to
the I'LL Riley would ljt to the Ministers, but to
nplovacs aud the people, and especially the
i people; and if they are not like you, but differ
in instincts, traditions, education, morality and
thrift, you have al once all the material for
a 'seonfict of races" If there is to be no con-
hict, it is avoided only by submission. You
Justly say that / wrote as a '%critic, !" and not as
a practical politician" What is, and what
should be done are totally different matters. The
first thing TO do is to reckon up latitude and
longitude. After that make sail. 1t has seemed
to me, for some time, that our good people III
the Islands have ignored historical investigation.
What is now going on is history repeating itself.
If any one would take the trouble to look 1t up
it would so appear. Our Libraries are full of tine
wisest maxims, but when we come to act we
forget them. You think the King is becoming
90 absolute" That is because his people allow
it, and don't care whether he is or is not abso-
lutte. He must be controlled through the ma
jority CT his subjects. If you can make q
- healthy public sentiment" among them your
success will be as wonderful as your climate,
and you will present the rare spectacle of a wise
and intelligent race being ruled with wisdom
and goodness by n weak, inexperienced ano
largely ignorant race. Will not the solution
come most speedily, if the situation is thoroughly
understood w. N ARMSTRONG.