Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 195, 18 May 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

"E Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono."

 

KA LEO.

MONDAY, MAY 18, 1891,

NOTICE.

   Copies of the KA LEO O KA LAHUI can be found every morning at both the News Agencies in town.  Price 5 cents a copy.

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REVENUES AND RESOURCES.

   The appropriations of the last legislature exceeded the funds available, thus giving the already well-nigh omnipotent ministry the power to use the public moneys for such purposes as to them might seem good, and leave public works and needed improvements untouched on the plea that there is not enough money in the treasury.  It is strange that while the legislature was passing the appropriations, that it did not occur to any of the intellectual lights of the House to adopt some plan to raise our revenue to meet the expenditures.

   There appears to be no reason why the tax rate is fixed immovably at one per cent.  It would be better to fix the rate each year to meet necessary outlays, as is usual in other countries.

   Then there are numerous ways of increasing our income that would not be felt as a burden.

   It is an admitted fact in political economy that indirect taxes are less felt and in every way more desirable than one that is exacted directly.  A slightly increase price paid for goods bought is not noticed, and an article can be bought or left alone as convenient; but the imperious demand of the tax collector for cash without tangible equivalent is odious.

   The United States has an overflowing treasury by its tariff on imported goods.  We by our treaty with that power are debared from raising a revenue in the same way except on certain articles.  If our revenue from duties is sacrificed to the sugar industry there is every reason why the sugar should be taxed to supply our needs.

   It is well known that our wealth consists almost entirely of the sugar product.  Since the tax must primarily come out of sugar, why not tax sugar directly?  While all sorts of difficulties are met in fixing the values of plantations, leases, machinery, growing cane, labor contracts, etc., it would be the easiest thing conceivable to levy and collect so much on every ton of sugar exported.  If drouth, or any cause reduced the yield the interprise would be proportionally relieved from the burden of taxation.  In California and the silver producing states mines are only taxed on the bullion produced.  This single tax is considered very favorable to the industry.  Brazil made such a treaty with the United States for the free admission of her coffee.  But the government immediately put an excise duty on coffee exactly equal to the tariff remitted by the United States.  Thus the whole of the advantage of the treaty accured to the government and the planters received no benefit at all.  This was not so unfair as might appear at first sight; the tariff rebate was clear gain secured by the government, and the planters were in just the same position as before, losing nothing by the transaction which really did not affect them.

   The United States has violated the spirit of the reciprocity treaty and withdrawn the consideration for which we entered into it.  It now remains now for us to terminate it as soon as possible and collect our import duties again or seek an advantgeous connection elsewhere, or else to seek political union with the Great Republic, and become a state.

   We have other recources.  There is one that would fill our treasury and greatly benefit the country.

   Our lands are all owned and tied up, so that there is none available for settlers, though the most of it is lying idle and unprofitable.  This could be remedied by a per acre tax on all land except town lots, say one dollars per acre in value, and fifty cents an acre on all other.

   This would render it impossible for land sharks to hold thousands of acres of idle land while the poor man has not where to set his feet.  Such a movement would be a true reform and would meet all the violent opposition that usually obstructs the way to progress.  We point the way and hope the time may come when the gilded octopus will be forced to relax its hold and withdraw its slimy tentacles from our fair earth, the inalienable inheritance of mankind.

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   There must be some very serious trouble to drive the Hawaiian people from their allegiance to their chief.  It can be no ordinary political dissatisfaction that drives them to the verge of desperation, so that they desire to establish a republican form of government, or even to give up their independence as a nation in order to secure some influence in the management of the affairs of their own country.  The causes, sufficient to explain this condition are numerous and well-known.  We have no resort to generalities or invective:  we have only to enumerate facts.

   To begin at the head, the people were sorely disappointed by our new Queen.  This lady had always posed as a devoted and courageous friend of her people.  The decision of the Supreme Court gave her a grand opportunity to make a right beginning.  She appointed three white men and one native who was known to be in the leading strings of a banking house here in town.  In a word, she has fallen an easy and unresisting victim to the wiles of the experienced intriguers who have always surrounded the throne.  No reform had been accomplished.  Only a few tardy and reluctant changes hae been made where a radical renovation is needed.  Now, Her Majesty is off juncketing with her attorney-general.

