The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1885-01-21

pears to have been all spent the items of the Ap-
preparation Bill ought TO have been proportion
ately increased by some person some commit
tee responsible for this division of available funds
There seems to have been no difficulty in ex-
pending the full amount of the appropriation set
of for school houses. Had this item been fixed
the figures which such number of new school
houses, now confessedly needed. most undeniably
iudiuious expenditure of correspoudinRly in
creased amount under the items for the support of
sue schools.
Yte financial part of the report of the Board.
however is not made in any such single exhibit as
to show in one account the receipts and expendi-
turcs of the Board. 1t is difficult matter TO pick
out here and there the various items. 1t does not
appear, for instance, how much has been paid out
for teachers salaries. and how much for care of
schools houses, for truant officers dc. &c. Nor are
the expenses of administration shown fully in the
biennial report notably the salary of the In
spectOr General, and the salary of the Secretary
of the Board. In examining the report TO find
how much had been expended for higher educa-
ton, for instance for the scholarships at Puma
hou. $3.50 yearly, one would hardly expect to find
all the credit given for this printed not under the
heading, support of Schools" but in statement,
at the opening of the report, of the sums expend.
ed by order of the Board. 1t would appear from
such an arrangement that the salaries of the In
spector General and the Secretary have been paid
without any order from the Board. clearer
financial exhibit is much to be desired, so that the
Government may have full credit for all the sums
expended for education, including the cost of
administration, and the cost per capita for scholars
in the English and Hawaiian schools respectively.
While considering this topic of the unsatisfac-
tory nature of the financial statements in the
biennial reports, attention may properly be called
also to the utter absence of any detailed statement
of the amounts received and expended in any
school district. We have simply the general state
ment. Amount of school tax paid over by the
Tax Collectors to the several school agents
throughout the Kingdom, S4G,5s5, for 1852; $5S,-
696.00 for 1882 but not even the total of this is
given S100,27S. No hint whatever is given of the
way in which this has been expended. The appro-
priations reported, land these not footed up,)
amount as expended to only S7S, ,7549s. What
has become of the balance? The report gives no
information. Where are these district funds?
How much is the whole amount unexpended and
held in each district? 1t said that some districts
have such local fund, amounting to six or seven
thousand dollars.
The amount of the general school fund in the
Hawaiian Treasury, bearing u per cent interest
is reported at 44 6OOOO yielding for the two years
S969l.50. But this has been seriously diminished,
it appears, by an order of the Supreme Court to
pay $500 for II. Cornwell, presumably for lands
sold by the Board without valid title to their
ship This is reported, having been realized upon
to that amount, $3.50, by the Board and, yet the
whole reported to be still the Treasury,
March 81, 1884.
1t would be interesting TO the community to
know something more about the school lands than
the meager statement that the rental for two years
amounted to 81 80, and that two parcels of land
in Honolulu were sold for 1915. There is another
fund arising from the purchase and sale of books;
but no figures are given TO make clear the balance
held TO the credit of this fund.
There is another point in which the reports of
the Board might be greatly improved, and that is
fuller statements of the percentage of attendance
by the Inspector General. All who have observed
and know the actual condition of the government
schools and the deplorably vicious ignorance into
which many Hawaiian children and youth have
| been rapidly sinking during these flush times.
tn hay ba saI,1
authority which will either remove the general i'm
preston that there has been great lack of vigil
ance and interest on the part of school agents and
| school teachers in this regard else rouse the
community to a sense of the dangers into which We
are drifting.
The government processes to furnish education
at the public expense as to secure good citizens
will prepared for their future duties in the
homes, the labors, the offices of the nation. Per-
| haps the teachers of the Hawaiian schools are
| furnished with proper school registers, in which
| they are required TO keep strict record of the
names of scholars their age their dailyattendance
| and these reports may be transmitted regularly
TO the central Office. The schools are not numer-
Gus, only two hundred in all, SO that it would be
| comparatively easy to furnish full and reliable
| statements from every school, Then the commu-
nifty would know in what districts no school at all
is kept but the children left 20 grow up in ignor.
ance and vice. The condition of the buildings
and grounds of every school house could be 50
| onsstated that the people could know what the ac-
tual need is for ludicious not lavish expenditure
such repairs or alterations as the present condi.
| tion of society makes expedient and obligatory
| We might have an educational map of the islands
showing in concrete form the different DEGREES of
illiteracy in different districts the different pro.
portions of receipts TO expenditures in different
districts, the different amount of schooling fur
nished in different localities
One third of the children of school age are still
| enrolled in native schools. Surely this propor.
tiOn is large enough TO secure for them good teach
| ing and careful supervision. However desirable
1t may be that only English should be taught, this
cannot be done under the present system of school
management Some of the independent schools
that profess to teach English are in charge of per
sons utterly.incompetent, and great harm is done
by professedly, giving instruction in English
which is at the best not only the merest s atteriC
| of supposed knowledge, but an medication Of
| wrong ideas which can hardly be eradicated by
| the most skillful and correct instruction subse.
quenty. The names of most of the teachers. given
| IN the list OF independent schools under fOreiOf
teachers, would seem to indicate that the English
| taught is not that of those to whom English is
the mother tongue. 1t is to be noted also that q
per cent. OF the school population is in these in
/ dependent day schools.
But the proportion of children not attending
school regularly or leaving school at too early an
| age, is factor of harm and loss, which does moi
appear IN any statistical report. For this, as fol
other defects IN our public school system as il is
now managed, we cannot put the whole blame on
| the Board of Education, nor hold school agents OF
school teachers responsible for neglect of official
| duties. Inc NnOle community under q constltu
| tional form of government must hold itself re-
sponsbe for the right discharge of this important
function, the education of the young If the com.
munitY suffer this department of governmental
| action to go on without general public interest
and healthy supervision, then, in our public
schools as IN every human enterprise left to run
ITSELF We may expect stlessness to degenerate into
perfunctory routine, and rontine into carelessuess
| and carelessness into wastefulness. Then the com
munlty will one day be reused by the discovery
| that money has been spent with nothing to show
| for 1t vested funds squandered. but no one res
ponsible for the irreparable loss education pro
| fessedly furnished at public expense to MAKE
good and useful citizens yet as the sure result OF
this negligence of the community, crop of rascalS
| and Yagabonds, a set of lazy and diseased pan
| derers to vice and crime. We cannot with impu-
nifty or with indifference see such a development
| outside of our public schools without one word Of
| alarm, one effort at REFORM We cannot refuse to
remedied, and deIude ourselves into the belief
| that the system Is working smoothly and salts
factorily without waking some time from this idle
dream TO fearful realities of harm and loss, that
| might have been prevented by seasonable and
proper precautions. # should be the endeayor OF
every public spirited citizen to use individual per.
sonal influence to secure good school houses good
| teachers good teaching. Without good education
constitutional government is impossible. 1t is To
make farce of constitutional government TO say
that we have all the laws and regulations we need
II no one cares whether and how those laws are ad
mlnlsteredi but the community contents itself with
whatever is done or left undone, every one SAVING
at is not my affair" The wise organization and
careful management OF the public school system
| is matter of deepest personal concern to every
| in n At