Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 301, 14 October 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

John E. Bush.

Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 14, 1891.

 

Crown Lands.

            Among the many abuses of patronage and privilege exercised by the few at the expense of the masses, the administration of the Crown Lands stands out in bold relief.  The land which belongs to the People – the whole people – is let by the Crown Llands Commissioners, it may be at the dictation or approval of the sovereign for the time being to certain favorites – too often corrupt parasites.  Then com@@@@@@s a system of exaction and execution by the guilded loafer-lessee, which might find its parallel in the Egyptian tax-collector or the Scotch or Irish landlord, from which class some of the present land-sharks of Hawaii graduated.

            An illustration is before us in the case of a Crown lease of land in the neighborhood of Waimea Kauai.  This lease was granted a few years ago by the late J. O. Dominis while acting as Agent and Secretary of the Crown Land Commissioners, without the knowledge of his fellow commissioners the transaction taking place over the bar of the Hawaiian hotel, - in the odor of what was probably good whiskey and hard cash.  To make the matter worse the application was for a renewal of a lease which was granted in the questionable manner above stated, six months or a year before the expiration of the terms of the old lease, at the same time an application had been filed by other parties, with ample means, with the Crown Land Agent, offering twice as much rental as the land was subsequently leased for.

            The few years that have elasped since the signing of that lease have been marked by exactions – yearly increasing – until to-day they press heavily on the poor, and the lessee who pays but a little over a thousand dollars yearly for a large tract of country reaps where he has not sown, to the extent, it is said, of about twenty times the rent.

            The issue of that lease for a paltry yearly sum, not enough to provide wine for one Royal feast, was the virtual transfer of several hundred Hawaiians to an owner, who to-day has the power legally to order them off the kuleanas on which they were born, or pay him an exorbitant rent either in hard cash or a labor equivalent at fifty cents a day.

            Is it any wonder that the trumpeter of royal pagentry on Kauai, saw every thing comme il faut, when his palace cultured probosis hovered over the banquet of Crown lessee’s champagne, rather than pry into the unsavory wrongs of the common people.

 

From Abroad.

            The news by the Australia is quite stirring.  From London, among other things we have dispatches, which states that a young actress of the Gaiety Theatre, had committed suicide.  The attempt to suppress the coroners record, has given color to a sensational belief that the young lady had had intimate relations with Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.  London is stirred up to quite a sensational pitch in regard to this affair.  These little unpleasent affairs connecting the family of the heir apparent of England, does not add much to the popularity of hereditary monarchies.

            The Times gives the following from its Berlin correspondent, in reference to the Dardanelles, and the reply of the Powers to the Porter’s Circular letter:  “The answer of the three above mentioned powers, (Austria, Germany and Italy) is to the effect that they have taken note of the communication of the Turkish Government, and none of them intends to take any diplomatic action regarding it.  The answer of England to the note has not yet been sent in; but it is not expected it will be different from that of the other powers.”

 

How to Understand God’s Will.

            A Sermon preached in St. Andrews Cathedral on the 20 ^th Sunday after Trinity, by Rev. A. Willis. 

“Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”  Eph. 5:17.

            In the preceding part of his letter to the Church at Ephesus, the Apostle had dwelt very fully on the conduct required of those who had “learned Christ,” showing that all lying, dishonesty, corrupt language, bitterness and wrath were wholly alien to the Christian character; and then proceeds in that passage which forms the Epistle for this Sunday:  “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”  Understanding.  Not merely knowing it as a matter of fact, but having that intelligent knowledge of it, which is the mother of a loving obedience.  That is what he means by “understanding.”

            If there was need of uttering this language in the early days of the Gospel, there is not less need now.  Looking at the temptations that abound, the present days are not less evil then those, and having regard to the vain babblings of some who parade themselves as Christian teachers, there is much danger of your not only misunderstanding what the will of the Lord is, but of being led wholly astray as to the foundation of morality.

            Let me then this morning put before you one or two plain truths, the grasp of which will enable you to continue in the things which you have learned and keep you from being carried about with every wind of doctrine, and the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive.

            Now with regard to our duty both toward God and man has the will of the Lord been so plainly laid down so that he may run that readeth it?  To this our answer is:  Most certainly it has.  The Ten Commandments given from Monnt Sinai embrace the whole range of human duty, so if we have sounded their depths with the plumbline of the Gospel, there will be no fear of our misunderstanding what the will of the Lord is.  How they cover the entire range of human responsibility, I will show presently, if time permits.  But, first, I wish to furnish you with the answer to objections that are raised to the position we maintain that the Ten Commandments are the Christian’s rule of life.

