The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-06-17
OAHU COLLEGE,.

The meeting of the Alumni Of Puma
hou should be, hereafter, a red letter
day in the story of Oahu College.
The situation of the grounds upon
which the institution stands is, 50 far
as the city is concerned, admirable.
The space is ample for the needs Of a
large university, and if judgment is
used in the matter of landscape gar
dening, The most effective use may be
made of the'topographical situation.
On Rocky HILL above the present
site, should be erected, in the course
of time building devoted to one of
many educational purposes, which Will
command a superb view OF the ocean,
the valley behind it, and of Diamond
Head. As questions Of transportation
are more easily disposed of every year,
a building crowning Rocky Hill" may
be as accessible as any building on the
present site.
There should be a university in
these Islands. Oahu College should be
the nucleus of it. This goes without
saying. The wealth, enormous it must
be said, given as a bounty for twenty
five years to Hawaii by the United
States, should be swift to make pro-
vision for it. 1t is really the only
possible return that can be made for
that bounty Those who write the
story of Hawaii one hundred years
hence, should truthfully say: While
the United States desired the Islands
for strategic and commercial ends, it
gave to those residing there an OPP
opportunity for securing great wealth
which has no example in commercial
history. The residents and possessors
of the bounty, mostly of the Anglo
Saxon race, generously established
schools for the education of youth
They were not satisfied with this only,
but had the generosity and ambition
to establish a seat of learning in the
geographical center of the Pacific,
which, in it's system of instruction and
investigation had no. superior in the
United States
Whether these words Will be written
depends upon those now living here.
If il is said that the resources of the
inhabitants of the Islands are not suf-
ficient to establish such an institu-
ton. the reply may be made in the
words of Professor Ernst Haeckel, of
the University Of Jena: The amount
of original investigation done in
university is usually in inverse ratio
to the completeness and costliness of
its equipment"
This rather paradoXical statement is
true Not only the German, but the
English universities are evidence of it.
1t is not the money which creates a
valuable system of education, but the
men whose brains conduct it.
The difficulty lies in securing the
right men, because in these later days,
the right men, the bold explorers in
investigation, the men who have
thought out the needs of the hour, the
men who see the gray light of the
new morning of truth, will no longer
be hampered by conservative igno-
rance.
Provided opportunities are given in
Oahu College for excellent training,
through a good endowment and a we'll
selected staff of instructors, the eli
mate of the Islands should secure
large and increasing number of stu
dents from the Mainland. In spite of
all that has been written about it,
there are few people in the States who
are aware Of the existence here of an
institution which gives instruction in
the higher branches. 1t is probable
that thorough and systematic adyer-
tisement of this fact in the literary
journals, and in such magazines as the
Century, Harper's. the Outlook, the
Independent and other similar publ
cations. would attract much atten-
ton.
Even ifNthe population Of the ISL
ands within fifty years ceases to be
Anglo-Saxon and becomes Latin or
Asiatic, the obligation to do some
thing for posterity requires OF us the
equipment of one conspicuous center