The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-11-12
T H Il,
FRIDAY November 18th.
ABOUT "ARBOR DAY"

Let US establish in this Kingdom /
children's holiday, to be known as
"Arbor Day." upon which every child |
on the Islands, of whatever race, may
plant tree Children will take lively |
interest in arboriculture if it is identified |
in their minds with an annual holiday |
and picnic to the country. And they |
will thus learn to protect and care for
growing trees and plants, which add so
much beauty to the landscape and pleas |
ure to the home.
1t will inculcate in them love of the |
beautiful, and lead to a gradual elevation
of the tastes and habits of the natives az
we'll as foreign people, thousands OF
whom have been brought to our shores
to furnish the bone and sinew of labor,
but WHO should not therefore be denied
an opportunity OF surrounding them
selves with flowers and plants, and SO
participating in the enjoyment OF those
natural gifts which tend to the elevation
and happiness of mankind, and which
have been scattered around us with
whatever for any home on these Islands,
however humble, to present a squalid
appearance Yet how many such there
are in and around Honolulu.
"Arbor Day, such as we contemplate,
will prove an educator in aesthetic taste,
and the enthusiasm of the young will no
doubt be communicated to the old.
During the discussion in the Legislature
on the vote in aid of the Government
nursery one of the native members, Mr..
Kaunamano we think, remarked that
the Hawaiian people were endeavoring
to beautify their homes by planting
flowers and shade trees, and an inquiry
at the nursery itself convinced us that
this remark did not fully convey the
significance of the fact in question. APP
plications from natives for choice plants
and shrubs, as we'll as fruit trees, have
been very numerous, and there is every
reason to believe that this movement is
general throughout the Islands. Indeed,
that most hopeless of all spots on earth,
the Leper Settlement of Molokai, is
frightened by many flashes of beauty in
its trim and well-kept garden plots,
showing that supreme misery does not
wholly extinguish love of Natures
charms, and that the pleasure derived
from gratifying the sense of sight offsets
in degree the most intense of woes that
poor humanity can be afflicted with.
This idea Of establishing children's
national holiday. to be called "Arbor
Day." did not originate with us. 1t oc-
Cured to several gentlemen who talked
the matter over of late and suggested
the thought as deserving consideration.
Being at once a practical and feast
BILE idea we deem 1t our duty to
make the suggestion public, and rely
upon the authorities of the Kingdom
for giving it effect.
The idea, as communicated to us,
likewise embodied the happy thought Of
identifying "Arbor Day" with the Royal
Family, by placing it under the special
care and patronage of Princess Kaiulani,
who celebrated her eleventh birthday
on October 18th, and whose future is so
intimately identified with the hopes of
the nation. a child herself, she would
enter into the spirit of this national
movement with enthusiasm, as from
the charming surroundings of her home
at Waikiki, she is certain to have i'm
bibed a love for trees and flowers in all
their countless forms of beauty "ArbOr
Day." with Princess Kaiulani as the
head and spring of action, would soon
become the Children's Day, and be the
most popular and welcome of all public
holidays, as we'll as being the most
beneficial in its results.
The last day OF November has been
suggested as a suitable one in each year
for "Arbor Day" The rains will then
have softened the ground, and the sue
ceeding moisture will give a reasonable
chance for the young plants to strike
root and thrive There will be many
failures doubtless, but the successes will
not be few. Let November Both, there
fore, in each year be constituted