Nuhou, Volume I, Number 19, 10 March 1874 — Retrenchment [ARTICLE]
Retrenchment
ls':a watch-word m this community, and even among thoughtful government people; but nobody wants (o begin with himself,—-and nobody wahts to say where ietrpnchment .ought rightfully to begin, "Now we say it pught to begin with the highest io the ]and. Faithful Ministers will advise a patriotic King to set the example of retrenchfnent before his people. They must indeed see to it,' that His Majesty*s royal* state is maintained fittingly,—that is to consistent with the condition of the realm j but any staie or display "that is in excess, will not reflect honor, but ;the reve*se. f And the Ministxy must noi overlook themselves« Their iotelligence and sense of patriotism should dispose them to £cknowledge that f20,000 (ēven though accepted at the u sacrifice of private business ") is far too mueh pay for the Ministerial work of this poor country. What ean the Foreign Office find to do that is not by its*efficient Chief Clerk, and keep itself in countenance with the assurafice that it is hdnorably earning its emolumen t ? Assuredly it might embrace the duties of the'lnteriorDepartmenf, and vet afford ample leisure to a gentleman c>f business capacity. And so might. the Chief Law Officer superihtend the wor& of Finance iiōwdone by subordinates, and save another five thous;md to tlie Treasury. Then > o'u'r Governorships and other offices ean be'dispensed with until increase of population and prosperity shall demand them! We believe that honest men, maste-rs' of the situa(ion, might save to the country at least one hundred thousand dollars ; but we fear that the outlook is for one hundred thousand more when we see our new hatched statesmen, with the shell not all removed, try their teiK.ier pinion for a lofty flight of with u articles*' > regulations,' v " general orders," a generals in command/' " guards," " drum head court martials, v l! balls aiul chains," and a " Secretary at Warwith eommon sense. A Poliiieal Cpnstitution is a sacred thing in England, where it is the growth of more than a thousand yearsrand has its roots 111 the hearts of tlie people. And this principle of political order is sacred also in America, because it is an offspring of the English national sentiment ? and is fully adapted to and nurtured by the genius of the ruling race of the New World. But our Constitutional order cannot elaim this sacredness pf character, a$ an out-gro\\th of the genius and poliiieal spirit of our people, It is a foreign graft, devised alone by foreign thought, to be inserted into a native tree, not fitted to bear the new fruit expected of it. Here is our case, —one chief consented to have a newlangledandcomplicāted order of lawfoisted upon his people, out of a mere spirit of eomplianee to the foreign teachers ; andanother chief set all this aside by his own jd!ctum, to establish a changc of !aw, by mere decree, yet equally as cumbersome a*d as unadapted as the other;—and now, why should not a rulin<j chief trained some\vīiat in the study and practice of law, and at the same time eapable of appreeiating by education and phitosphieal refleetion and patriotic sentiment, the genius and politiea! sjlirit of his nat-ive people,—why should not he smiplify for the benefit of his eountry a better order of governmental policy, Wliieh, \uthout the exercise of a ?o\ereign will* cannot be broughl al>out on accouht of the mul(itude of c!ash-
jing of a weak and disorgarjized j ! coantry ? Woulelhe by so doing destroy ; [any so-called <£ palladium of libert3%*' or ! | £t sacred nof the country ?Or would ! Ihe not rather rid the land of a cumbersome > | contriyance adapted to other clirnes and eon-1 ditions, —having no immunity of sacredness | in the hekrts of the people,—establishing' in its ?tead a system of law and order ! | adajīted to ! the gerims of ,the people and the j conditions :of the country? I The rights of the people as established by I thegenius bf the English speaking race,no (Jne will tlii2ik ! to abrogate, or be able to do so in Hawaii; but all that.pertains to the oHleial order of jijovernment may and must be sim- ! plified and rendered less expensive and more |effiqient by a new Constitution. ' £i Second Interregnum has exceeded its promise. We have nineteen i«istead of sixteen pages, and they are full of interesting) matter pertaining to our political history. Some of the squibs issued by the Mends of Queen Emnia are highly interebting as ilk|strative of a Hawaiian ppliiieal canmss? The paper signed {£ Correct Guide, v on the 14th page } was evidently one of the incendiary documentf that inspired the mob; and the one signed by the £ - Flower Girls of Maemae, 5? | page 15, sent forth in behalf of thc £; well beloved, beaAitiful ? sweet scented flower of t|he islands,—the fare flower, ,? —13 a bit of po|litical rhapsody worthy of a