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EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

HONOLULU, Hawaiian Islands, March 19, 1866.

R. EDITOR-So long accustomed to titbits of battles lost and won, of whole armies served up for breakfast, only to prepare the appetite for a still stronger meal at noon, how do you Yankees manage to come down to plain diet of the humdrum affairs of social and business life, spiced with a few steamboat explosions or railroad collisions, and an occasional suicide or highway robbery? I suppose you hardly deign even to notice the little olla podrida, down in Mexico, which that inexperienced cook, Max., is trying to render palatable with such savory compounds as Belgian beer and Limberg cheese, Austrian krout, and frogs, fresh caught and kicking, just from the Seine. Nor do I suppose that this new Chilian stew, seasoned with its Castilian garlic, possesses any charms for stomachs so long accustomed to domestic grape and canister, bomb-shells and swamp-angels.

Have you the least idea, therefore, my dear Monthly, that any one of your 100,000 readers can cease thinking of those glorious days of Shiloh and Vicksburg long enough to read an article on

THE EDUCATION OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDERS ?

The Hawaiian Islands, consisting of a group of seven larger islands and a few barren reefs of no importance, were first visited by Capt. Cook, in the year 1769, and were called by him the "Sandwich Islands," in honor of his friend and patron the Earl of Sandwich. Ten years later he sailed hither again, and, while stopping at Ke-alé-ke-kúa bay, he had the audacity to seize the king and attempt to carry him on board his ship as a hostage for the return of a boat stolen by the natives. In this attempt. he lost his life, and no one can say that he did not richly merit the fate which befell him. And here permit me to correct an error so common with writers upon these islands. The natives of this group were never cannibals, and Capt. Cook was not devoured by Queen Emma, our present king, nor any of their ancestors. His bones, deprived of flesh, were sent around to the different tribes and were worshiped as gods. His heart, however, was eaten by a common native through mistake; he supposing it to be the heart of a dog which he had killed the day before. From this time there was but little intercourse between these islands and the civilized world till the arrival of the American missionaries in 1820. These first missionaries were soon re-enforced by others, who brought with them, not only Bibles and other religious books, but physicians, printers, and teachers. Books were soon multiplied in the Hawaiian tongue, and the work of teaching and civilization commenced. I do not propose to describe the trials and privations of these pioneer philanthropists, nor to write the history of the gradual development of the system of education which the stranger finds here to-day, for your space would not admit, however patient your readers might be; but permit me to offer a few facts, as a grand sum-total of educational results for the last forty years here in these islands. To you it may seem incredible, but it is nevertheless a fact, that a smaller percentage of our native population can neither read nor write than in the United States-the land of newspapers and free-schools. Not only have we schools accessible to all, and free, but parents are obliged,

by law, to send their children to some school from five to fifteen years of age.

The common schools are taught mostly by natives. The studies pursued are spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography; and the teachers receive from ten to fifteen dollars a month.

Of these native schools there were in the year 1862, on all the islands, 241. The number of scholars in attendance, during that year, was 7,868; of which 4,433 were males.

The whole amount of money raised for school purposes was about $30,000; while that expended for teachers' wages was $20,557. The number of schools and pupils have remained about the same during the past three years, while the receipts and expenditures have greatly increased. In every school district a man is appointed and paid by the government, whose duty it is to see that every child is in school at the proper time. Over these urchin gatherers, called lunas, and over the district teachers, are placed "school agents," corresponding to "town superintendents" in your rural districts; and over all these, an "inspector-general," corresponding to your "State superintendent," exercises control.

The present incumbent of this office is Hon. A. Fornander, who has already done much in producing order from confusion, and in perfecting the present admirable system of education, by which the native youth are fast approaching the scholarly attainments of those frequenting the schools and colleges of more favored lands. He is a thorough-going, energetic, and live man-in short, the right man in the right place.

The Board of Education consists of the cabinet ministers of the king, presided over by the king's father, Kekaanada, and although this department affords no pecuniary compensation, they are alive to the interests of the nation. They not only provide ample funds for paying teachers and school-officers, and for purchasing apparatus and erecting school buildings, but they give their personal attention to the development of plans and the carrying out of their requirements.

