Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 170, 13 April 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

The Primership.

          Since the office of Kuhina Nui ceased, the office of Premier of the Cabinet has not been mentioned in our written law or Constitution. The office however has been assumed by those whom the King has invited to form a Ministry. This was more prominently exercised by Mr. Wilder and by Mr. Gibson, and since their time. Thus the precedent is well established by tacit custom based on usage in all constitutionally governed countries, i.e., the appointment of one man at the head of the Ministry, styled as Premier, with several other gentleman associated, and presumed to be in accord with him, as his colleagues. But while in theory, or in word, this has appeared to the be case, the fact here has been that the associate colleagues have usually broken loose from our several Premiers, and have started independent and often hostile politics and policies of their own. By such inconsistency on their part the Premier has become a mere figure-head, having all the responsibility attached to him with his power to act obstructed. This fact has become more notorious of late, more especially during the administration in office of the Thurston and Cummins Cabinets, to which cause their downfall may be attributed.

          If Dame Rumor is to be credited, Premier Parker has had similar difficulties to contend with, in stubborn colleagues upon question of public policy, which he has the right to direct. The LEO believes, as we have before stated, that Mr. Parker, the present Premier, is imbued with honest purpose to serve his country faithfully, and to conduct the administration in accord with the wishes of the people. But we trust that he will not be daunted or swerved from his duty by unreasoning and designing obstructors. He is the Premier, and as such is presumed to have the confidence of the Queen, and therefore his colleagues should give some deference to his administrative policy. We make this assertion more strong since his three colleagues in question do not as yet enjoy the full confidence of the people as does the Premier, and therefore we mistrust their object in obstructing his work, as they are credited with doing.

          If the Premier finds that any of his colleagues are determined to be independent or obstructive factors, if they refuse to pull together, or with him, his duty is whether to request their resignation, or to resign his own position, which would necessarily carry with it the downfall of the whole cabinet. And if such resignation of the Premier was based as aforesaid, there is no doubt but that the Queen would re-summon Mr. Parker, to form a new Cabinet that would perhaps work more harmoniously in the interest of the public, and in deference to Her Majesty’s wishes. But we yet hope there will be no necessity for such a change. We trust that common sence and self-preservation will prevail and make the whole Cabinet recognize the necessity of harmony of action on points of policy, and that such policy should be in harmony with the majority of the people as represented by the Legislature. It appears that in recognizing the principles of party politics the Premier has been alone, and unsupported by his colleagues, as should have been. We fear that the Premier, instead of having the support of his colleagues in carrying out the desire of the people, he is being obstructed by outside influence through them. In carrying out the principles of popular government, the Premier, can always rely on our efforts, and as we have said, we trust his colleagues will awake to a just sense of duty and support him in what is plainly the only successful course for maintaining the support of the people and of preserving the present administration.

Repopulation.

          There now seems to be a chance for helping our repopulation problem by obtaining a limited amount of people of a most congenial race. The latest advices from Tahiti note the fact that the brave nation of Raiatea,--hoping against hope, --are still continuing their original fight with the French; but many are getting discouraged and are said to be willing to emigrate sooner than to submit. Why cannot trustworthy native agents be sent down from here for ascertaining the facts, to be quickly followed, if the Raiateans justfied it, by a ship to bring up as many families as might be willing to become Hawaiian subjects. A fact of this nature would fully justify the Administration,--if really it has any favorable feeling toward the good of Hawaii nei,--to dispose of some adequate government land on the island of Hawaii, which the Raiatean would find the most sintable of our group.

Labor Strikes.

          Just now the world’s air is laden with the clamor of the wage earner for better conditions, more pay and shorter hours. In every corner of Europe, from Scotland in the north, where a gigantic strike of Railway employees is about to collapse; to Turkey, where the Dock laborers have formed a Union and given shipmasters the usual notice of their intentions; then across the American continent, we find vast armies of workers united and organized in demanding better conditions.

          The question which this mighty upheaval of labor suggests, is—what causes the glut in the labor market? Why is there in a world of plenty, men starving? The answer is self-evident: The monopoly of land, by what ever means, by a comparative few to the exclusion of the many. In this small kingdom of Hawaii we have men enjoying princely incomes without even the employment of capital as a preliminary; they have been the favored recipients of Crown Land leases which in some cases by sub-dividing and re-litting are producing for the favored lessees, tens of thousands a year which or right belongs to the national treasury.

          Man instinctively looks for food, or for a foundation for his dwelling, to the earth of which society has robbed him, and driven by destitution he accepts any wages as a boon.

          In this country an idle class of total absentees and semi-absentees are annually draining millions from industry without making any return, and it is thus that we will have inordinate wealth increasing at one end of the social scale, and semi-slavery and its attendant degradation at the other.

          The right of workers to strike for betterment, is now generally conceded by capitalistic law-makers of Europe, only because the strikers are more numerous and better organized than formerly—it is only a few years since a labor union was illegal in free England. But every intelligent thinker who has studied cause and effect in connection with the social problem, must be convinced that there is a vast amount of futility surrounding the “strike” theory. Gaining more coins and reducing their purchasing power is undoing with the left hand the work of the right.

          Proud science would mystify the distinction between the natural and acquired wants, between land which was created for all, our common birthright, and machinery made by ingenious men for their separate use. Land is a sine qua non , but mankind has existed without complex machinery, and could again by modifying their habits. Land monopoly unless checked will absorb the wealth of any country in time and reduce its landless inhabitants to a condition of serfdom. It was this danger which our British forefathers perceived in the growing wealth of the Church, when they passed the statute of mortmain.

          Practical moral: Legislate in the direction of nationalising the land by making it bear the bulk of taxation and place a cumulative tax on large estates.

