Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 237, 7 June 1893 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

The Star came out a few days ago with the statement that it was not the government organ. Yesterday the Advertiser followed suit and says, that it is not the governmenl organ. We congratulate the Provisional Government. It is not so bad off after all. As long as it can get rid of its friends it needn't fear its enemies. The Advertiser needn't, by the way, have got on its stilts and presented us with a declaration of its independence in such a pompous way, because in the very next paragraph, it prints a sentence which absolutely and decidedly shows that it certainly does not represent the powers that be, because this is what it says:"One of the cardinal principles of government is, that individuals must respect the decision of the majorities." Shake, neighbor — if "them’s your sentiments" you have understood how to hide them heretofore as well as the crown jewels are hidden, and nobody would ever have dreamed that a minority government subsidized organ like yours would have dared to contain such enlightened and admirable a principle. The taking-possession by the government of the Palace was the occasion for some display of soldiers and high officials, but the ceremony was neither impressive nor seemed the partakers in it to feel like conquering heroes, as their journey from the Aliiolani Hale to the new styled "Execution Building" resembled rather a funeral march. The provisional president with white pants, together with the provisional financier, wearing his usual smile took the lead, and trotted painfully through the black sand, bowing to the defenders at so much perdiem and board of republican principles in Hawaii of the N.G. The minister of interior, resplendent in black clothes, with the attorney-general, learned in the law, and rheumatic in the hindlegs followed behind. The auditor general was picked up in the procession at the gate, and the new aid de-camp to the president with the rank of Major, with a handkerchief around his neck, and no goldlace completed the outfit. If this move of the P. G. into the Palace had represented the final nail in the coffin of the monarchy, as we are made to understand by the mysterious paragraphs which the Advertiser calls editorials where was all the crowd who support the P.G., where were all the revolutionists, where was the enthusissm, where was the club (we don't mean the weapons of Hitchcock's flock, but Mr. Damon’s valuable appendix) where were the one and all who delight in the cry, that the monarchy is the deadest thing alive and who believe that the seating of Mr. Dole under the royal canopy on the royal dais, in the royal throne room is the final proof that the Hawaiian shall be a stranger in his own land and that minority shall rule? The enthusiasm and the crowd were not there, because everybody feels that the move into the Palace was a premature and ill-advised step. The Hawaiian government has prospered and got along well for years and years in the Aliiolani Hale, the changing of the established business into Iolani Hale is not the opening of a new era, but simply

a piece of bluff, intended to convey to the Hawaiians the belief, that Messrs Dole and company have ceased to be provisional and have become permaneant — but the bluff doesn't work at all. Under the lion’s skin we see too plainly the ears of the braying quadruped. Mr. Damon’s first finaneial statement is out, and it is not one iota clearer or more explicit than those of his predecessors in the finance office. According to it there is no change in the outtanding indebtedness of the government, and there is absolutely nothing to explain how the $30,000 to the English bondholders have been paid as we are told it has been by the annexation organs. The general receipts for the week have somewhat decreased and now only reach the sum of $11,368. 35, but there is nothing to indicate from what source that sum has been derived. No bonds have heen sold and the Spreckels transaction is not mentioned at all. There is no explanation whatever of the payments supposed to have been made to P. S. B. depositors, and we notice that during the last week notices of withdrawals have matured to the amount of $12,440, and at the same time the cash on hand in the P. S. B. has been increased to $3,441,75. The provisional government has spent, since it was created 4½ months ago on items for whieh there was no appropriation in the regular appropriation bill the sum of $72,471.13 which means that if its expenses continue on the same scale, their special expenditures will amount to about $200,000 for the year or one half of all the taxes collectable by the government. No explanation or account is offered to the taxpayers in regard to the channels into whieh this very large amount in running but it is supposed that the military forces and the special police get the larger proportion while the junketing expeditions of commissioners and travelling expenses or pensions to the “faithful” perhaps can account for the rest. Mr. Damon stated before he presented the statement that the finance committee had not yet met, so perhaps the statement for next week will be more satisfactory, and help in elucidating to the taxpayers as to where their spondulicks go. Mr. Damon should bear in mind that the larger portion of the taxes are paid by men not in sympathy with the government, and that they might get very impatient and unpleasant if the fate of the dollars which they pay into the treasury is to remain a mystery, into which they seem to be declined to receive the right to penetrate. If Mr. Damon believes that he can assume the role of a financial bluebeard and keep the taxpayers, money in locked chambers he will find that the curiosity so natural to mankind will devise plans and steps to open these chambers and "sit on" His Excellency Bluebeard. The Advertiser in announcing the appointment of Mr. C. Wilder to the office of Consul-General in San Francisco finally admits that the Holomua has been right in its assertions that fear of Spreckels so far has prevented them from taking the step now accomplished. What a miserable spectacle it is to have a government whose subsidized papers openly state that the late incumbent of the consul-general’s office should have heen dismissed long ago, but that the govenment could not do what it considered to

