The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-05-18

sardine box. In Americanizing Hawaii
they have crowded more machinery into
the sardine box. Under the conditions
existing here / believe that commission
of three or five business men, as in
Washington or Galveston, could man
age all affairs and give a better and
far cheaper government than this COM
| pIicated system with it's many officials.
now in vogue.
| AS one who mas the privilege of be-
ing on terms of delightful friendship
with the descendants of the mission
aries I wish to say something and
any criticism which I make will be
| known to be friendly.
There is a feeling of dependency
among many who have been or are
engaged in Hawaiian religious work.
They do not see the results for which
they hoped. In that feeling I do not
/ share. There are many disappoint-
| ments, but when I consider that Chris
tianity was brought here only little
over eighty years ago, l constantly
| marvel at what I see. 1t is true that
| "Kahunaism'' is believed in and that
the moral ideas of many are not ours.
| But there is superstition in the States
| of the Union, and there are classes
/
| mainland.
| The hope is with the generation
| now growing up, which has advan-
/ tages which their parents had not, and
| in hundreds of homes you see the re-
suit Speaking of those whom / know
most intimately, because so many are
under my care, the part Hawaiian girls
are particularly promising. AS wives,
/ or
credit to their training and race.
| The expectation that Hawaiians
should regulate their lives by Puritan
standards was hard on primitive peo-
Pile The Roman Catholic church, with
| long experience in dealing with such
races, was more human" if may
express my idea by that word mean,
they had no commandments such as
Chou shalt not smoke and made
greater allowance in their discipline Of
their Hawaiian children. The mission
aries had a great revival but the
Roman Catholic church went on it's
way training the people, and made |
large gains.
When, in 1868, the American Board |
partially withdrew and the churches |
were gradually handed over to native |
pastors, the Roman Catholics, with |
their Woodworking white men, their
attractive service and their assertion
of authority, had a great advantage,
and the churches which had been
under the American Board began to
decline. This was accelerated by the
overthrow of the monarchy, in which
many sons of the missionaries were
naturally implicated. The Congrega-
tional system was not favorable to the /
discipline of the native pastors, and
the island Associations have really
exercised the powers of presbyteries.
STILL it was hard at times to enforce
discipline on a stubborn congregation.
Then the Mormons, who had been
working here for some time, had white
elders who lived with the Hawaiians.
They were not hard upon "Kahuna-
ISM and are supposed to have quietly
favored a plurality of women for one
man. Mormonism was more like the
old religion of their fathers, as a Ha-
waiian said to me, and so the seed
grew, not by appealing to the highest,
but by pandering to weakness. 1t has
drawn from the Protestants largely, ,
but two Roman Catholic priests have i
told me that they believe that half of {
the Mormons in Hawaii had been Ro- {
man Catholics. Again, the Hawaiian s
Board finds it hard to get Hawaiian t
pastors. I must say that do not y
wonder at that. On Kauai, for exam {
pie, sustentation fund assures the /
pastors $25 a month. This is not suf- e
fcient to support man who is to be +
a leader of his people. a
AS friend, T would say that it has t
to me that my brethren have.
m putting so much of their money into [
Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese 5
work, left the original work somewhat u
4 prey to other influences. This, how Y
ever, the Hawaiian Board is seeking !
% remedy by renewing white super
Vision and other energetic means.
The Anglican communion came here :
n 1862, and, severely criticizing the =
Protestant work, set forth a purpose to II
how those here just why there had II |.
'een failures and how to deal in the = :,
light way with the natives. It's schools
i'd good, but it never had large work q
mong the natives. For the forty .
ears of its existence here, before the
american Episcopal Church took it's II
lace in 1902. it was SO engaged in un- Ii
Apply disputes that aggressive effort G
as impossible. How far these various Il
eligious influences have aided in p'
Hawaii depends upon u
that one thinks. The Roman Catholic );
riests-devoted men are all from the SC
ointment of Europe. The Utah Nor Oh
IONS are not, / judge, enthusiastically al
american in the sense we use it. la
ct for all this, the strong influence o1
ffecting all others has been that of the Oh
-merican and Hawaiian Boards 81
But there are other people than the Sc
LaWaiians to consider. Many of the tn
cotch, English, Colonial and Germans es
ere are not naturalized American citi- &C
ems, nor do they intend to become VI
lch. This is unfortunate in many 10
avs; still, the children of numbers of nj
lese are Americanized by birth, and IN
have heard lively discussions in FAM Ii
les between Americanized children 10
Id foreign parents. A curious feature WI
these Islands is the number of chill WI
rem in private schools, the number WI
mounting to about 30 per cent of the W.
hole. A large number of these are Pc
Roman Catholic schools and the Law an