            It is argued that the Ten Commandments have no longer any binding force, being part of the law given to the Jewish people, which, was having served its purpose, abrogated when the Gosple dispensation was ushered in.  Now, what answer are you predared to give to this assertion.

            Your answer must be that the assertion has no foundation to rest upon.  That the Ten Commandments delivered amid the thunders of Mount Sinai – although first committed to the keeping of the chosen people by the hand of Moses, who acted as a mediator between God and man. - were for all time and for all men.  That they do not form a part of that Legislation which was intended only for the Jewish people during that period of their history which preceded the advent of the promised Seed.  Consequently they remain wholly unaffected by the abrogation of the Jewish law, and the bringing in of the new covenant.  This is capable of the clearest proof.

In the giving of the Ten Commandments there was no new revelation of God’s will to man, no new commandment given.  The law then proclaimed amid thunderings and lightnings, and delivered to the Jewish people, that they as a nation might set an example to the world of obedience to it, was no new law.  It was the same that had been written on the heart and conscience of man at the beginning. For twenty-five centuries man had been left to the light of natural religion.  But owing to the depravity of his nature that light was not sufficient for him, and the writing on the tablet of the human heart became more and more blurred and indistinct.  Then it was that God made known His will in the ten precepts which was engraven on the two tables of stone that they might never again be forgotten and obliterated.

            It will only need a few references to show you that the principles underlying the Ten Commandments were written on the human heart from the beginning as the foundation of morality. 

            Why should Cain have been branded a murderer twenty-five centuries before the sixth commandment was given, unless a sense of sacredness of human life, which it is the purpose of that commandment to guard, had been implanted on man’s heart at his creation?  You have only to read of Abraham’s intercourse with the Egyptians and the Philistines to see that the sacredness of the bond of marriage, which it is the purpose of the seventh commandment to guard, was recognized by those nations as well as by the Father of the Faithful.  The story of Joseph’s cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack, is a clear indication that the principle of the eighth commandment had been recognized in Egyptian legislation.  The sending out of the dove from the ark by Noah, at intervals of seven days, affords clear indication of the Seventh-day rest, instituted for man and as a memoria of his Creator, centuries before the proclamation was made from Monnt Sinai, “Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.”

            Another point for you to observe it this.  It is contrary to our belief in God to snppose that the line of conduct prescribed at one period of the world’s history should be different from the precepts given at another.  For it is an essential attribute of God that “with Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  He is not a man, that He should be; nor the son of man that he should repent.”  Consequently the foundations of morality resting on the will of God are eternal and immutable.

            But another objection is raised which we have to meet.  It is not (we are asked) distinctly laid down by Saint Paul, that we are not under the law, but under grace?  Certainly it is.  And let us be sure that we understand what St. Paul means.  For St. Peter warns us that in St. Paul’s Epistles are some things hard to understand, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction.  What then does St. Paul mean by being under the law?  To arrive at this, let me remind you of our Saviour’s words to a lawyer who came to Him with the question, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  To which our Lord replied by asking him, “What is written in the law, how readest thou?”  The lawyer answered giving a summary of the ten commandments.  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”  Having received this answer, our Saviour said to him, “thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live.  From this reply you may understand what is meant by being under the law.  The law promised life on condition of its being kept.  If man should have kept the law of God, salvation would have been by the law, and there would have been no need of a Redeemer to come.  But man could not fulfil the condition on which alone the promises of the law were to be obtained.  In other words, he could not keep the law, and so the law which was ordained for life was found to be unto death.  Meanwhile the law was serving the purpose of making man realise his sinfulness and his need of a Redeemer through this inability to keep the law.  It brought home to the human conscience the helplessness of man’s condition if his hope of salvation had no other foundation than his own righteousness.  If we were under the law, we should have nothing to depend on but our own works and deservings, - i. e., our own imperfect and fragmentary obedience through which to look for salvation.  But our hope of salvation does not rest on our righteousness, for we are under grace.  And this does not imply that there has been a change in God’s will, or that God will accept a lower standard of obdience now than formerly, for it is plainly declared:  “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”  But it implies that our hope of salvation rests not on our own obedience, but on Christ’s merit for whose sake we plead forgiveness for our own short comings and transgressions of God’s law.

 

ON DIT.

            That the detective force are all thrown out to the front, like sconts, to scent out the opium robbers, in the meanwhile the rascals will get the signal from their contemporaries ashore, and will step in through the back ports, and thus evade the posse sent out to intercept them, land all their booty and again skip the country.

