Nuhou, Volume I, Number 17, 22 ʻApelila 1873 — A Suborner of False Testimony. [ARTICLE]

A Suborner of False Testimony.

In the Kuokoa, native newspaper, of tbe 19th inst., H. M. Whitney, the publisher, repeats some of the slanderous insinuations (against us) which appear in the Gazette of last Wednesday, and then, addreesing the native readers of the Kuokoa, appeals to them to aid him with any hint or suspicion they may be enabled to recall to mind in this matter against Mr. Walter M. Gibson. The exact words in the native language are--"Ina ua mahui iki kekahi poe heluhelu o ke 'Kuokoa' i na mea e pili ana i keia, ua oluolu ia lakou e kakau mai me ka pololei ia makou;" and are thus fairly translated--"If any of the readers of the Kuokoa have any slight inkling or suspicion concerning this affair, they will please to inform us." The full significance of the expression "ina ua mahui iki" means perhaps something more than this. Andrews says that mahui means, in this connection, "to hear a little, as when one hears only partially or in parts," and is synonymous with kulina, which means, "to hear partially or indistinctly," as a "deaf person." It also signifies to go about picking up information, "as one acting foolishly, and without sense." And its meaning fathermore, and more particularly, is "a kind of sly conduct in a female to express to one of the other sex her de-

sire" to do evil. The word iki still more intensifies this meaning, so that mahui iki really means to coax, cozen, suborn or hint to another to be an informer, and bear false witness against his neighbor. What man will be safe, if such a pander as this continues to prompt the native proneness to gossip? It is plain to be seen that all his ideas, and all the supposed charges of himself and others, are based entirely upon partially heard and almost forgotten gossip of kanakas, and now in his desperate straits to relieve himself of the clear imputations of falsehood and slander, he tries to arouse the spirit of native gossipa dn mendacity; and with all the influence of the circulation of the Kuokoa, with his governmental associations, and with his assumption of respectability at his back, he would seem to say, let us try and break down thc editor of the NUHOU with suspicion and dastardly insinuation, if we cannot do so with any proven charge. But you have undertaken a heavy job. Though we are alone and single-handed, we are so armed with honesty, we defy you and all the sneaks that stand behind you. We don't want to prompt the informer and the sneak to help us in this fight. We got at you alone and bare handed, and will fight you with your own weapons; and out of your own mouth will convict you before the high court of publie opinion of being a "persistent slanderer" and suborner of false testimony. Among the worst enemies of the natives are their petty lawyers. When we undertook our joint stock farming association twelve years agogoJ on Lanai, we unfortunately had two or three of these lawyers in the company. They did not want to work, but wanted offices and opportuni-| nities to make something out of their less knowing and hard working eomrades, and out of the manager also. When the company broke up, these lawyers, and particularly one, whom we will not name, unless compelled to do so, drew up a statement of complaint against us, and handed to his late Majesty Kamehameha V., who handed it over to the Attorney General, who laid it before us, not deeming it worthy of attention on his part; and now after a lapse of so many years, Mr. Whitney, by his advertisement in the Kuokoa, asking for information, induces this petty lawyer as we hear to dress up the old story. Bring it out, and hunt up all the native stories you can in Wailuku, or elsewhere.