   The cabinet who have despotic sway over the fortunes of the country are conspicuous for lack of all ability and right principles.

   The Premier says he means well enough and we hope he does; but if he has any education or fitness for the position he occupies he developed it in course of dissipating a fortune which he inherited. The appointment of consuls at Washington, San Francscio and Japan were deliberate insults to the people he was supposed to represent and in antagonism to the true interests of the country.

   The Minister of Interior, the most offensive and objectionalbe of the Cummins’ cabinet, was retained for some very mysterious cause, who ists in his office and industriously obstructs any and all things.  He is a rancher that few ever heard of before his appointment.  The Department of Interior is run by subordinates, no native occupying any important position.

   The Attorney General is a man unknown to politis, heretofore noted only for his capacity—literally.  Why an obscure lawyer who never did anything for the country should be appointed to this important position can not be explained on a supposition favorable to the appointing power.

   His department does not contain a single native in any considerable position.  The sheriffs and their deputies are mere tools for the planters and the outrages committee by them are one of the most irritating of the grievances that the people have to bear.

   The Finance Department is in no better condition.  The collectors and their assistants are all “white” and owe allegiance to “agents” in Honolulu.  Widemann was scolding and ranting in the last legislature about what ought to be done; but he, like the rest, does nothing.  The breath of influence blew upon him, and he was dumb.

   Every department is filled with “white” sycophants of the rich men of the commercial concerns, who are allowed to be corrupt ad libitum in return for services rendered.

   The Supreme Court is wholly composed of foreigners.  The circut Judges with one exception are white, as are the majority of the inferior Justices.  We refrain from comments on the doings of the supreme court for the simple reason that the gentlemen of the bench do not look leniently on freedom of speech and we do not have time to languish in Jail:  There is a shuffling of things about the business of the court that is unworthy of the dignity of a supreme tribunal, e. g., the changing the order of trial in the Wilcox case, the delay in publishing the decision in the Japanese case, and the concealment of the name of the dissenting judge in the cabinet case.  Such things would be called trickery in a less august body.

   We have frequently shown up in the misdeeds of officials. The truth has not been half told because the publication of truth is unlawful in this Paradise of the Pacific if it happens to bring redicule or disgrace on any wrongdoer.

   What we have mentioned is a sufficient cause of discontent with the government and its officers.  There are other and more serious concurrent disorders: -- Increasing poverty, the land tied up and idle, the flood of Asiatics, and the rotting ground at Kalaupapa.

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BLOOD.

   We hear that one of our popular young men has resolved to demolish the Advertiser reporter.  This is resolution we fully approve.  We are informed that the gentleman in question is not only one of the most skillful base-ballists and a popular society leader, but also has a pedigree that goes way back into the nebulous past, in fact, the nebulosity extends to comparatively modern times.

   Though we are no longer on the tapis ourselves, still we symyathise with the aspirations of a young man to attract attention.  Let him fasten himself to the ladies wherever he can find them, and otherwise conduct himself in a loud tone of conversation and manner so that people can hear his flights of wisdom and see his style; they help very materially to draw attention.  Then to add to his fame, if any newspaper reporter gives him credit in print for what he does, all he has to do to make the world understand his perfections and gentlemanly demeanor, is to bang the journalist in the face, gouge his eyes out, chew a piece of his ear, and turn him lose.  This, perhaps’ may be more difficult than the mashing act, but a real gentleman will succeed.

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ON DIT.

   That the retiring Postmaster General was presented with a lovely calabash of koa wood, filled with the tears of his pet employers.  The P.M.G. in thanking his erst-while employees said that he retired regretfully and reluctantly from a position he had occupied with pleasure and profit.  He had always felt that he held the Post Office by Divine right; he had resisted many urgent invitations to resign, but it had come at last officially, and he must humbly submit to the all-wise decree.

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   That the Court has decided that Miss Cummins cannot be made to compensate a livery stable keeper for a $300 horse which that gracious young lady drove to death last summer.  The Court sustains its position by quoting a parallel English case in which the young lady was held responsible.  It is to be remembered that the English common law is not in force in this Kingdom.

