KAMEHAMEHA.
December 9, 1856.
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."
May 26, 1857.