_Notes of an Address by His Majesty, at the Formation of the Hawaiian
Agricultural Society, reported to the =Polynesian=._
In due course of time His Majesty addressed the meeting. The difficulty
of taking short-hand notes in English of what is being said in the
native dialect, the construction of which is peculiar, a sentence often
beginning at the end and ending in the middle, must be our apology for
doing so little justice to the eloquent language and sound common-sense
ideas expressed by the President.
After an opening sentence or two, the King spoke to the following
effect:
Convinced of the importance of this undertaking, I consented
to address you to-day. I should not however, have done so, had
I not been fearful that a refusal on my part might have
induced others of more information and better acquainted with
the particular object we have united to foster, to decline in
like manner. At the same time I cannot help thinking and
hoping that my few remarks will be eclipsed by the weight and
breadth of those of other speakers who are to stand before you
on the closing day of this month and other specified days,
according to a resolution passed at our last meeting.
We also caught the following sentence, which, although it may appear a
little disjointed here, was neatly introduced, and bore upon the
argument then being used:
One of the greatest prospective advantages that we see in the
assiduous pursuit of agriculture, is the reformation it would
work amongst the people. It is not in the ranks of modern
farmers that you must look for the most ignorant or the most
immoral men. We all know that when an individual enters upon
an undertaking of the mode to accomplish which he is ignorant,
he applies for information where it may be found, having
learnt that a man unqualified for his task must fail in it.
Having acquired this much experience, and being solicitous for
the prosperity and happiness of his children, he will on no
account omit sending them to school, so that they may not be
trammelled in after years by ignorance as their father was.
Thus the rising generation is prepared for its work. The
children find themselves on starting in life possessed of the
information necessary to success, whereas their father had to
struggle on his way in the midst of darkness and
misapprehension. Suppose a step similar to the one I have
described were made by the young people from one end of the
islands to the other. Would not ignorance give way to
intelligence? Would not darkness become light? Would not
inexpertness succumb to proficiency? The general result could
only be a largely increased sum of individual and national
prosperity.
The King, who has of late been residing a few miles from Honolulu
superintending some agricultural operations of his own, we believe upon
the very spot which his great predecessor, Kamehameha I., cultivated
before him, spoke with animation of our natural advantages:
Who ever heard of winter upon our shores? When was it so cold
that the laborer could not go to his field. Where amongst us
shall we find the numberless drawbacks which in less favored
countries the working classes have to contend with? They have
no place in our beautiful group, which rests on the swelling
bosom of the Pacific like a water-lily. With a tranquil heaven
above our heads, and a sun that keeps his jealous eye upon us
every day, whilst his rays are so tempered that they never
wither prematurely what they have warmed into life, we ought
to be agriculturists in heart as well as practice.
The following sentence contains a truth to which thousands can testify:
I wish to allude to a bad custom which prevails amongst us. I
mean the foolish hospitality extended everywhere towards the
lazy and good-for-nothing equally with those who are worthy of
it. A young man, able bodied and fit for work, lies in the
house upon which he confers the honor of a visit, whilst his
friends go out to labor. When they come back they share with
him their scanty meal, and he is not ashamed to eat of it. Is
that as it should be? Is it not a thing which we ought to feel
as a disgrace--a custom that reflects upon the heads of the
old and the hearts of the young? I am well aware that the
sharing of food with every stranger and visitor that comes
along is dignified with the name of ancient Hawaiian
hospitality. I now tell you it is not true hospitality. Can
that hospitality be correct in theory or practice which sends
old men and sick men to work under a hot sun, whilst lusty
young people lie in the house playing at cards.
There is a very wholesome tone in this remark:
At present we are a poor people, for the surplus produced by
the few who work is consumed by the many who claim at their
hands the rights of your boasted hospitality. Never close your
doors on those who are hungry through sickness, misfortune, or
the wrongs they have received; but on the other hand never
help those who are too lazy to help themselves.
Another nail is most decidedly hit on the head in the following:
I will allude to another bad feature in the native mind; I
mean the idea in which too many of you indulge, that a fortune
if not made in a day, ought to be acquired in a very short
space of time. If a man does not get rich in the first few
months of his endeavoring to do so, he suddenly relaxes in his
exertions, subsides into his native indolence, and becomes a
laughing stock to those whose ideas are in advance of his own.
You say commonly, everything a foreigner touches he turns into
money. But the fact is that if you worked and persevered as
the foreigners do, then you would grow rich like them. There
are three essentials to success in cultivating the soil. The
first is a place to cultivate--the second, the hands to work
with--and the third, perseverance. You have all your patches
granted you by law; your hands are not tied either by natural
or artificial bonds--but as cultivators you do not succeed,
because you have no perseverance.
The concluding sentence was almost word for word as under:
The great sources of poverty amongst Hawaiians are laziness
and the want of perseverance. I know that what I now say is a
matter of which you and I also have cause to be ashamed. But
placed in the position I occupy, and as a Father to my people,
I cannot hide the fact.
The King's address was listened to with great earnestness, and every now
and then we heard subdued expressions of _Oiaio no_ (True, true,) from
different parts of the house. At present we see no cause to doubt that
much good will result from the new society, and to those who interest
themselves in it we hope to see the honor given which they undoubtedly
deserve.