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Thirdly-By the importation of new seeds and plants adapted to the climate of these islands, and improved agricultural implements.

Fourthly--By the annual appropriation of a small sum to be distributed in premiums for the improvement of our cattle and crops; and also for the discovery of some means for destroying the cut worm and other insects so fatal to many of our best plants.

Fifthly-By collecting and diffusing practical knowledge adapted to the agriculture of these islands.

It is contended by some that the best way of encouraging agriculture is to let it alone. But this let alone system, I fear, has been practiced in these islands too long. We have seen its evil effects, and the general condemnation it receives calls for a speedy change. I am fully convinced, that the encouragement of agriculture is the last ray of hope left for the Hawaiian nation. Agriculture has been let alone, and the people's rights so long withheld, that now when the dark cloud which has lowered upon them for ages is lifting, there is hardly a nation to save. Alas, and must this people possessed of so many kind and generous traits perish from the face of the earth! Perish too, not by famine, nor pestilence, nor the sword, but by the rust of indolence the canker of sloth. Must they die! Will we let them die, without making one struggle to save them from the grave to which they are hastening! No, my friends, justice and humanity forbid ! Let us not forget that the soil whose treasures we would unlock, was once the undisputed heritage of the poor Hawaiian, and let us remember too, that though the white man bore the glad tidings of salvation to his wondering ear, he planted in his veins the seeds of disease from which the great reaper Death has gathered full many a harvest. Though but a lone remnant remains, let us strive to gird it with strength to wrestle with its approaching destiny-to arm it with the healthy body and vigorous frame, the only weapons that can stay the hand of the Destroyer. Then, if our efforts to send a quickening life pulse through the heart of the wasting nation avail not, we can but commend it to Him in whose hand are the issues of life and death,— to Him who "counteth the nations as the small dust of the balance, and who taketh up the Isles as a very little thing."

MR. WYLLIE'S ADDRESS.

Read before the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, on the 12th of August, 1850.

GENTLEMEN :-I hail the commencement of your labors as a Society for the promotion of Hawaiian Agriculture, as the beginning of a new and better Era, on these islands. Although, from education and habits, ill prepared to be a useful member of your Society, yet I promise you to be a zealous one.

You have very appropriately, chosen the King to be the Patron of this Society. And I say, respectfully, it well becomes His Majesty, who has had the liberality and political sagacity to break through all the ancient usages, prejudices, and laws, that bore upon the possession, cultivation, and transfer of land, and to establish laws opening the soil to the tenure of all, and for the benefit of all, to be the Patron of such a Society. In doing so, His Majesty has become the Benefactor of all, and naturally becomes the leader of all those who are disposed to participate in the benefits of the policy that He has had the wisdom to adopt. In carrying it into effect, He has been beset with difficulties which can hardly be appreciated. His native subjects are not yet sufficiently enlightened to perceive, in His Majesty's late measures, anything but an abandonment of native rights, and a disposition to confer wealth and power on Foreigners. To you it will belong to undeceive them, by practical lessons of useful industry, increasing the King's revenue, enriching the Chiefs and native Landlords, and affording profitable employment to all the King's subjects who wish to work. The King expects this of you, and that your willing subjection to His jurisdiction, in the enjoyment of the rights which He has conferred upon you, will be His Majesty's best justification for lending a deaf ear to all evil forebodings of a loss to His Sovereignty, by your admission to a right in the soil. I am quite sure that you will not fail, in this point, of grateful duty; and I am no less certain that the history of coming ages will record the King's enlightened policy in regard to land, as the pride and glory of His Majesty's reign.

Agriculture as an art, commenced with the existence of Man upon the Earth. Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and take care of it, as the employment most congenial to the state of perfection in which he was created. The first lessons of the art, were thus given by God himself. And when Man fell from that state of perfection, in which he was created, it was his doom, by the toils of agriculture, during his probationary state, to prepare himself for the recovery, in another and better world, of that perfection which he had lost.

A land flowing with milk and honey and abounding in the precious fruits of the Earth, typified with the Hebrews, the fulfilment of God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Redemption of the world.

Agriculture, and the pasturage of cattle, thus became, and continued to be, the chief occupation of God's chosen people, till by their hard heartedness, disobedience and unbelief they were cast off, and scattered among Gentile Nations.

Agriculture was held in high estimation by the ancient Egyptians, and by the chief nations of Antiquity. It is the process by which nature yields her products for the support of man and animals, for useful arts and manufactures, and for that commerce which unites the different nations of the earth, as members of the same family, and conveys to all, the knowledge of the one only true God, to whom belong the earth and the fulness thereof.