be r:ght and ila duty. t*?cause a cred itor waa waving a due bīllunder ite noae—But is tbe govermuent any better off to-day ? It is comnionly rumo«ed that a Iarge sum of the money whieh paid toSpreckel? was advanced by Hackfeld * Co., on peraand notes. Tr»e two princinal ptrtners of that rirm are absent and if they, upon their arrival shou!d disapprove of iha actioc of tneir firm they wiil begin lo wave their due biU under the nose of the P. G.. and onr rulers will simply havejumoed from the frying pan into the fire. That Mr. Spreckels should be entitled t*> a voice in regard to who shali be the ineumbent of the consul-generars office | in San Fraucisco is only fair and i reasonab!e. All sugi*r imjx»rted I fr«»m Hawaii is consigned to him and nearly all the suipping carrying freight between Hawnii and San Francisco belongs to him. He is tbe man mostly interested in the office lhrough whieh the Hawaiian Islandstransacts its official eommercial business and we think lhat the boyish triumpb wliieh now isenjoyed by the P. G., and ita appeneled eluh will be very ehortlived, and turn into tears before long. We understand that Oolonel Spreckels is considering the advisability of starting a new Inter Island Steamship line m Hawaii. We believe that such a step would be of great advantage to the people generally, and more especially to the planters and ranchers. A aleamahip line could afford to make considerable re<luctio«» in the freight-charges, and there is vast room for improvement in accommodations and cōurteav to that to whieh the puhlie now is treated. A large number of planlatiōns ship their sugar directly frora the dTfierent emall ports to San Francieco, but there are many who have to uss the Inter Island Stearaers to transport their sug.ir to Honolulu, and to those a new line with reasonable freight charges wouki b a a regular b<ion under tho present depression. Mr. Spreckel’s energy and enterprise i» so well known that we believe that the long-suffer'ng puhlie ean hope to be relieved from thepresent steamer at a not very distant date. The great majority of the annexationists here in Hawaii really know very little of the Hawaiian polUieal history, although thev believe that they do so, and very glihly ean quote all the platitudes about the royal extravagance whieh they get pat from the lies of the Advertiser and itsclique. In regard to the Hawaiian debt, the annexationists have always represented it as being incurred through th« monarchical institutions andspeak about it as an evil whieh never will heknown underthe republican form ot government for whieh thev now hope. That their own P. G., whieh we are told is the ineamation of all virtues. does all it conveuient!y ean to incre*se tht debt is a malter unworthy of notiee—because the republican or provi«ional extravagance it a hor*e of quite s different coior from th* roy*Iiat squandermg. In regard to this alleged mon*rchic*l extravagance and consequent Hawaiian debt Allan Dare in his letter to the Californi* Magaaine telle eome plain aud 5traight facta £rom whieh we invite tbe republic*n8 to draw their own inferencea. Tbia ia what he writ*a: “Mueh haa been written and taid by the enemiea of Hawaiian in* 1 dependence with regard to the in-