Besides these native common schools, we have several high-schools and seminaries, which are supported wholly or in part by funds furnished directly from government. Among these, the "Seminary for Young Men," at Lahainaluna, deserves special attention. This institution was founded in 1831 by Rev. Lorrin Andrews, under the auspices of the American Board of Foreign Church Missions. It possesses a respectable library and apparatus, and a large tract of land, the cultivation of which enables the students to defray their expenses of board and tuition, and to lay up small sums for incidentals. A few years since the American Board conveyed this whole property to the Hawaiian government, reserving only a voice in deciding upon religious tenets to be inculcated there. All the expenses of this institution are now borne by government. The number of pupils in attendance during the past year has been about one hundred. The course of study embraces a period of four years, and includes a tolerable knowledge of mental, moral, and natural philosophy, chemistry, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and conic sections, together with rhetoric, composition, and declamation; all, however, in the Hawaiian language.

The Principal of this institution is Rev. S. E. Bishop, a graduate of Amherst College, who receives a salary of $1,450 and house-rent. His

first assistant is Rev. C. B. Andrews, a graduate of the Miami (Ohio) University, whose salary is $1,400 and house-rent.

The college at Punahow, Oahu, for both sexes, founded by Rev. Daniel Dole in 1841, under the auspices of the American Board, has exerted an influence for good in these islands that cannot be est.mated; not only in supplying native and foreign teachers for our common and high schools, and in affording facilities for all to acquire a liberal and polished education, but it has sent no inconsiderable number of teachers and missionaries to other parts of the earth needing their services. The buildings are ample and commodious, and well furnished. The college possesses a fine cabinet and a liberal supply of apparatus. The course of study embraces all that is usually taught in the best ladies' seminaries of the States, while young men are thoroughly prepared to enter the different classes in any of the Eastern colleges.

Students here are taught in English, although the Hawaiian is pursued as a study. About seventy-five students have been in attendance here during the past year. This college is supported by endowments from the American Board and the Hawaiian Government, and by a charge for tuition. The expense for board and tuition is about $24 a month, besides a few extras. W. P. Alexander, A. M., a graduate of Yale College, is president. He receives a salary of $1,400 and house-rent.

His first assistant is E. P. Church, A. M., a graduate of Oberlin College, Ohio, who, with his wife, also a teacher, receives a salary of $1,200 and board and house-rent. Mr. Church has but recently arrived from the States, and we consider him and his lady a great acquisition to both our social and educational interests.

The Royal High School of Honolulu, founded by A. S. Cooke, in 1840, has exerted a peculiar influence, not only on account of the large numbers of thorough scholars it has sent out, but as being the school in which the present king and most of the royal family, as well as other chiefs, received their education. The main edifice, built of the native reef-coral, is a fine and imposing structure, and is intended to accommodate about one hundred and fifty pupils. The primary department is taught in a neat wooden building, which has accommodation for about seventy-five pupils.

Both of these buildings are well adapted to the purposes for which they were erected, being airy, well arranged, and supplied with improved furniture and all apparatus considered necessary in a modern school. A spring, in the mountain adjacent, supplies an abundance of excellent water for the extensive grounds, in which a large variety of shade-trees and shrubbery has been planted. The gymnastic apparatus of the playgrounds also shows that the physical culture of our young men is not neglected. During the past year about two hundred pupils have attended this school. The studies pursued in the higher department embrace all the branches of a common and higher English education, including the natural and moral sciences and higher mathematics. The students are charged a nominal tuition of five dollars a year, and the school is open to all young men, both native and foreign. This school is owned and supported entirely by government. J. R. Kinney, A. M., a graduate of Union College, N. Y., is principal. His salary is $1,800 a year. He is assisted by three ladies, one educated in the States, one at Punahow, and the other at the Royal School.

Corresponding with this school, at present only for boys, the govern ment has recently established a day-school in another part of town, in which young ladies are taught not only the common branches of an English education, but the arts of domestic life, as practised in other countries. About one hundred pupils attend this school, of which two teachers have charge, with salaries of $500 and $600 respectively. One is an American and the other an English lady.

