The report comments favorably on the quarterly meetings of the teachers held at various centers; also on the custom of visiting schools. It is affirmed that "as a body the teachers of the Hawaiian Islands are a credit to the Republic. They have the future of the State under their control, and they are as a rule faithfully and conscientiously doing their work." Teachers' examinations are carefully conducted. First-class certificates are given for three years upon a minimum mark of 85 per cent; second-class certificates are for two years, the minimum mark required being 75 per cent; and thirdclass certificates for one year with a minimum mark of 65 per cent. A life diploma has been granted to Mr. Armstrong Smith, who has spent over ten years of satisfactory and successful service in the public schools of the country. The report goes carefully into the details of the school work, public and private, in each island and each district. The attendance for the island of Oahu was 5,212, and in the city of Honolulu, the capital of the Republic, 4,305. Eight years ago there were in Honolulu only 2,329 pupils enrolled. Of the male teachers in the Government schools of that city, 6 are American and 4 are British; of the female teachers, 15 are part Hawaiians, 18 American, 10 British, 2 Scandinavian, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Chinese. Of the special teachers, 1 is British and 1 is American. Of the entire number of teachers, 35 received their education, in whole or in part, in the Hawaiian schools. The Royal School is the largest of the Government English schools, with 469 pupils and 11 teachers. The largest independent school is St. Louis College, which enrolls 522 pupils. The high school is strongly commended. The most prominent of the independent schools is Oahu, "which offers to its students a semiuniversity course." The success of its pupils in the leading universities of the United States speaks well of the training it gives. The Kamehameha classes grow in favor and do great credit to their munificent founders. A girls' department has been opened and has 59 pupils. Of the schools for girls, the largest is that kept by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. It is a boarding and day school, and numbers 320 pupils. The Northern Pacific Missionary Institute has 8 Hawaiian students, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Chinese. The regular course extends over three years; sometimes a fourth is added for a special study. Of the 36 pastors now serving the 55 evangelical churches, 25 are graduates of this institute. Six other graduates are engaged in the foreign missionary work in the Gilbert Islands. The expenditures of the board having charge of the schools for the twenty-one months ending December 31, 1895, are given as $270,856.08. A circular from the board calling attention to the clause of the constitution which declares that no public money shall be appropriated or public land conveyed to or for the support or benefit of any sectarian, denominational, or private school after a specified time, states that "the board does not consider it consistent with the above principle to open the school every morning by repeating the Lord's Prayer in unison," calling attention to the declaration of the school law, which points out the object of the common schools supported by the Government, is to instruct the children of the Union in good morals; the report declares that "this includes honesty, truthfulness, obedience to parents and teachers, respect for superiors in age and position, patriotism, kindness, benevolence, helpfulness to the weak and the unfortunate, humanity to animals, personal cleanliness, modesty, chastity, temperance, and other virtues which should be taught by precept, illustration, and example at all times. No profane or indecent language should be allowed in the school premises or on the way to or from school. Special instruction should also be given on the evils of the use of narcotics and of alcoholic drinks." In all parts the system of schools exhibits the influence of American principles and methods. "The school law of June, 1896, revises the educational organization; there is no longer a separate cabinet officer for education. The secretary of foreign affairs is the head of the educational department and presides over its meetings and repre. sents it in the cabinet." The administration of education is in the care of the above cabinet officer and six commissioners to be appointed by the President with the advice of the cabinet; "ministers of religion are not eligible as commission ers." The commissioners elect one of their number as chairman to preside in the absence of the cabinet officer. They adopt all regulations and rules under the law for the employment of teachers and agents. They elect an inspector who devotes himself to the improvement of the schools and a secretary who keeps all records of the department. The organization is simple and aims to be effective in the administration of the remotest and smallest school. The law provides that private or independent schools must have a Government permit for their establishment, must conform to sanitary and hygienic requirements, must be opened to Government inspection, and that their teachers must have a Government certifi cate as a guaranty of their good moral character and their qualification to teach' The attendance of all children between 6 and 15 years of age, both inclusive, at either a public or private school is obligatory; except, first, when there is no school within 4 miles; second, when it is certified by a physician that the child is physically or mentally unable to attend; third, when the child is properly instructed at home by a tutor; fourth, when the child has passed required examinations. The English language shall be the medium and basis of instruction in all public and private schools, save where other languages are specially permitted by the department. Provision is made for teachers' conventions and institutes. Textbooks are furnished by law at cost price. The law requiring boys and girls to be taught separately is repealed. The revised school law is intended to put the utmost vigor into the administration and instruction of all grades of schools. Total 14.286 96.20 The census endeavored to obtain information, not only into the number who can actually read and write, but who can read and write English, Hawaiian, and any other language. The result is set forth in the following statement, from which may be judged the relative illiteracy of the races: The census observes there are very few countries where education is so universal, and in a few decades, if things go as they now do, there will be very few unable to to read and write English. Comparing the figures of several years, we have the following result: The marked gain for the last six years will be observed. The following form of statement shows the result of school attendance by groups of nationalities. With the progress