y next, be kept as a day of solemn Thanksgiving to
Almighty God for His numberless blessings to Our kingdom and
people.

(Signed,) KAMEHAMEHA.

JANUARY 5, 1856.

_Notes of an Address by His Majesty, at the Formation of the Hawaiian
Agricultural Society, reported to the =Polynesian=._

In due course of time His Majesty addressed the meeting. The difficulty
of taking short-hand notes in English of what is being said in the
native dialect, the construction of which is peculiar, a sentence often
beginning at the end and ending in the middle, must be our apology for
doing so little justice to the eloquent language and sound common-sense
ideas expressed by the President.

After an opening sentence or two, the King spoke to the following
effect:

Convinced of the importance of this undertaking, I consented
to address you to-day. I should not however, have done so, had
I not been fearful that a refusal on my part might have
induced others of more information and better acquainted with
the particular object we have united to foster, to decline in
like manner. At the same time I cannot help thinking and
hoping that my few remarks will be eclipsed by the weight and
breadth of those of other speakers who are to stand before you
on the closing day of this month and other specified days,
according to a resolution passed at our last meeting.

We also caught the following sentence, which, although it may appear a
little disjointed here, was neatly introduced, and bore upon the
argument then being used:

One of the greatest prospective advantages that we see in the
assiduous pursuit of agriculture, is the reformation it would
work amongst the people. It is not in the ranks of modern
farmers that you must look for the most ignorant or the most
immoral men. We all know that when an individual enters upon
an undertaking of the mode to accomplish which he is ignorant,
he applies for information where it may be found, having
learnt that a man unqualified for his task must fail in it.
Having acquired this much experience, and being solicitous for
the prosperity and happiness of his children, he will on no
account omit sending them to school, so that they may not be
trammelled in after years by ignorance as their father was.