ON DIT.

          That if the demands of the people are ignored and the promised changes do not take place before May 1 ^st , Her Most Gracious Majesty with her ministerial escort will meet a very cold reception from her subjects on Hawaii and Maui and it would be advisable for her and her premier to stay at home and not risk unfriendly demonstration.

          That the duke of Waikapu was mad because Samuel got the grand cross of the medals to which he states only shall be granted to royalty, to wit: Prince John and the bonny Prince in the opium den. Duke William says he doesn’t know where Samuel’s connection with royalty comes in. We do!

          That when the duke was only a major and hostier in waiting he resigned these important offices because the Rev. Lilikalani received the same high distinctions Now he says he feels d----much like returning his medals, because the same kind have been pinned on to such fourth rate (sic!) lawyers as the Attorney General and his deputy.—If Samuel wants to please his grace he must at least give him a cabinet portofolio or else risk that the rabbit killing duke will vote against him and never, never, (hardly ever) play poker with him again.

          That the Minister of Finance shall have offered Hon. J. M. Horner the governorship of the Hawaii if he stop publishing the next 2000 volumes of Horners Bank Hill.

          That nothing less than an earthquake can shake the present P.M.G. out as long as his old nurse is a Cabinet office.

          That the Marshal will postpone his promised changes in the police force on Hawaii and Maui till after the jury terms—if not indefinitely.

          That a deputy-sheriff on Maui the other day received reliable information where a lot of opium could be found, but he refused to use the information, saying that he was not going to use the “criminal law to gratify the spite of anybody,” and so the opium was left in peace.—This is a new light in which to look at policeduty.

          That one of the sheriff of Maui’s trusted police officers has found another way to apply the criminal law which shows financiering talents, in that he is present at a Tan Tan game and taxes each winner 10 p.c. of the winnings as a recompense for the sleep which this guardian of the peace deprives himself of by patronizing the fascinating game.

          That the last arrived Japanese slaves have been delivered to their respective owners at the different plantations and will shortly be familiar with the district courts and the monotonous: Return to work—costs $360

          That a number of gentlemen are competing with each other for the vacant job as slave-driver-in-chief of the largest plantation in the world.

          That the usual celebration on Maui of the 4 ^th of July, will be unusually glorious this year, as the ex-premier J.A.C. with race horses ladies of his court harem and Leimamo Society will grace Wailuku onthat days the “request of the ex-representative for Wailuku, who with his usual eloquence will read an enlogy over the father of the native sons of “etc.” to be delivered after the old declaration of independence has been rattled off.

          That the President of the Board of Health, says, that Tell will get more pay in the sweet mahope. But, that Evans was paid his pay from the sweet mamua instead of the sweet mahope. All depends as to the color of the two bulls, whether one is foreign bred or whether the other is home bred.

          That it makes no difference whether Tell goes to Hell or Evans goes to Heaven, so long as David receives his 3000 pieces of silver per annual, which is one hundred per cent more than was paid Judas for salary. A man will help his own brother into the “unknown” to avoid helping him.

          That Mr. J.T. Waterhouse’s tenement house, when burning, made the air odorous with the smell of opium and made several people drunk. This may account for the @ifty tins of opium that tu@@@ @@i as the ground where the @@@ occurred that gave such a deathly stench was an old taro patch. Oh, filthy lucre, what power thou has even with the very elect!

          That the bark Lurline landed about 1000 tins of opium, so the heathen chinee say. That the Annie Healey was looking for seals on the south end of Kahoolawe, before she sprung that “leak.”

          That all the fish in Hilo Bay is in a comatose condition since the wreck of the bark Whitmore. One shark was picked up by the Custom House officials and several by the Police Department, containing several hundred tins of opium.

          That “seals” from that 20-ton schooner drifted ashore at Honokaa, full of opium, and that Temperance Horner is in a quandary whether opium or sugar is king.

          That our inter island, coasters have a false bottom for carrying opium, like the sac that the kangaroo has to carry its young in.

          That a chinese cook of one of the Mr. Hitchcock’s was arrested and fined for having a valise containing 13 tins of opium, marked on the outside with the words Miss Almy Hitchcock, so says our informant, but the Mongol avers that he took the valise out of a drunken sharks stomach that he caught as the surf threw the fish up from a vasty deep on to the beach at Hilo.

Theory and Practice.

          Are the people intellectually children that they can be deceived by specious pretences? Are they mesmerized that they must believe all that is told them? If there is one thing that has been persistently paraded by the “Reform” press, it is that the Ministry is responsible. They ought to be since the whole power of the government is concentrated in their hands. But are they? Suppose a humble citizen is killed, as recently occurred in Hawaii, and the powers choose to shield the murderer, is there any way to compel the minister to enforce the law? Suppose the minister sells or re-leases government land for one-tenth of its value, or makes money out of opium; suppose through the malice of some petty official appointed by a responsible minister, a man is kept in jail a month or two without cause or is thrust into a pen with lepers, what can be done about it?

          The ministers are responsible. To whom, when and where? The legislature can turn them out and the sovereign may appoint a worse lot. The first step toward a better state of things is to make officials responsible directly to the people instead of to each other. The people demand local self-government.

O KA HOOPONO.

(Kakania no ka nupepa Ka Leo.)

Ua aloha nui Oe i Kou mau Makaainana,

Ua hoomamaia na manao kaumaha,

Ua hoioiia waimaka mai na papalina aku,

Ua haliu mai Oe e ike i ko makou kaniuhu.

Ua @na mai Oe i Kou lahui kanaka ponoi,

Ua hana @ula mai Oe ma ke ana o ke kaulike,

Ua huli ke alo o ka aina iluna.