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   That the Post-Master at Hilo should be presented with a list of the twelve official positions which he held at one time, and a sculpture representing himself helping to carry Kaulukou in triumph through the streets of Hilo, when that native patriot had been elected by the conservative party in anti-reform times; and after the reform, posing a stalwart leaguer; and the Post Office closed because the P.M. was out sailing his yacht and picking up narcotic cord-wood from the mobile bosom of the dark blue sea.

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   That there is a little house along-side of the window where we work, that ought to be transplanted under the probosis of the Agent of the immaculate Board of Health, for no longer than fifteen minutes, and if the affluvia from it is insufficient to lay him out, then the natives are correct in calling him by his Hawaiian name of Keoki Mano.

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   That to fill a place requiring an active mind and energetic action neither the President of the Board of Health, nor its scavenger officer is suited for either place.  Such an opinion is about right, and it is not unusual for a community to be obliged to provide for men who have outlived their usefulness.

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   That all that the Queen’s influence, as stated in the Hawaii Holomua, could do in favor of his late Majesty’s military attendant during his last visit to America, Colonel the Hon. Robert Hoapili Baker, was a policeman’s baton.  This exchange of the rapier for the baton did not operate with the Colonel.

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   That the nearer and more faithful a person was to Kalakaua, the less likely they are to receive any favors from the Queen, apparently. 

 

A ROMANCE.

(Continued.)

   They climbed into the boat and aroused the drowsy owner, who after some conversation with the policeman, put his oars in the oarlocks and pulled slowly out towad the setting sun.  After a while there appeared a black line against the fiery horizen, and then widened as they approached till they saw a long, low, dark building like barracks, standing on a sand bar just a little above the water level.  The boat came alongside a rude structure of old boards and the policeman told Nyama to get out.

   He stood on the rude wharf and watched the receding boat, looking long at the bay, the city half hid in tropic foliage and the purple mountain beyond.

   At last he turned and strode toward the buildings.  Little fire were burning before the doors which turned out to be little camp fires over which many Japanese were boiling the rice for their evening meal.

   Here were all the excursionists who had come on the pleasure trip to Bowowee, sitting on the sand or bits of board or lying on their red and blue blankets, eating plain boiled rice from tin plates and talking.

   Nyama addressed one of these groups.  They had been on the bar for 10 days; they did not have enough to eat and it was cold at night; they thought they would be released to-morrow.  That was all the news with them; but when they learned that Nyama had come from the city, he was soon surrounded by a crowd of eager questioners, anxious to hear about Bowowee and their prospects for making a fortune.

   He could tell them but little and escaped as soon as possible.  Going into one of the houses he found it empty, but for the shelves on the walls which were evidently occupied as beds.  From some came snores, from others sighs and groans.  Remembering that the sand outside was wet, Nyama climbed on one of the board-shelves, and lying on his back gave himself up to gloomy speculations.  Here he passed the night, dressed in his best suit of clothes without a blanket, turning over and about on the hard surface, cold stiff and disconsolate.  This was his introduction to the reverse side of life in the Paradise of the Pacific.

   Now this same evening the Chief Supervisor of Japanese Immigration came to call at the hotel.  He knocked at the door of Nyama’s room, and not waiting long for an answer walked in.  Faza still lying on the bed her body convulsed with grief.  He put his hand on one of the small kid shoes that showed below her white dress, and giving a little pull said:

   “Come now, don’t cry so, your husband is all safe, get up and I will tell you all about it.”

   Faza sat up and pushed back her disheveled hair and wipe her swolen eyes with her handkerchief.

   “Where is he?” she demanded, “why don’t he come back?”

   The supervisor sat down on the edge of the bed and put his arm around the slender corset-compressed waist.  Faza sprang up and stood at bay staring at him and ready to run away.

   “What are you scared about?” said the supervisor.  “I won’t hurt you.  You are very handsome now.  Come and give me a kiss; nobody is looking.  If you don’t, I won’t tell you about Nyama.  He might have to stay inprison for five years.”

   “Oh, please sir, don’t mock me,” cried the girl, “but tell me about my husband.”

   “Well,” he said, “Nyama was arrested because he and all the Japanese that come here through the government are under contract to work in the cane fields for a term of five years.  Any one who undertakes to work can not change his mind and refuse to carry out his contract, if he attempts to be is arrested and sent back to work.

(To be Continued.)