Besides these, there are schools at Hilo, Hawaii, at Lahaina and Makawao, Maui, at Hanalei, Kauai, and at different places on Oahu and Molokai, in which the common and higher branches are taught, both in native and English. They are supported wholly or in part by government. At the various schools of this class there have been in attendance, during the past year, from 500 to 800 pupils, male and female. In addition to all these schools there are numerous other sectarian and private schools, for both foreign and native pupils, sustained by private benevolence, or by a direct charge for board, tuition, etc. These schools are all in the hands of gentlemen and ladies of education, experience, and refinement, and as a result of their years of faithful labor we have Hawaiians fitted for almost any station in social and civil life; ministers, lawyers, and legislators, whose talents and attainments would do honor to any land.

KEKUMU HAOLI.

SARATOGA, New York, May, 1866.

EDITOR-Saratoga is world-wide renowned for its mineral

MR.prings; the oldest and most interesting of which is the one called

"High Rock," the present property of Messrs. Ainsworth and McCaffrey. This spring has never been tubed, its flow having always been natural. At present, however, its owners are preparing to tube it, and in doing so have made some interesting discoveries that may throw additional light on the "antiquity of man." It is well known that the High Rock Spring has deposited for centuries the minerals held in solution, forming at its mouth a somewhat conical-shaped rock, about four feet high and five feet in diameter at its base. This rock has a hole at its apex six inches across, from which the water flowed in years agone, but in later years it has found an outlet beneath the surface of the rock. In preparing to tube the spring the cone was removed; the rock immediately below it, and of the same formation, being quite disintegrating and opposing no obstacle to its removal. Directly under this was a white mineral deposit, much resembling slaked lime, and extending to the depth of about eight feet. Immediately beneath this white soft deposit were found four logs with their ends placed upon each other, forming a nearly square curb around the spring. Two of them were about eight feet long, the other two somewhat shorter. They were found to be pine, and were ten or twelve inches in diameter. Underlying these was a quantity of pine brush, on which the logs were, with design, placed. Next below came several feet of soil, and at the depth of about twenty feet from the surface the solid lime-rock, at which is the mouth proper of the spring. From the dirt removed, many curiosities, such as dippers and Indian arrows, were taken.

That these logs were placed there by human hands there can be no reasonable doubt. The question of interest, then, is when were they placed there? We know that centuries ago, far beyond the reach of Indian tradition, this continent was inhabited by tribes whose numbers and power are easily shown to have been considerable. Did such a people remove this" High Rock," remove the hundreds of loads of deposit below it, place the brush and logs as they were recently found, scatter their implements among the accumulated earth, and then replace all as it was in the beginning? This supposition is untenable. The cone was never before removed. All this deposit has been made since the logs were placed there. Then comes the important question, how much time has elapsed since this curb was made? Nearly three hundred years ago the "High Rock" was in size, apparently, the same as to-day. Now, if two hundred and fifty years have made so little change as to be hardly discernible, what time must have elapsed while the cone was forming? and what, while the softer parts below it, and the powdered, white mineral immediately overlaying the logs, were accumulating? This question can never be definitely answered, yet the time may be approximately known by a few years' observations. The spring is to be tubed, so that the water shall again flow through the "rock" and drip over its surface. By measuring the thickness of the deposit made on this cone for, say, twenty years, some estimate can be made of the time occupied in the entire formation. Such observations will doubtless be made.

Dr. J. L. Perry, Messrs. Hall, Weatherwax, and many others were present when the logs were removed, and it is the belief of some present that the front log, which was in a tolerable state of preservation, was hewn on its front face. H. T. HICKOK.

SCIENCE AND THE ARTS.

HE Academy of Sciences (Paris) has received from M. Duchartre called creepers, because their stalks, too weak to sustain themselves, tend to twine round the nearest objects. They generally do this/from left to right—that is, opposed to the motion of the sun; but some species turn in the contrary direction, and it is impossible to make either one or the other change its direction. Palm, Von Mohl, Dutrochet, and Charles Darwin have successively expressed the opinion that light is the cause of this tendency; but experimental proof being wanting, Duchartre, who had discovered that the Chinese yam could live a long time in the dark, resolved to test the theory with it. At the end of May he placed one in a pot, and as soon as it showed its stem above-ground he took it down to a cellar where it remained in complete darkness until the 2d of August. The stem in seven weeks grew about five feet (one meter and a half). It looked withered and white, but was strong and perfectly straight, showing nowhere a tendency to twine itself round the stick, which had been placed there for its support. Another yam was planted nearly a month later, and left exposed to daylight until it had turned