Punahou School

“ A number of gentlemen have kindly consented, at the request of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, acting for the Trustees of the College, to take charge of the funds contributed in this country for the Oahu College, (where the donors do not direct them to be remitted directly to the Trustees at the Islands;) and they will invest such funds in the United States, and cause the interest to be remitted annually to the officer of the corporation legally authorized to receive it. ”

“ The cost of living at the Sandwich Islands has been materially increased by the settlement and mines of California. Just at present, it may not be easy to bring the expenses of a family at Punahou within the bounds recommended for the salaries of the officers of College. The arrangement for salaries should be based, however, on what we know to be the general course of things in the world. Fifteen hundred dollars, with the use of a house, is thought not to be too large a salary for the President of the Oahu College ”

“ It further states, that, "as it is reasonable that the Christian education should be in conformity to the general views of the founders and patrons of the institution, no course of instruction shall be deemed lawful in said institution, which is not accordant with the principles of Protestant Evangelical Christianity, as held by that body of Protestant Christians in the United States of America, which originated the Christian mission to the Islands, and to whose labors and benevolent contributions [Pg 2] the people of these Islands are so greatly indebted." ”

“ It has a religious object, and is controlled by a religious influence. The funds have every practicable guard from perversion. The permanent necessity for such an institution is apparent in the certainty of a permanent, rising, influential community on those admirably situated Islands. The independence of the Hawaiian Nation,—which, under present circumstances, is most favorable to its development,—is guaranteed by the United States, Great Britain and France ”

“ As a class, they are very laborious and self-denying, and the advancement of their people in knowledge, industry, civilization and religion, is the best evidence of their success. I have lived for weeks on weeks among the natives, lodging with them in their huts, partaking of their homely fare and sleeping on their mats ”

“ The government have since sustained two clerical professors obtained from the company of missionaries, and the institution answers the purpose of a College for the native community. It is not adapted, however, nor can it be, to the wants of the foreign community.
Necessity for the College at Punahou. The Oahu College is open to natives speaking the English language; but it is especially designed for pupils [Pg 5] from that increasing and important portion of the Hawaiian community, which is of foreign origin. ”