of intelligence before us, as seen in the above data of school work, it is of interest to observe the facts connected with the ownership of property or homes, as indicated by the following table: Here is an increase of 1,632 owners of real estate. That the conditions in these recent years are favorable to the Hawaiians is indicated by the increase of 724 Hawaiian owners. From another table it appears that there are 5,966 homes owned by those who inhabit them. Here, too, the percentage by nationalities is important. III. THE INDIAN PROBLEM FROM AN INDIAN'S STANDPOINT. [The following is taken from an address delivered before the Fortnightly Club, of Chicago, by Dr. Carlos Montezuma, an Apache Indian from Arizona, and reputed to be a respected resident and successful practitioner in Chicago. His proposition for the solution of the Indian question, in view of his origin and present status, is entitled to consideration.] The Indians of to-day are not the Indians of the past. They have been cut loose from the advantages of barbarism and thus far have not profited by civilization. This makes the Indians of the present more degraded than their forefathers ever were. Do you know that your whole effort has been and now is crowding them into depths of a state worse than barbarism? If you go on and hold down the latent power of the young Indian in the poisonous tank of your present Indian system, the new picture will present a form that once glowed with health scarred by disease; the once open face and piercing eye will be filled with suspicion and fear; clear-cut feature is no longer there; the hands that pulled the bow are weakened by misuse and poisoned by vice. We Indians are struggling in the dark to find a way out. I have faced your civilized and uncivilized Indian in his own home, have investigated the Indian school system on and off the reservations, and, above all, have I passed from the Apache grass hut through the different stages of development among enlightened people. Now I say more and more every year, I know that you are shortsighted in dealing with the Indian. Your mistakes have made him what he is to-day. My convictions come from intense interest, from personal observation. I have put all my thought into it. Most people have a wrong idea of the reservation; it is not an earthly paradise nor a land of milk and honey, where the pipe of peace is continually smoked. It is a demoralized prison, a barrier against enlightenment, a promoter of idleness, beggary, gambling, pauperism, ruin, and death. It is a battlefield on which ignorance and superstition are massed against a thin skirmish line sent out from civilization. Five or ten Government employees at an agency or on a reservation can never elevate its thousands of Indians; on the contrary, you send teachers to elevate the Indians and in a few years these teachers become Indians in habits and thought. Would you isolate your children on a barren soil? Would you surround them with ignorance and superstition? Would you put them among idlers, beggars, gamblers, paupers, and cowboys? Would you put around them the bowie knife, the revolver, and the bayonet? Would you deliberately place them away from any civilization whatever? If you did all this, would you expect them to be cultured, refined, intelligent, humane, and honest? Would you expect to make them industrious and self-supporting citizens? No; you would place them in the midst of the most refined, cultured, and educated communities, among English-speaking people, where they could come face to face with all phases of civilized life, so that they might utilize and improve all their faculties. You would do this not merely for five years, but for all of their life time, and even then if they turned out well you would have a sense of relief. You are blinded and ignorant in the enjoyment of your civilized life. In the midst of your refinement and education you are without a trace of an idea of the real facts about the Indian question. You need to have the real conditions forcibly brought to you before you can realize your duty. Long-range education away from civilization is an utter failure. Five years of schooling is not education for the Indian boy any more than for the white boy. It is a mere whitewash education. The boy and girl go home and back to barbarism. To accomplish the elevation of the Indian, compulsory education will be necessary. This education should not be on reservations nor near them, but in your public schools. If the choice of my life had been left to my mother and father or myself, I would not be here. Ignorance and the very depths of barbarism would have been my fate. You are sympathetic and philanthropic; but your sympathy and philanthropy when exerted to the secluding of the Indians on the reservations are misplaced. It is unjust, it is inhuman; it is criminal to stun the Indian from his birth to his death. Would you give a child a few hundred dollars a year to do with as it pleases? The Indians in their present state have become children. The intention of the people and the Government toward the Indian is good, but you can not cancel your obligation by giving him large money annuities. You feed able-bodied men and women; you take away the need of personal effort; you hold them in idleness; you encourage barbarism. Against these methods and this treatment I protest. You may care for the weak and helpless, but do not make strong men idle. Good people wish the Indians were like themselves, but think it cruel to change their relations and habits at once. There is a story that goes this way: There was a saint who had a dog; the dog had too long a tail. He concluded to cut the poor unfortunate's tail off little by little so as not to hurt the dear dog too much. In much this way we are treating the Indians. Let us stop this destructive policy. Let us cut the Gordian knot by the quickest way possible. Delay is ruin to my race. Does anyone say that this race is not endowed by nature with some great qualities which the Caucasian would do well to preserve? Yes, more, to imitate? Do I hear anyone say that the Indian has no fine qualities worth preserving? Do I hear this from anyone? If I do, my words are not for him. Why do you not wipe out these dark reservations? Let the Indian earn his living in God's appointed way, "by the sweat of his brow." This is the only way to liberty, manhood, and citizenship. Some of these Indians, when brought into competition with white men, will die, you say. True; but that is what they are doing now. But, you say, they are wards of the nation, and we must deal honorably and justly with them. What you say is true, and you mean well, but to hear you speak of dealing honestly and justly with the Indian makes an Indian smile. You ask what shall be done with the reservations which the nation holds in trust for the Indian? I answer, sell them to bona fide settlers. What shall be done with the money? Use it, and more if necessary, for the education of every ED 97-96 |