The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-12-10
q Some Dangers That Threaten Us.

Some Dangers That Threaten Us.
Mr.. EDITOR: Any thoughtful observer
of our present social condition and politi
cal complications must be conscious that
there are some imminent perils that may
well excite gravest apprehensions of
possible disasters. 1t is true that insen-
safe folly often brings upon itself the
danger that it breads by it's unreason-
able alarm. But it is equally true that
self-conceited incompetency may crush
in where angels fear to tread" and so
provoke its own doom. Between these
two extremes lies the path of safety
which trust in an overruling Providence
and earnest desires TO do the right thing
in the right way at the right time and to
point out as the path OF duty. What
ought we to avoid? is as important a
question as what ought We to seek?
The growing separation between the
desires and the conduct of the native
Hawaiians on the one side, and, on the
other side, the residents OF other nation
alities in whose hands is the direction
and management of the business and
social interests of the country, is fact
too glaring to be denied. How this
separation has been widened, whether
it was avoidable or not, may be discussed
by future philoSophic historians. What
concerns us now, is the bearing of this
state of things on our immediate personal
welfare, perhaps even our continued
national existence. There is as evident
ly re-actionary party, whose policy and
Vaccinations are to be dreaded, as there
is party OF progress as well as reform,
whose ideas and aspirations are incom-
patible with the triumph of the re-
actiOnistS.
Can we anticipate without any fore
bodings of evil, either the triumph of
vice and ignorance. or of a legalized
system of fraud and injustice? But how
can we hope for success in the contest
between good and evil unless good men
will unite when bad men combine?
Union can only be secured by intelligent
comprehension of the necessities OF the
case and hearty CO operation in proper
means and methods for the promotion OF
the liberties and privileges of the com
munity. But to this end we need to lay
aside the prepossessions vi education and
the prejudices OF habit, and have that
true sympathy with others which enters
into their ideas and desires, and views
the situation from the standpoint of their
circumstances and standards of thought.
Are We qualified and prepared, for
instance, to look at recent events from
the point of view from which Hawaiian
sees things? The Hawaiians, it must
be remembered, have accepted ihstiiu-
tions of Church and State life, prepared
for them, not developed by them. AT
first there was some attempt to educate
them into an intelligent apprehension of
the laws and limitations OF the new social
order. But Of late years no such educa-
tional processes have been at work.
Cajolery has seemed easier than instruc-
ton, and bribery or intimidation quicker
and surer than argument and persuasion.
The new system, such AZ it is. seems to
the Hawaiian a mark of honorable dis
tinction; and he glories in thu possess
ion OF 1t very much, as he once parafed
before his fellows with malo and a
cooked hat as his sufficient attire A
Hawaiian says, "This is a constitutional
Kingdom: constitutional Governments
are the institutions of enlightened
nations; therefore, we are an enlightened
nation" Injudicions fattery OF the
Hawaiians has only spread and deepened
this feeling among them.
But now that they have had the privi-
lege of constitutional government, and
had foremost place in its administra-
ton and ostensibly some large share of
political power, any set back In position,
or diminution of privilege is resented as
an injury and a wrong. The BARRIERS |
shears for cutting off the tangled and |
infested growth OF hair, seem to them |
like an executioner's sword tor cutting |
off their head They have not outgrown |
the Oriental idea of government, as |
being full submission to the will of the |
sovereign. They have not the inbred |
Teutonic idea of the sovereignty of the |
people. Here is radical difference of |
sentiment and habit between the Ha- |
waiian and the Anglo Saxon; how is it |
to be remedied?
Consider their crude notions, also, in |
regard to the system OF trial by jury. To |
be a iuryman is to the ordinary Ha-
waiian great event in his life. He will |
run in debt to get best suit of clothes
20 appear in public with the dignity that
BELTS his honorable position. He will
consider it his duty TO support the gov
eminent every time, and to obey the
exhortation of the Attorney-General to
bring in verdict of guilty against the
prisoner. Or his suspicious may be
aroused, that the trial is one of the
tricky ways by which the foreigner is
trying to get advantage of him, and as
in the recent trials on Hawaii, acquit