 

            That the breakwater now building at Waikiki, is a monstrous job and has all the appearance of being badly put up, as everybody are making remarks about the clumsy appearance in which it is being handled.  The tally by the finance Committee of the next Legislature, will probably give the numerous barrels of lime and cement that did not go into the structure but percolated through the sand at Waikiki.

 

            That Mr. Bowler is sanguine of his election as noble or representative, through the Catholic vote, as the kanakas all love him, for the wonderful good that he did for them in the dim past.  That it is a national debt as every one knows; and that neither Wilcox nor Bush stand as good a show, shure, so the ladies say and we believe the ladies know all about it.

 

Platform of Principle

OF THE

HAWAIIAN NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY.

 

PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION.

            1.  We deem that all Government should be founded on the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity; we hold that all men are born free and equal before the law and are endowed with inalienable rights to life, to liberty, to propertp, to the pursuit of happiness and to self-protection against arbitrary concentration of power, irresponsible wealth, and unfair competition.  We believe that just government exists only by the consent of the People, and that, when it becomes necessary for the public welfare, they may abolish existing forms and establish more advantageous and equitable system; and, as the present Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom never has had the approval of the People, but was established by intimidation and fraud for the benefit of a certain class, therefore, we favor the adoption of a new and more liberal Constitution, to truly secure a Government of the People, by the People and for the People.

INDEPENDENCE OF THE COUNTRY

            2.  Out of consideration for the inherent rights and present opinions of the native population, we dersire to retain the independence of the Country and defend its autonomy, under a liberal and popular form of government; but our Treaties with Foreign Powers, and especially with the United States of America, should be revised, so as to better meet present necessities and to obtain more equitable advantages in exchange of those granted by us.

JUDICIARY REFORMS

            3.  Our Judiciary system and Code of Procedure must be submitted to a thorough revision, so as to secure a cheap and prompt administration of justice free of all sectarian or patisan spirit, and to render the Judges more directly responsible to the People; and we are in favor of a more liberal interpretation of Constitutional guarantees of the freedom of speech and of the press.

TAXATION

            4.  A more just and perfect system of Taxation must be inaugurated, to abolish the present inequalities, by which the property of the poor is excessively taxed, while much of the rich man’s goods are under-valued for assessment or entirely escape taxation; we shall therefore demand the passage of laws that will more effectually subject the property of corporations and rich citizens to their just proportion of public burdens, while granting more liberal exemptions to the poor; and as a means of discouraging the locking up of large tracts of uncultivated lands, a differential tax should be levied in addition to the usual assessment on valuation, which should be in proportion to the fertility of the soil.  We shall also favor the establishment of a graduated income-tax, and thus expect to obtain ample funds for conducting the government and attending to all necessary public improvements without any further calls on the masses.

MONOPOLIES

            5.  We shall use our efforts to obtain laws by which favoritism in the government and all monopolies, trusts and privileges to special classes shall be rendered impossible, by full, definite and mandatory statutes.

PUBLIC SERVANTS

            6.  Better laws should regulate the Civil Service.  The principle of the election of officers of the government by the people should be established, and no man should be allowed to hold more than one office of profit, whilst salaries should be adaquate compensation for the sarvices rendered.  All excessive salaries should be reduced and all sinecures or superfluous offices abolished.

PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRIES

            7.  We are in favor of encouraging all home agriculture and industries, and all our native products, like rice, coffee, wool, tobacco, etc. should be protected and fostered by proper tariff regulation; and also it must be the duty of the Gov-ment, in its contracts and other operations, to give preference to national products over imported ones.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

            8.  We desire a more liberal policy towards the different Islands of the Kingdom, outside of Oahu; they should receive a fairer proportion of the public moneys for the development of their resources and the satisfactirn of their wants.  In fact, the principle of local Self-government should be extended, whereby giving localities may choose the most important of their local executive officers, and levy taxes for the purpose local improvements of a public nature.

PROTECTION TO THE LABOURING CLASSES

            9.  We shall endorse all measures tending to improve the condition of the working classes, and consequently, without injuring any vested rights, we will advocate laws to prevent all further importation or employment of contract-labor of any kind, upon conditions which will bring it into a ruinous and degrading competition with free Hawaiian or white labor.  We shall also, in the interest of the better protection of the poor, ask for more liberal exemptions of their property from forced sale on execution, and from seizure in bankruptcy proceedings.

SMALL FARMING AND HOMESTEADS.

            10.  The wealthy fraction of our population have hitherto prevented the development of an independent class of citizens; the public lands have been acquired and have been tied up in a few hands or