sentimefital people engaged in the ehoiee of a chief. i * ! We are mueh grieved to hear of the death ©f Hon. W. Lonoaea,_who has died of wounds reeeived at the Court House riot. His fate imparts more gravity to the evenr 5 ! sti!l for all|that we do not change our view } as expressed in another article, that the as-| ! saults werk not interitionally murderous, and ! ! that foreign armed intervention might have ! been avoiied with proper resolute eflbrt of! authoritie% and at the risk of perhaps shed:ding some|of the b!ood of the rioters. Some j>hould, or must he shed, if we purpose to |mimtain ;he independence of the country. rlf not, we had better eoniinue the gentle, j non-comba!tive, unsanguineous official eowso lauded by - Justice " in last j Let us show that we j have sofne| force in the land, and if we have s not, let us :gije up to those who have. ! 1 #
i 1 I We the f«shion of illuālfating a 1 paper wheii we issued the Lunalilo brocliure, and i!lusirated biographical skctcli of ; Prince Kalakaua has been iollo\ved by others ! to illustratb His Majesfys election aud ae- ! cession to the Throne. We forwarded by the P. C. Murray, l»efore the electiou, por-' traits of the Pritice Candidate to all tlie lpading il!u?trated papers of the Ciūied! Statos, alsd by the City of Melbourne. Ou' th« day 6f the eleetion, and \vhilst the riot' was progtessing, we hastened to our ofllce to' nddress oiio dozen of ouf illustrated Kata- 1 knna EHWon to teading journals of Anstra-! lia nnd Ne : n* Zealand, and whieh we.handcd to Pimer Weavpr, on board the Maacgregor. 1 _Let us o*o back to nn autocratiw cliieftaucy with one intelligoni Kuhiua Nui, or vizier to meet the diplomacy of civilī^atlun; or have a rosponsille Ministry, uiasters of the situation, so lotig as Mistuiuod by the {K-ople. !
•• 1 ———— -W King Kabkaua goes to vi?Tt Ēauaī, ih»: 1 o!d reahn of the good Kaam|ualii, who so:u<~ sixty yenjrs ago hud ahoul 15 ? 000 sou!s to acknow!edge him as chlef; and eow :lie successor of the Kamehamehfis wIU Em! iheu only ahoiU 4,000 people, infcrrior in physic A u ; to the old time, and of these few there are 1,556 o>:<:r foriy ytar* of agc. lt will U , well for some chiēf patriot'to go to aneienl | sacred Mana, and when seafled on the aī'/, \ onee trodden by the aneienl throngs there | invoke the genius of .Hawaii to inspire h:> j heart with the one sc!e, dominant, patriotl: ipurpose of saving his people, J Italians read us. , La Voce del Popolo,*' whieh eame to hahd by last mail, a article headed, "Le isole ; Hawaiian/' the Hawaiian Islands,—an3 amqng other subjects urges Genoese shipping rnerchants to inake ventures into the Pacific and to estabash business relations willi Honolulu. . a CoL David Kalakaua " is spoken of in very higu terms, and very likely the complifnentary sentiments were suggested by H. K. H. the Duke of Genoa and his sui{e, as the visit of j H. L M. S, Garribaldi is commented on, and j particulars concerning that vessel and her I visit are quoted from the Nuhou Hawaii. | The palm of being first t<j> plaee the name |of Kalakaua » before the nation as a eanii- | dafe for the Throne, ,, is claiimed bv ihe j vertiser, which*made its declaration ou | the subject in its issue of January 31st, of | this year, Whilst the Nuhou, just one moiuh ! earlier, in Dec. 30th, proclaimed our | present Sovereign as the ehoiee of the Haj waiian Nafion to be the Successor of the | Kamehamehas and of King|Lunalilo." j _ The suckling censors who lucubrate iu ,tHe Y. M. C. A. page of the Trkud, are j aisposed to speak evil of authorities when ( they say that none of - His s chosea i advisers should be compfomised ia diis I cursed traffic/* (the saie of, ardeiu spirits.) I Young men, you should noi try to bring the I constituted aiuhorities " contempt. | Tkek. Tiie j branches oi tii.e trees were filled wuh an expectant crowd j>i ladies and children, on ths look-out at au early hour in ihe morning/'; \Yhere» Bro;her GazdU? We did not We would rather have missed ths procession ihan uie prospect of our umbrageous. city loaded with such bJossoms. AVert thou -upa tree M at the time 7 ; | Shoddy still ilourishea old Coiumb;a , jbut \ve hardly ueed fear its , invaiion of our j virtuous Isles, as tliere is nothing here to warrant a inan - tp go h\£i\ tiie make/' For iwh;\t would be the paltry ,pickings of our contracts in "army "slops, and poi, poliee pay, ralace purveyance aujl ieper alimeiuatiou to a first-class ( s&Qddyit<p at home ? A « surprise ixu[y %% gotten up aui ' known to everybody in tovyu before it took | plaee, for the benefit of Brotlier Uileuou, wno wouU have been verv rauch surprlsed ii 'sofnethsng of the klnd haS uot lakeu flace, lhe jolly tars took*possession of tiie u Empiee " the ather uight,imd the - b;oodv poiiee " were very uiueh to see ūow wdil they did iu I īuforuuujon \vduted, mueu- u< purveyor4up*of ihe le|ien» wjotUi