_His Majesty's Address at the Stone Church, before the Meeting of the
Native Agricultural Society, from the_ =Polynesian= _of Dec. 13._
Our reporter caught only some of the more prominent ideas embodied in
the King's address, which was delivered in the pure idiom of the elder
chiefs, by which device he connected, as it were, modern science with
ancient feeling. His train of discourse was nearly as follows:
It were useless, his Majesty said, to make further
suggestions, for to hear is not always to obey. If only a
tenth part of all the practical hints that had been given from
time to time, by persons standing where he then stood, had
been systematically pursued, the usefulness of the Society
would have been more apparent. Not but that the Society had
done much good, and awakened an interest, in the minds of many
besides its members, which might be considered as the dawn of
a brighter day. His intention was briefly to examine the
actual condition of agriculture science and practice; to show,
not what we might be, but what we are.
His Majesty spoke of the short-comings of the people as an
agricultural population, and though he set down naught in
malice it is equally certain that he extenuated nothing. This
plain speaking tells with the Hawaiians, especially when it
falls from the lips of their hereditary rulers. In the first
place allusion was made to the almost universal want of
perseverance which marks the character of the laboring classes
more than that of any other. The King showed in few words how
necessary it is to make agriculture an absorbing pursuit, the
only pursuit in fact of the man who engages in it, proving
that the intermission of a day may often render nugatory the
labor of a month. No man in fact having put his hand to the
plough ought to look back, till the last process of all
dependent upon ploughing has been brought to the best possible
issue. In the next place, the want of capital was touched on,
and spoken of as a very serious draw-back, though not an
insurmountable objection to the pursuit of agriculture. In
a country like this where the necessaries of life are so
easily supplied, one man's steady labor will always produce
very much more than one man's sustenance, and the overplus
with ordinary thrift--or what would be considered such in
other lands--becomes so much capital with which to increase
the scope of an individual's exertions, and provide those
means and appliances which by reducing labor add to profit. A
carelessness to observe and communicate the results of
observation as to seasons and localities, was another
peculiarity common amongst the Hawaiians. The natives are too
much inclined to make an attempt without first gaining all the
information procurable in regard to the particular plant or
vegetable they intend to cultivate. Slight variations in the
altitude of different fields above the level of the sea, and
differences in the quality of the soil, produce oftentimes no
less results than failure on the one hand and success on the
other. But the Hawaiians are too apt to make an essay without
previous enquiry, and afterwards to keep to themselves the
result of the experiment. This should not be in a country
which is visited weekly in its whole length and breadth by a
newspaper intended, more than for any other purpose, to spread
a knowledge of practical agriculture and afford a medium for
intercommunication upon points interesting to persons engaged
in the original pursuit of our race. The King enforced this
idea with great earnestness, begging his hearers to look upon
themselves as links in the chain of improvement, dependent
upon the past, as future laborers would depend upon them for
such experience as to seasons, methods and localities as might
be worthy of record and transmission to another generation.
The absence of methodical habits in the tillers of the soil
was adverted to. Whilst on this subject, the King spoke of the
utter disregard showed for any regularity in the hours of
commencing and leaving off work. This desultory system is
greatly aided by the want of stated hours for taking food and
retiring to rest. If there were a common hour for breakfast
and dinner, the hours for labor would be regulated and
understood. The want of economy, not of time only, but of
material, too, and labor, was then touched on. His Majesty
seemed to be hinting at the old saying that "a stitch in time
saves nine," a fact usually disregarded by the natives of this
country. One gap in a fence is generally a prelude to its
total destruction, whereas half a day's work might save it for
years to come, and prevent the outlay at some future day of
the labor and material necessary to build a new one. But we
cannot follow the line of illustration used to enforce this
point; suffice it to say that the matter was made intelligible
and the value of economy fully vindicated. After some remarks
on roads and means of communication by water, in which steam
was spoken of as one of the agents to which our agriculturists
must look for a helping hand up the hill that leads to
competency and opulence, the King strongly recommended the
planting of fruit trees, and went into some practical details
of the method now pursued by the natives of Kona, Hawaii, who
as a class bid fair not long hence to be, perhaps, more
comfortably off than the people of any other district. Coffee,
oranges, lemons and grape-vines were more particularly
recommended to the fostering care of the audience. Allusion
was also made to Dr. Hillebrand's very able remarks on the
advantages of shade trees. His Majesty then brought his
address to a close with a few general remarks that told home,
breathing as they did the spirit of his often repeated
exhortation to his people to remember that none will help
those who will not help themselves--that responsible men must
not, like children at their games, sit down to "open their
mouths and shut their eyes," and "see what God will send
them."