Nor was agriculture unknown to the ancient Hawaiians. The early Navigators, Cook, Vancouver, and others, have recorded their skill, and industry, in that important art, and their admiration of the ingenuity of the Hawaiians in conducting water by conduits to fertilize their fields, in constructing paths to divide them, and fences to enclose them. That those early accounts were not exaggerated is proved by the vestiges of ancient cultivation that may be traced in every valley, and on the slopes of every hill, where the soil was good, throughout the Islands.

Even in the oldest times of which we have records, the Hawaiians raised enough for themselves, and to spare for others. But they were not, then, accustomed to the conveniences and luxuries of civilized life. These conveniences and luxuries have now become necessities, increasing from year to year. They cannot be supplied without the

aid of foreign merchants; and foreign merchants will not supply them, unless they get something in exchange, of sufficient value to replace the money which they paid for such necessaries, and luxuries, and to leave them some compensation for their trouble, in buying them, in bringing them to your shores, and in selling them to you. But they are quite willing for their woollens, their linens, their silks, their cottons, their hardware, their furniture, &c. &c., to take your sugar, your coffee, your cotton, your arrow root, your tobacco, your indigo, your potatoes, your hides, your tallow, and many other articles for which the soil of the Islands is well adap'ed, and which you can easily produce, to the extent of your labor, provided you offer it to them of as good quality, and as cheap as they can obtain it elsewhere.

No intelligent Hawaiian, then, can fail to perceive, that it is the interest of his countrymen to obtain as many of the good things of other nations as they can; and it must be equally clear to him, that in order to get them, it is his interest to be able to offer, in exchange, as many of the good things of his own Islands, as possible. Now the very end and object of this Agricultural Society is to place him in this advantageous position. Its establishment, therefore, is a national advantage, worthy of the Patronage of the King, and of the hearty cooperation of all the Chiefs, Landlords, Tenants and Laborers throughout the Islands.

Even under the most enlightened Governments of modern days, such societies have received public encouragement. In England, in 1793, a Board of Agriculture was created, chiefly through the exertions of Sir John Sinclair. At first it was a mere private association for the promotion of agricultural inprovements, but being assisted annually by a Parliamentary grant, it became a semi-official Institution. One of its first proceedings, was to commence a survey of all the English Counties on a uniform plan, which brought out for the information of the class most interested in adopting them, improved practices, originating in individual enterprise and intelligence, and which were confined to one particular district. During the years of scarcity in England, at the end of the last, and beginning of the present century, the Board of Agriculture took upon itself to suggest, and as far as possible, provide remedies for the dearth, by collecting information, and making reports to the Government, on the state of the Crops. It was the fallacy of past ages of ignorance and tyranny, that civil Governments

were, and ought to be, all in all, and ought to regulate every thing. It is the wisdom of the present age of light and freedom, that civil Governments ought to remove shackles, and burdens upon industry, to leave it to exert itself in its own way, and not to disregard, or reject, the suggestions or recommendations of those who, expert in their own callings, know incalculably more about them, than any Government possibly can.

The Smithfield Club was originated about 55 years ago. It addressed itself chiefly to the improvement of Breeds of Cattle.

The Bath and West of England Society has been in existence 75 years, during which, it has regularly published it transactions, whereby it has contributed to many agricultural improvements.

In 1838 another Society was commenced in England, under the name of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, consisting of 466 members. Next year the number had increased to 1104, and in 1814 to 6927, of whom their were 95 life Governors, paying £50 each on admission :-442 life Members paying £10 on admission and 6161 annual Members, paying £l each yearly. This Society is debarred by its 22nd bye-law, from discussing any political question, at any of its meetings. It received a Charter of Incorporation on the 26th March 1810, in which charter the objects of the association are set forth as follows:

1. To embody such information contained in Agricultural publications, and in other scientific works, as has been proved by practical experience, to be useful to the cultivation of the soil.

2. To correspond with agricultural, horticultural, and other scientific societies, both at home and abroad, and to select from such correspondence all information which, according to the opinion of the Society, may be likely to lead to practical benefits, in the cultivation of the land.

3. To pay to any occupier, or other person who will undertake at the request of the society to ascertain, by any experiment, how far such information leads to useful results in practice, a remuneration for any loss that he may incur by so doing.

4. To encourage Men of Science to devote themselves to the improvement of agricultural implements, the construction of farm buildings, and cottages, the application of chemistry to the general pur

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