The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-11-29
INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Large ana distinguished Attendance
At KRumakapIIi church.

~
At noon yesterday KaumakapiH
! Church was filled to It's utmost capacity,
the occasion being the forty-third ami
versary of the recognition of Hawaiian
| independence. Among those present
were His Majesty the King, II. K. II.
Princess Likelike, Their Highnesses the
/ Princes KawananakOa, Keliiahonui and
| Kalananaole, Hon A. S Cleghorn, His
Excellency Walter NJ. Gibson, His Ex-
| cellency H. AholO and Mrs AholO, His
Excellency 2. p. Kanoa and Mrs. Ka-
noa, His Excellency Antoine Rosa and
Mrs Rosa, His Excellency Hon. c. z.
| Iaukea, His Majesty's Chamberlain, and
Mrs. Iaukea; Majors A. B. Hayley,
! Samuel Parker and w. II. COrnwell,
Equerries in Waiting; Hon. K. F. Bick-
/ erton and Mrs. Bickertou, Hon. j. L. Ka-
ulukou and Mrs. Kaulukou, Hon Junius
Kaae and Mrs. Kaae, Quartermaster
General Nowlein, Major J. ID. Holt, Mr..
and Mrs. Bage, etc.
The exercises were opened by the Rev.
J. Waiamau, pastor OF the church, who,
in few brief remarks, introduced His
Excelency Mr. AhOlO. The latter then
delivered an able address in Hawaiian
on the progress OF Hawaii from 1886 to
1886.
He was followed by His Excellency
Mr.. Gibson, who addressed the audience
as follows:
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses,
Reverend Pastor, Worshippers at this
House of Prayer, and Ladies and Gentle
men present-We are at an interesting
period for pause and retrOspectiOn. Our
Sovereign has completed the golden period
of jubilee; and we contemplate with in
terest the half-century which his life COM
prises, full as it has been of change and de-
velopment, alike for the King and for the
| country over which he rules. / will not
attempt even a sketch of the panorama of
| events comprised in fifty years of national
progress. Let US rather seek to gather in
! structiOn, and to reanimate our hopes as to
| the future of the State, by contemplation
/ of the lessons to be learned from the con
| trasts which this jubilee year of 1886 offers
! to the condition of affairs which prevailed
! in the country fifty years ago.
! Many of you have, L presume, observed
the two companion paintings placed in the
| temporary lanai at the Palace on last
! Thursday evening. These represent HO-
nolulu as it was in 1886 and the city of to-
day. The contrast is striking in many re
spects. Fifty years ago the tide flowed
where now are some of our busiest streets;
a small coasting schooner anchored where
now may be seen steam vessels, carrying
! the Hawaiian flag across the ocean, of a
size at that time undreamed of even by
the most enthusiastic engineers of either
| the Old World or the New. KalO patches
and grass huts, unshaded by any tree, ex-
| cept where the cOcOanut fringed the shore,
have been replaced by substantial buildings
! and busy streets, and the whole shaded by
such wealth of lovely foliage that the
town itself can hardly be seen from any
+! point of view; the old fort, the most CON
|. spicuOus object in the forefront of the
scene emblem of the autocratic govern
ment of the day, replaced by the busy
! hauntS of a commerce developed under
the constitutional rule of a succession of
wise and able Soyereigns, a commerce
brought with rapid strides to its present
! high condition by the wise and patriotic eff
| fort of the King whose jubilee we now cele-
brate. LApplause.l
| These and many other striking contrasts
must have been noted by everyone who
! gave more than glance at these pictures
! of Honolulu in 1886 and 1886, These are
mere physical changes-land for water,
streets and carriages for narrow tracks,
trodden chiefly by unshod feet, a well
| dressed crowd for a half-naked one, fine
wharveS, great steamers, huge warehouses,
handsome public buildings, telephones and
electric lights, all the wealth and appur-
| tenances of a civilized city, for a village OF
huts and few schOOners and a swarm OF
| canoes, an occasional whaleship, and a
great, ungainly fort dominating the whole
The moral, political and social changes
which these fifty years have brought fol
Hawaii present contrasts equally striking
of which the material changes in Honolulu
from 1886 to 1886 are but results and sym
boIs.
On the day on which the young Chic
David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinu
lam Nailiaehuokalani Lumialani Kala
kara was born, November IS, 1886, on tina
same day was signed a convention nego
tiated between the Government of thi
Kingdom and-nOt the diplomatic repre-
sentatives of another cOuntry-but Will
the Captain of a ship-of-war. Such wa
our infant condition as a nation at tina
time that we had not yet been deeme,
capable of entering into responsible rela
tions as between nation and nation. TIL
State was then a Chieftaincy and a trib
liable to be dictated to by any paSsin
force that chose to call in our harbor. Blu
now the Royal salutes of guns from ships
of-war visiting that harbOr show the &C
vance and elevation of our national pos
ton as a responsible State.
The national holiday which we are keeI
ing to-day perpetuates the memory OF a
event which occurred not many years afte
. the birth of our King, which changed tn
/ whole status of affairs for Hawaii. TIL
n was the recognition and guarantee of OF
p national independence by the Cover
ments of America, Great Britain an
= France From that date Hawaii thong
r. her territory be small and her populatio
sparse, became in very deed a Kingdo
Il among the Kingdoms of the Earth. Tn
independence though once and aga
s, threatened by internal Sedition, has new
} since been menaced from without, and