The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-11-14


which did not exist when he wrote
the above.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
V. 1t will be remembered that in
1880 no technical schools existed in
the United States, and that the sub
ject of industrial education had hardly
begun to be agitated there. The ex-
pertinent in manual labor at Oberlln
was carried on there from 1884 tc 1888,
while the first technical school in the
United States was started in 1866 at
Worcester, Mass, and the Hampton
Institute in the following year.
On this subject, the American mis-
sionaries were in advance of their
mother country, for in 1881 they
founded I.ahainaluna Seminary,
which was intended to be self-sup-
porting manual labor school. Not
only were the buildings erected in the
first place, but also the land titled by
the scholars themselves. a printing
Office and book-bIndery were soon af-
forwards attached to the school, at
which many textbooks and religious
works and maps have been published,
including Dibble's History. The first
newspaper ever published in the Pa
cffic Ocean was the Lama Hawaii, is
sued at I.ahainaluna in 1884. Many
of the pupils learned the trades of
printing and book binding, as well as
of map engraving. Repeated requests
were made to the American Board in
1884 and afterwards for competent
artisan to take charge of the work
shops, and to train the pupils nthe
mechanical trades. But / do not find
that the request was ever granted.
The Hilo Boys Boarding School,
which was founded in 1887 under
Father Lyman, has accomplished an
incalculable amount OF good, and IS
still fourishing, after the lapse of half
a century. 1t is well known that the
most intelligent, industrious and
thrifty natives in the islands have
generally been graduates of these
schools. The selfsuppOrting Indus
trial School at Waialua, which was
commenced i'm 1910 by Mr.. Locke, and
cut short by his lamented death, was
one of the most interesting expert
ments ever made in the islands.
General Armstrong often declared
that the Hampton Institute was but
carrying out on n grander scale the
work of the Hilo Boarding School.
OBSTACLES To INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.
5 In order to- Justly appreciate what
the early missionaries accomplished
in this department, it is necessary to
consider we'll the difficulties under
which they labored.
!. Consider the deep poverty of the
missionaries on the one hand, and of
the native people and rulers on the
other. During the first twenty years
of the mission, number OF precious
lives were prematurely sacrificed for
lack of necessary comforts, of proper
shelter, wholesome food and medical
attendance. There were no surplus
funds to carry on any educational ex-
periments. Industrial schools involve
a very heavy outlay. At Oberlin the
expense OF the system of manual
labor, to borrow President Fairchild's
expression, proved to be ''overwhelm-
ing" And, in order to keep the
Hampton Institute in operation, it
was necessary for General Armstrong
to raise the sum of $4,000 every year
by personal appeals to- the liberality
of the good people of the Northern
States. 1t was chiefly this great finan-
cial strain that broke down his health.
1t would have been a great comfort to
some of the fathers" If they could
have seen the realization of their
ideals in the Kamehameha School.
>. By far the greatest obstacle to all
industrial progress was the old system
of land tenure, and the almost hope
less condition of the common people.
AS Judge Lee said in an address, de-
Hvered before the Hawaiian Agricul-
tural Society in August, 1850:
Until within the past year the Ha-
waiian held his land as a mere tenant
at will, subject to be dispossessed at
any time it might suit the will or
caprice of his chief or that of his more
oppressive luna. OF what avail was
it to the common people to raise
fhnn annnOh RI atfnnlx rho
immediate wants of their subsistence?
Would the surplus belong TO them,
or furnish the means of future indie
pendence ? Far from il. 1t would go
10 swell the stores of their despotic
lords, who claimed an absolute right
in all their property, and who periodi-
cally sent forth their hordes of IUndS
TO scour the country and plumber the
people without the shadow of right or
mercy Often did these ravagers,
these tdnd-pirdteS leave the poor
n1dkddi1dna (peasant) with little else
than his marc, his digger and his
calabash. 1 thank God that these
things are at an end, and that the
poor Kanaka may now stand on the
border of his little taro-patch, and
holding his fee-simple title in his
hand, bid defiance to the world"
AS long as individual property in
land did not exist, and there was no
security for personal property, there
was little motive or encouragement
for industry or thrift. The system of
forced labor, too, tended to produce n
nation of Shirks.
This state of things was partially
remedied by the Constitution OF 1910,
and by the passage of laws limiting
the amount of taxation and Of forced
labor, but was not finally put an end
to until the establishment Ot the Land
Commission, and the abolition of the
old feudal system during the closing
years of Kamehameha HIS reign.
8. Another great obstacle was the
want of a market for the production
OF the Islands. The principal article
of export before 1880 was sandal-wood,