The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-03-24

all probability, will be true again.
8. There is stilI another reason. in
Mr.. Armstrong; opinion, against the
present location of the schools, viz,
the criminal character of the Oahu
population, and in particular of the
people of. Honolulu. Granted, for the
sake of argument. that the position is
sound. Then it follows that Oahu Col
lege, st. Louis College, the Mills In
stitute, the Normal School and the
High School are most unfortunately
located" for they ssare established in
the very front and face of the vilest
civilization of the white and Asiatic
races" I have never heard of Mr.
Armstrong advocating the removal of
! Oahu College to Molokai: and yet he
! is doubtless as much interested in the
welfare of Oahu College as in that of
the Kamehameha Schools. The fact is,
Mr.. Armstrong; argument limps, as
usual. It's legs are not equal. It ir-
! resistibly suggests the common saying
of the statistician that figures don't
strong fails to note that the recent re-
port of Chief Justice Frear is for the
biennial period of 1901 and 1902, not for
last year. So that it was not fifteen
per cent of the population of the ISL
and of Oahu" which were "convicts
last year. but the number of criminal
convictions for the last two years was
equal to fifteen per cent of the popu-
lation, a very different matter More
over, this number is made up largely
of offences created by statute and of
minor Importance. For the years 1912
the number of convictions for criminal
offences on the island of Oahu is 9.177;
of these, 2,416 were for gambling, 2.915 !
141 for violating Sabbath laws. When |
Mr.. Armstrong, in his anxious solicitude |
for the preservation of the Hawaiian |
people, suggests that the Kamehameha |
Schools should be removed to Molokai, |
the reader is inclined to rub his eyes, |
TO learn whether or not he is dreaming. |
If the schools should be located where
there is abundance of land, as Mr.. Arm I
strong contends, they should be remov-
ed to Hawaii. not to the island OF the
leper settlement.
The men and women who located the
Schools had considerable
of the needs of the Hawaii
an people, and large insight into the
tendencies of the times; they deserve
the gratitude of all well-wishers of the
race. They knew that for the Hawa-
iians the best education that could be
offered them was none too good. and
that in their period of pupilage they
needed all the help that could possibly
be given them. The one thing that the
need to learn above every
thing else is to learn to live and work
like civilized people, and the one way
for them to learn to do this is working
and living with civilized people. To
have them improve by isolation would
be like making people learn to swim by
precept.
There is one serious defect. it seems
to me, in the present organization of
the schools, and 1 now avail myself Of
his opportunity to point it out. Years
ago there should have been erected a
central hall where at least the upper
grades of the manual and girls schools I
could have met together for their aca-
iemic work. For this neglect it is no {
Justification to say that there were not
unds available for the purpose. More
money than would have been sufficient
o construct such a building has been
expended on the i'm
of the grounds. 1t is well,
10 doubt, to cultivate fine trees and
'eautiful flowers, in their proper place;
tut the training of men and women is
f infinitely more Importance. Co-edu
alton in the schools viii come. of 7
curse in time. Delay only means SO
much lost opportunity. with all the I
-ood results involved therein. Consid-
rable opposition, it is said, exists in I
ertain quarters to the idea of co-edu- 7
alton at Kamehameha. There is no I
ational ground. whatever. for this feel S
ng more than there would be for l
opposition to co-education in Oahu c
,oIlege, in the Normal School, or in the g
Ugh School 1t was intended by their G
reator that men and women should [
i've together throughout life. The '
ooner they learn TO do this rightly. !
he better will it be for them; the best I
way to learn how to live together is
" living together. Members of both I
exes naturally and normally live to-
.ether. as brothers and sisters. from {
he period of infancy until the time Of I
marriage; then they live together. as s
husband and wife, until death parts '
hem. If the sexes ought to be edu- !