The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-04-20

cate the amount of Christian literature
he prepared for the press. or the num-
Der and character of the schools which
he increasingly Iabored to establish.
When he first arrived at Honolulu
Boki, the governor of Oahu, was at a
distant part of the island, but, being
apprised of the arrival of the mission
aries and of their design, two days
later he returned to Honolulu. The
historian says of him, He was then
so much under the debasing and dis
tracing influence of strong drink as to
be unfit for business except that of
speedy reformation, to which our bust
ness would call him. On one occa-
sion. some three months later, this
young Governor Boki came to my IA
Their at the close of the public worship
to make some inquiries about the SER
mon on the text, Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of
the world and expressed wish to be
able to read and understand the Bible.
and consented to be daily instructed in
it. Nine years later he gave to his
beloved teacher this land of Punahou
including Rocky Hill and stretching
1
street. supplemented by fish-pounds
salt-beds, and coral flats, all more or
less valua BILE. This gift was made in
1929 the year in which Boki sailed
away to the South Seas On his fatal
expedition. He had never united with
the church, still clinging more or less
TO his cups, but he appreciated the
faithfulness of his instructor and no
a -. 7 h.
ent with US today and behold what our
eyes behold on this campus he would
exclaim Mani loa,'' and greatly re-
joice that through his magnificent gift
to his teacher the way had been opened
whereby his native land had been for
so many years blessed with such a
Christian institution of learning as is
Oahu College? His gift is witness to
his sincere gratitude that there had
come to his people those who had la
bored faithfully to introduce and main
tain Christian education and culture
among them, and to do them good.
Would that he had personally profited
more by the faithful instruction given
him. Let not his grateful liberality be
forgotten so long as this institution
shall stand. Such I doubt not, would
be the siqcere wish of my father.
But we are here today especially to
honor the name of Hiram Bingham,
and so l appropriately ask. what would
be his emotions if he could appear
among US at this hour, after nearly
sixty-five years of absence, twenty
nine of them spent in straitened cir
cumstances before he went to glory and
contrast what his eyes beheld in Au-
1c+ fvx-l,A he l.; 11o
of this spot of blessed memory and
looked out for the last time from the
makai door of the humble cottage
which stood just where this memorial
stands with what he would now be-
hold, this campus of a noble college, |
with its slightly, convenient and we'll !
equipped structures. thronged with stu |
dents largely Anglo-Saxon. but includ- |
ing Hawaiians and Asiatics cared for |
by noble corps of Christian teachers |
the President and his associates and /,
its Board OF Trustees, made up of !
Christian representative men of Homo |
lulu? What, 1 say, would be his emo !
tons? Methinks his breast would swell
with honest pride, his heart beat with {
sincere gratitude to God that he had f,
given him the opportunity and the in
clination to make such disposition of ,
whatever portion of Oahu's soil he :
owned in a way that should greatly !
tend to secure the permanerce Of Chris :
tan education and the building up of
the Redeemer's kingdom in this Para
disc of the Pacific, in this city of the
sea, now under the Stars and Stripes,
facing so conspicuously the great en-
pires of China and Japan. the Philip
pines and the East Indies. Do you
think that 1 would not spring to take
him by the hand and congratulate him,
and tell him how glad I was. how
proud, to look out upon the many acres
Of this beautiful campus and remember
how he was the man who so willingly
them for all time to the
Furtherance of Christian education and
had thus virtually done what he could
to repel the foul and oft repeated SLAM
Ter that the missionaries came to these
Islands TO take and did take from the
ooor natives their lands for their own
and selfish aggrandizement?
Before I close you viii bear with me
n my folly. It is not expedient for
ne doubtless to glory. I will come to
visions. not OF the future. but of the
past, just a few "reminiscences of an
Did man.
Dear Punahou cottage. once my