The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-04-01
Government Library and Museum.

IT Is high time that serious thought
should be given to the promotion of the
higher culture i'm thisK Kingdom. Up to the
present time, a few spIsmodic efforts are
all that there has been To record of public
action i'm this direction. The excuse that
this is a small community will not serve,
for in many, smaller and less wealthy,
great things have been accomplished, and
most valuable institutions set OIL foot.
Some little private effort has been made to
promote intellectual culture, and to enable
those who are anxious to develope and use
properly the faculties which God has given
them to assist one another. There are
several such societies on the islands, all no
doubt more or less useful to their Members,
but at the best their scope IS limited, they
are essentially private associations, and it
may be doubted whether mutual amuse-
ment is not at least a. much the object they
hold in view as intellectual advancement.
y wider scope has been given to that
modest but useful institutions, the Honolulu
Library aud Reading Room yet, however,
i'm its infancy and stiuted in its work for
want of funds. But it Is not of private
effort, however, audablo that We would
speak to-day. The work that needs to be
done i "A National work, and however
much private effort after culture may pre-
pare individuals to sympathiZc with and
encourage that work, they cannot them
selves success @ully accomplish it if the
State should continue to ignore its duty.
1t will not be in our generation that his
Kingdom can hope to possess that culmin-
ating feature Of the cdifice of Il national
education. a learned university. But there
are other institutions, to be found every
where else in the civilized world, acting
as the handmade of intellectual advance
ment, and, indirectly, of material progress,
some of which We ought to possess, and upon
which We shall do well to spend time,
thought, and money without further delay.
AS the result ofone ofthe spasmodic efforts to
which we nave alluded We have here a small
and very heterogeneous collection of books
known as the Government Library. Their
public libraries are the boIst of other cOun-
tries, which stand in the front rank of
civilization. But Hawaii has nothing to
boast of in her Government LibFary,-it
stands there rather as a ~reproach, a re-
minder of some hllf-foTgotten time when
good intentions budded and were nipped ia
the bud. So likewise we have a Govern
meut 80 usesm OF EthnolOgy and Natural
History, but ne vino should seek ii with
the view Of learning something from it,
would find himself wOfully mistaken.
Specimens amassed lay chance, unclassitied
and unnamed, dO not constitute "A museum
but rather a NEE curiosity shop. And
again how s%trikingly deficient are both
the Library and the Musium in those
things which ought To- have the first place
there. The literature connected with these
islands with the exception of the narratives
of old vOyagers il almost unrepresented in
the Library. or the few books which have
been published in the ''awaiIan language
scarcely any are To be found there. There
is not even a full file theFe Of any news
paper in the native tongue. Equally
is the deficiency I'm the literature
connected with other branches OF the Poly