HONOLULU.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 256, 12 January 1848, Page 3

HONOLULU.

[From the Polynesian, Oct. lo\ 1847.} Having in our last number shown the importance of agriculture as a means of improving the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people, it remains to consider some of the measures to be adopted in* order to securer the blessings which industry and thrift will bestow. .Q*e great drawback to the. .prosperity of the nation, is the indolence of the people, and their inability to appreciate the advantages

<onferre<J upon them by the constitution and laws. ' Their transit from a state of the most abject servitude to one of freedom, has been too sudden for the intellects of the mass to Comprehend. The advances of the government in correct principles amid the concession of the rulers to the subjects, in securing to them by law so many rights and liberties, which the chiefs, as framers of the laws, might easily have withheld, is unparalleled in the history of nations. The course pursued by the rulers is highly commendable; it speaks well for their liberality and justice, and is the best compliment which can be paid their teachers and advisers from other lands. But the people must be made to comprehend the design of the concessions, and to improve the advantages conferred upon them, or the good intentions of the government will be of no avail. Shey must improve the talents given them, or like the unprofitable servant who buried his talent in the ground, the privileges they now now enjoy, will pass into other hands. There are many of the natives who are industrious and enterprising ; but their earnings are all swallowed up by a tribe of hangers-on. —While every inducement shouM be offered to voluntary labour, the vagrants who now throng our streets, and live upon the earnings of the industrious part of the community should be compejUedLjo "earn their bread by the sweat of the brow." If with all the inducements now offered, the people remain in idleness, it only remains for the government to enforce labor by penal enactments* Idleness is a crime against the commonwealth and is so treated by many communities. The Hollanders, in the early ages of their republic, punished idlers as criminals ; and unless those with no visible means of an honest livelihood, could render a satisfactory account of themselves, they were put to labour. The lawgivers of our own kingdom also seem to have so considered it, and for fear their wise provision on this subject may have been forgotten, we extract the following from Fart HI, Chap, vi, of the "Act to Organize the Executive Departments." if IV. The Minister of the Interior may cause to be seized any subjects of His Majesty, living in idleness and without occupation or visible means of support, and he may impress them into the service of the government farms and plantations, the working of B tone or other enterprises for the use and support of government. He shall also have power to bind out such idlers and vagrants to labour for a term not exceeding one year ai any one time, and at a rate of hire, two-thirds to the apprentice, and one-third for the exchequer, with any agriculturist, planter or farmer in any of the islands, or with any artisan or mechanic who will undertake their training and instruction in his art or trade. He shall have power to authorise the master of any such bound apprentice to use coercive means to be indicated and limited in the articles of apprenticeship, in case the apprentice neglect or refuse to do the reasonable labc ur required of him." Let the existing laws respecting vagrants be rigidly enforced, and many who now lounge about our streets would soon find employment in voluntary labor on the lands. The effect upon the morals of the people could not but be salutary, as it would compel numbers who now flock to the sea-port towns, and who are dependent upon chance for a subsistence, to remain on their lands, and labour to improve them. It is the first duty of a government to look after the interests of its own subjects ; and no alien can complain if privileges are bestowed on subjects which they do not enjoy. It would be unfair to the subjects of a nation to accord equal privileges to those owing allegiance to a foreign But if, as is the case with this country, it be desirable to encourage immigration, it becomes necessary to give aliens who come with tfie intention of settling in the country, all the rights and privileges which can be given without doing injustice to the subject. We believe the settlement of a few thousand foreigners among this people would develope"the resources of the soil, strengthen the nation, and contribute more than any one ttiing else to benefit the condition of the peopled The old world is overburdened with population, while we have a soil capable of supporting ten-fold its present number. In tne circumference of a few miles, we have a variety of climate suited to the raising of almost any product, from that of a temperate to that of the tropical clime. One quarter of the money given gratuitously to supply the wants of the famishing in Europe the past year, would have transported a little colony of them to our shores. ■The introduction of Chinamen is strongly urged by some, and so far as our knowledge extends, there is no class better calculated to cultivate profitably the staple products ; but we $rirald like also to see a community, of Europeans.