The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-04-05
AN INDUSTRY" :"
A Graduate Of KaVaialaO
School Talks Of the Situation.
WHAT PROSPECT FOR GIRLS?
Hawaiians Feel the Competition
of Other Labor-Education
and Wants"
WHAT PROSPECT FOR GIRLS?

MIR. EDFTOR:-In this mornings
Advertiser on the editorial page is an
article under above headlines in which
you refer to New York industry
which you would have transplanted to
these Islands, using the mountain tops
for goat culture and intimating
| source for the profitable employment
of graduates from Kamehameha and
Kawaiahao schools in the manufacture
Of gloves from the skins of such goats
l do not, in common with some of the
natives find a connection between this
proposed industry and the report that
they are to be driven to the mountains
when annexation comes, but do find
in it, an occasion to make some oppor-
tune statements as to the present con-
dition of many graduates of Hawaiian
girls schools. Some days ago in writ
ing on "a good class of Portuguese"
you said: This class must share
homes-that is, own land in fee simple |
and they must be able to obtain a de- |
cent living from it." and again, |
1--WE compel their children to attend |
school and get knowledge" 'fKnowl- |
edge breeds wants and plenty of them" |
] have merely quoted this, because if |
applicable to an alien friendly element |
settling in our midst how much more |
so to the native Hawaiians. From the |
earliest days of the advent of mission
aries in these Islands our nation has
hopT I'm in Io Of o;xv
ton. Our wants begotten of knowl- |
adge, as your truly state became many |
and our opportunities to satisfy them |
seemed to diminish in proportion as |
the wants increased. You will pardon |
me for saying that our present condi-
ton is largely due to the fact that the |
offspring of our earlier tutors, forget |
full Of the God of their fathers found !
comfort in worshipping mammon
In the first flush of their endeavors |
while still the influence Of their |
fathers was with them they employed |
our fathers and brothers in the conduct
of their enterprises, our women went
into the fields to strip the cane, did
washing, and sewing, incidental to the
requirements of the times, and indus
try seemed the WatchWOrd on all sides; !
but as one by one the monitors of our
earlier days went to their last long
rest, it seemed as though an estrange-
ment were coming upon the foreign
element in our midst. In their eager
ness to curry the favor of their new
found master and fOrgetful of the duty
they owed to the natives among whom
they had been 4prOSpered-they sought
in every cline to find the cheapest
element to perform the labors thereto
fore done by our own people.
The natives in their simple confding ,
way looked on and even encouraged
the work of these people because from
the very nature of things, it must be
right being in large measure the work
of the children of those who had sacri-
feed so much for us in the past. But
10! what an awakening these years of
tOiling for the necessaries of life have
brought to our people and more parti-
cularly to our women in their en-
deavOrs to keep themselves respected
while laboring to satisfy their wants.
AS a seamstress in this community 1
have laid aside my usual lamp light
vigil over the sewing machine to give
vent to my long pent up thoughts and
feelings. It has seemed to me since
reading can Industry this morning
that I should say something for the
girls of Kawaiahao and Kamehameha
schools-as a scholar in the former
school with our lamented Princess
Likelike" as a cIass-mate, I was taught
among other things, the art of needle
work by which l am now endeavOring
to make a livelihood. l was also taught
many things that gave me new ideas
of life-ideas that created wants" as
you call them faster than they could be
satisfied and when after my years Of
education and sOjOurning among those
who seemed TO have the means TO salts
fy their every want; when after this
I was set adrift to make a living by
the means at my command-how cruel
it seemed to me to find almost every
avenue for honest employment-flled
by an alien cement whose coming has
been at the bidding of those who from
selfish motives were seeking only per-
sonal gain and from like selfish mo-