The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-11
CENTENARY Of MOTHER
PARKER COMMEMORATE TED
Continued from Page -


those who remained faithful to the an
cieut religion was fought on Hawaii
resulting in the defeat of the conserva-
tive party. This movement against the
existing religious system did not appear
to have any active religious quality.
1t was rather reaction against the
rigorous Inconvenience of the system
which was inevitable as soon as the
popular belief in the power of the gods
and the consequent terror of them, be-
gan to wane However this may be,
condition of affairs was thereby created
which was extremely favorable to the
missionary enterprise subsequently mi
tiated. The nation had repudiated its
own religious system and was without
bias or prejudice toward any substitute
therefor 1t had not apparently oc-
Cured to it or any leading mind of its
citizens, that any substitute was re-
quired.
The missionaries made the most of
this most favorable opportunity. They
created an alphabet and reduced the
| Hawaiian language to writing; they es-
| tablished schools and as the demand
for instruction increased beyond their
own ability to respond, they trained
teachers from among the natives for
them; they published school books,
translated and published the Bible and,
later, published newspapers; they
taught Christianity as they understood
it. administered spiritual consolation to
the diving, and medicine and healing
treatment to the sick, some of them be-
ing trained physicians; others who were
not did what they could for the health
/ of their parishes. with such scant prepa-
ration as they could obtain from books
1 and professional advice. Every mis-
sionary station was dlspensary, and
! during the first years, school house.
The women taught school, held prayer
meetings, gave instruction in needle
work, housekeeping and the care of
children, besides attending to their
many duties connected with the care
of their own families 1t must be re-
membered that an essential preliminary
to the doing or attempting of all these
things was the mastery OF the Hawaiian
| language.
The general meetings of the mission
airy body were held annually, in what
| is now a government school house stand |
| ing a hundred yards south of the ka-
waiahao Church 1t was a humble
room, vet from it emanated influences
which affected deeply the welfare of
| the country. Reports from all parts of
| the field were read and discussed, ques
| tions of policy were considered. There |
were economic questions to be disposed |
! of salaries to be adjusted and appro
| priations to be made. Politics were not |
| entirely excluded. They could not be. !
| Up to the reign of Kamehameha III, |
the missionaries were very influential |
/ in the councils of the government. Mr.. |
| Richards, who came in the first rein
| forcement, became very early an adj |
| wiser of the King and was at one time |
| the instructor of the chiefs in the prin- !
| ciples of government. Later DR.. Judd |
held for long period the position of |
premier Very early the general meet |
ing was requested by the chiefs to es-
tablish a boarding school for their chill
dren. which was acceded to and Mr..
and Mrs. Amos s. Cooke were selected |
as managers and teachers. This was
the origin of the well known Royal |
| School.
Thus in various lines was carried on
the moral campaign. The paramount
| object was to prepare souls for the eter
nal life; incidentally with this, much
was done for the incubation of civiliza-
ton. Each missionary family in it's
home life was an object lesson of the |
most influential character to the Ha-
waiians, in which a high ideal of mar
| riage, the home and the care of children
were vital elements.
| There were deep tragedies in
this missionary life which the en-
thusiasm of the work, the novelty !
of the new life, the JOY in its adj
venture, the uplifting faith and the |
rewards of its successes could not Who'll
ly make up for. The parting from the !
| old home, the wrench to the heart of |
! sundering the close touch of intimate |
! friendships for an adventure from
which there was little hope or expecta-
| ton of any return-it was like death. |
J We of this generation with cable-com- |
| munlcatlon to the rest of the world, |
with swift steamships coming and 60 |
ing every few days can not easily con- !
| ceive the sense of remoteness and sep !
| aration that dwelt continuously with /
| the early missionary fathers and ,
| mothers. whose mails from home were
sometimes six months apart, whose
news of death or illness of friends
would always be many months old when /.
| received. Some did go back to visit
their homes after long absences and
some did not. I understand that
Mother Parker, whose centennial birth
day we celebrate tonight. has never Wis
years ago. Often it is sadder to re
turn home after a protracted absence
than it is to remain away One who
was present at the arrival of my father
at his mother 5 home on the banks of
the Kennebec in the State of Maine,
after an absence of over 80 years. spoke
to me of the pathos of it. els this
Danielo'' she TREMENDOUSLY exclaimed as
he, the son she remembered as he was
80 years before. came up to her and
clasped her in his arms.
The earlier missionaries for want of
! suitable schools for their children and
with the difficulty of instructing them
ut home after their earlier years under
the pressure of their multifarious du-
ties, adopted the plan of sending them
to the United States for their educa-
ton. This, with the slow communica-
ton, and the long waits between mails,