Nuhou, Volume I, Number 20, 17 March 1874 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

Uselēss That will sound alrtiost sacrilegious to some,—to speak of any bind of scholastic education as being useless; but education, like many another good thing, is useless, and even pernicious ; if there is not a proper condition of things to warrant its acquisition, and render it promotive of good, We don't think it is anything to brag of that a Hāwaiian man c]othed only in a malo,. (Or breeph clout) and squatted on a mat, ean read a newspaper to his family. 11 would be better for liis family and his country if he produced a regular ineome from his patch; and that when he was disposed to sit around in his malo, that his wife and daughter had a private room to retire to along with their lady visitor 5 and that he did not know how to read a newspaper. We wpn J t say a word against literature and fine arts, but physical convenience, comfort and decency ? shbuld precede them. Some good people in these isles are as busy as the devil in promoting loafing and vice. It would not be so, if the good people would only provide homes and occupations for the young people after they leavc then hands, Education, when there is a good domestic condition, produces a crowning glory ; but when the condition is utterly rude and without bonds, duties, and an atmosphere of virtue, then education is only a pander to barbarous pride, and an excuse for vicious indolence. But the churches want to get hold of the children, as the best of proselytes; and the school-room is regarded as a rnore efßcacious inAuenee than the temple;-~and so books are in the hands of every one of a race, that have more need of work than of literature to save them. If thf? salvation of the body had laken pi<cedence of the salvation of the soul among Hawalians, it woutd have been a good thing for s the i*laiuler> We have always thought a.nd said so, and we have practiced what we jseaeh. fn 1861-2 we organized an industml school upon our island 3 without promise, or hope of the &lightest pecuniary reward, but did this an aet of duty, or say, as a measure of thoughtful self interest ambng k poor people, in an unprovided distrlcr;, m whieh our lot wa* casi t so that they niight become prodiutive

helpers and co-workers. We organized a • school of about fifty children ; who worked ! four and who studied three hours 3 " and who' we.re trained tp regard manual labor as the | more honorable part of their employrnent,! The boys were, led by us to feel that to yoke a pair of oxen ,to hoe a elean row, to mend a broken whiine-tree ; to patch a worn hor>e to make| a good joint in carpentering ! and lo plani a or co]lect ite products.4 were more important and honorable to them I than to read ! a chapter in any book, to! commit to meinory a verse, to write a elean | copy, or to spout a lot of foreign sentiments. And ihe girls tiained by a faithful helper of tfceir own sex, became eaeh one proud of a neatly ordered chamber of her own, of the nicety of her inner as well as her outer garments, and of her skill in foreign cooking,— without a suspicion of piano, French. or the use of the globes. When a gentleman, afterwards a Royal Minister reviewed us, and who still lives to testify to his observations, we had ithen fifty-two children, organized in our industrial and wegave two years to this gratuitous work, and some of those boys are now the best workers, or overseers ori manv industrial establishments in these islands. We were dbliged to abandon this work through failing health, and becausē wecould not hope for e^couragement 3 or help, as we were in antagonism with the religious sentiment that governed the education of the * j country. We £an look back with satisfaction j and pride upos that portion of oūr Hawaiian j expenence, and yet it is a period that eowardly calumny, croaking and hissiag in the dark and withi>ut a fact to sustain its assertion? tries to issociate with wrong on our ! part to Hawaiians, to whom we have rendered four-fols anything received at their hands. We tiiained Hawaiians ;tp a eoneep-! tiott of an orderly, productive.. life s through the influence bf regular labor, and endeavored to ptove to them, that. whatever did not now cohtribute to their healthy development and personal independence was uso!ess"edu-' I cation