•upport*ble extravagance of Hawaii rora!ty, and the 13.000.000 debt of the little country is put in •v’.dence to prore the trulh of lhese strictures. C.tre has a’.waya been takeu, however, to eoneeal the lrue causes of ihe dr*in on the Ha wa'ian Treasury. A true statement of the case wou!d run s >mething like this: The sugar barv>na. in order to insure th«ir enormi.us • dividends, must have eheap lalx.r, j and the native. not caring to prostitute himself t > the slavery of plantation field work at wage« j from ten dollars t<» fifteen dolIara ; per mouth, to pass under j the labor-contract yoke for two or j i more years and sought h’s subs;s- : j tence in fishin», se*-faring, cultiv- j i atmg his taro-patohee, or other | work more congenial to his taste* *nd less likely to shridge his freedom. But labor musl be had, and Ohineae and Jap*nese w«re brought into the country by the thousands. To help out the indig*nt planter the treaaurv was tapped from 18t>-4 to 1888 under the specious headiug uf “Encour*gement to Immigration” to the tuue of 11,254,797. This was not the worst feature of the “Encouragement” aeheme. In 1881 the fever to secure the eheap labor ran so high that all reasonable quarantine regulations were trampled in the dust and some 6.000 Chinese were landed frora tramp ateamers in the port of Honolulu, bringing with them an epidemic of ■mall-pox whieh resulted in th* laying of over 300 Hawakan corpses forever to rest in the aand» of the quarantine etation. To stamp out this epidemic coat the Hawaiian Treasury a sum of $110, 000, whieh shou!d be added to the above item for ‘‘Encouragcment.” Another itera whieh »hould not be overlooked is the fact that a former minister of the Interi«>r at present acting as one of the comraissiouers •ent to this country to negotiate the treaty of annexation used durine his incumbency in office the dep»sits of the PostaI Savinga Band as a grab-bag squandering in unproductive and useless puhlie improvemeiits nearly $1,000,000, whieh should have heen kept on dcposit in the Treasnry. If these various sums whieh have heen used for purposes in no way f<>r the support of royalty are added to, together it wili be f<uind that the līawaiian Nalional Debt could have heeu avoided.” The Hawaiian Patriotic League ha« ten ered a resolntion of condolenee to the familr of the late John S. \Valker. The great merits of the deceaseil and his well-known and otten proven Aloha for the Hawaiiana makes the step of the League extremely appropriate. Through the death of John S. Walker the Hawaiian eauae has lost one of its ab!est and stiunchest supp>rter», and a conservative aud prudent advisor, and the grief expressed by all Havraiians is «incere and comes from the heart, Tbe reso!ution of condolence is worded as follows and is signed by the President and Secretary of the League: Whebeas: Our esteemed fellow citizen Hon. John Smitb Walker having passed from amongst ua to h:a eternal rest to receive the reward promised by our Lord for &11 that are faithful unto the end. Be it reaolved that we »incerely tender to the bereaved family tbe heartfelt aympatby of tbo Hawaiian Patriotic League, m thia their bereavement. Hia loyalty to Hawaii and our beloved Queen, wilh

his thorough knowledgo of internal atfairs, ami our needs iogether with his «ound jadgineot on *11 > iusltera of state. hare made him aoirersal;T be!ov*ti and resp<cted br the Hawaiian people, and our pr»rer is. that he who tempers the wind to the ahorn lamb, mav give 5trength to eueiaio the :‘amily in this their hour of atfliction. and make them leel that he is not ’.oat. but simply gone before, preparmg to receive them when our He*venly Father in his inhnile wiad m eaila them to j >in him. Resolred th.it a rec>rd t‘ t!us be plaoed upon the bx>K3 of the League aiui a suitable copy be presenled to the family. The plot is deepening. The fair acrubatic cou9pirators are still jamping the fence from the A »m<t AloheU Kuikmea aiul playmg witb explosive3. The assistance of a naval expert has secured, and we have no doubl that the additional aeienee procnreti inlhal way will ensvtre a successful result of the conspiracy. \Vhere are the poliee?