The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-05-23

Honolulu soon followed.
During this period ten instructors
presided successfully over the educa-
tiopaI work and administered the at
fairs OF PuuahOu, assisted by seventy
five teachers. besides the teaching force
AT the Puuahou Preparatory School.
Away back in the fOrties, il the early
wears of Punahou School, there were
two Young men from the United States
living in Honolulu, who used 10 come
ND to PunahOu on Saturdays TO play
base ball or "Aipuni" with the boys.
One OF these young men was William
l. Lee. afterwards Chief Justice OF our
Supreme Court; the other was Charles
II. Bishop. and his relations with Puma
hou thus incidentally begun developed
at length into a devotion 10 the inter-
ests of the school, which has been
most conspicuous factor in it's progress.
For many years, as one OF the trustees
of Oahu College, Mr.. Bishop has been
a wise and faithful adviser in the adj
ministratiOn OF its affairs. AS time
went on he began to take upon his own
shoulders d part of it's financial bur
dens. and especially to promote the en-
Iargement Of it's facilities through large
personal OUTLAWS of money. The natural
history building, known as the Bishop
Hall Of Science, was his gift. The more
Mr.. Bishop gave to the cause Of educa-
ton the more he seemed to feel like
eiving-the satisfaction of 1t grew on
him. 1t was his aid that made the
erection of Pauahi Hall possible,
though a minor part Of the cost has
come from the college revenues. a
most valuable feature Of this new school
house is the beautiful organ, whose rich
harmonies you have already enjoyed
the gift of Mrs. Samuel n. Castle III
memory OF her late husband, who was
for a generation or more trustee and
the treasurer OF the school
These are object lessons OF the great
est value to the Hawaiian community,
with it's threatened financial prosperity;
the lesson of wealth cOnsecrated to the
cause of humanity-peThaps the only
respectable excuse for the amusement
of riches. 1t tells in Language beyond
the power of words Of the blessedness
which comes to those who lift the
world upward by the lever of wealth, |
with their own hands on the lever.
Tonight we receive these gifts from |
them and dedicate Pauahi Hall to edu- |
cation. This occasion represents a new
departure for PunahoU, by which it en-
tiers a field of larger promise in educa- |
tional matters, with greater opportun1-
ties of keeping in touch with modern
thought. and of making itself in every
sense an inspiring influence in all Ha-
waiian educational work.
1t represents new era of increased
resources and of larger expectations,
but an era also with obstacles to study
in the way of the influences Of wealth
and luxury and wOTldliness.
1t testiiies to development in taste
and esthetic sentiment.
There may be danger in this advance.
There may be something lost in the
absence of the old simpler life of early
PunahOu, with it's freedom from dis
tracing influences in its studious at
mosphere. Yet, we must admit it, the
larger horizon with all its dangers and
distractions is the best growth of sweet
and sturdy manly and womanly char
acter.
While l congratulate the pupils who
will pursue their studies in this splen-
did temple of learning, with all it's COM
forts and conyeniences and facilities,
/ wish also to caution you that there is
no essential difference in condition be-
tween you and the boys and girls of the
old school room in the middle wing. 1t
is always the inward impulse that is
the ground of success. No one gets up
the hill of science without climbing;
one may go on foot or on stills or on a
bicycle, he may go barefoot or wear top
boots, but climb he must.
Punahou has from the beginning
been a place where education has meant
character making, where the highest
life has ever been held up as the in
centive to effort, where the question
what one is going to be is more i'm
portant than the other question, what
one is going TO know. 1 believe that it
is essential that this shall be its para
mount quest in the promising future
that lies before it.
The progress of the school has been
an evolution. 1t has advanced in Obedi-
ence to an inward impulse and an out
ward demand. They could not make a
college of it in 1855 because the inn
pulse and the environment did not call
for a college. The time may come when
the dream of the trustees of that pc
riod may be more than realized in a
university which shall be the natural
fruit of past and future growth. 1t is
evident that the school is growing and
will keep pace with the social and
material development of the Hawaiian
Islands.
During it's past history Punahou has
shared in the contemperaneOus timidity
of asking questions. 1t has been chary
of pushing scientific studies in certain
directions. We have sometimes gone
out of our way to avoid certain lOcali-
ties which contained the crumbling
remains of old views of things, and
have whistIed betimes as we hurried
by. But we have progressed somewhat
with the rest of the world, and l am as
sured that the time is near at hand
when PunahOu will no longer hesitate
to ask any question of the watchers
for the coming light. She will ask the
student of the records written in the
rocks what he reads. She will question
the seed and the flower, the egg and the
butterfly, the cell and the man, for
Gods latest message, and viii not be
afraid of the answer.