Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 17, 6 October 1893 — TOPICS OF THE DAY. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The standing question at present is “what in the world is Attorney-General W. O. Smith doing on the wrecked steamer?" An Attorney-General is supposed to be the legal adviser of a government, and in this country also the head of the police force, and the prosecuting officer, but we fail to see that sailing around a wreck and presumably offering wise (?) suggestions in any way can come in under the functions asassigned to his official position. The learned gentleman receives a handsome salary to attend to his official duties. It is admitted among all competent to judge, that never in the history of civilized Hawaii has the AttorneyGeneral's department been so poorly, and so expensively conducted as is the case under the present regime. The lack of legal talent in the officials belonging to the department is the main cause, of course, but it is at least to be expected that they will attend to their business, as far as is within their very limited knowledge, legal education and ability and not spend their time for which the taxpayers pay them in fooling around wrecked vessels and other places where they have no legitimate business, and can only be in the way. At the Council meeting yesterday. the learned Attorney-Gener-al stated that he had thoroughly investigated the causes which led to the loss of the Miowera, and that he had come to the conclusions that neither the pilots nor the doctor nor anybody ashore are to blame, but that the fault was entirely the Captain’s. This is rich indeed and we suppose that there will be no reasons now for any investigation by any maritime court or by any men competent to judge in the matter, because, forsooth, His Excellency the Hawaiian Attorney-General has settled the question altogether and given his dictum. The amount of conceit which has developed in the alleged brain-containers of the men now in power, since the 17th of January is really something astonishing. The conceit might have been there before—we doubt if there was anything else—but it never used to come to the surface as it now does. The learned Attorney-General may be omniscient, but he has certainly never demonstrated it to the community. He may know all the law in the world—but he always gets stranded on the first point of law in a court; he may know all about sailing and seafaring, but when he at one time was intrusted with the helm of the yacht Hawaii on a trip to Pearl Harbor he got stranded; he may even know everything about finances and

California investments, but yet we remember that on an embarkation of even such a nature he got stranded and even wrecked. Why then is it that a man of this caliber even if he in an unfortunate moment was thrust into the office as AttorneyGeneral can't sit still and try to attend to his business but instead must make himself so objectionably conspicuous and so outrageously numerous? And echo answers: Big head, heap big head! We compliment Minister Damon for having been fearless and honest enough to intimate that the Miowera accident, would not have happened if Dr. Trousseau had still been in office and had not been compelled to resign to make room for some fossilized member of the family compact. The whole country, perhaps with the exception of the said compact, deplored the retirement of the ablest and most energetic port physician ever holding office in Hawaii. This terrible disaster following so shortly after the impolitic and outrageous action of the Board of Health, should be a lesson and a warning to that over— officious body. It is to be hoped that some other disaster of greater dimensions to the country may not befall this nation through the incompetency and mismanagement of the Board which has charge of the sanitary affairs of the land. The statement of Mr. W. O. Smith, that the Miowera struck the reef an hour after she was telephoned, seems to us to settle the whole question of where the blame in this matter lies. If a pilot needs more than one hour, or to be correct 55 minutes to get from the Pacific Mail Dock, where he ought to have been, to meet the incoming vessels at a proper distance from the entrance to the harbor, all we can say is, that we need a new set of pilots. If the port physician has to board the vessel before the pilot and he cannot get down to the wharf and out of the harbor in less than an hour he ought to be electricutioned or have a sky-rocket fire into his back, because he is unfit, not alone to be a port physician, but also to be practitioner. The Miowera was not telephoned and sighted in the middle of the night when everybody in town was asleep. No, she was seen from Diamond Head at 7:30 p.m., but nevertheless it took the different officials who presumably were not in bed one hour to get ready to do their work. The pilots and port physicians are not paid their lucrative salaries for the purpose of digesting their suppers at leisure while steamers become wrecks. They are paid to be on duty and always on the alert, because the name and safe reputation of this port are in their hands In spite of the investigation of Attorney-General Smith and the results at which he has arrived, we must insist that in the disaster to the Miowera, the Hawaiian government officials are first and foremost to blame. Whatever blame may attach to the Captain of the lost vessel, is not the business of our authorities. They must be satisfied that the guilty parties are to be found among the men paid from the Hawaiian Treasury to perform certain

duties. The neglect of duty should be followed by swift and examplary punishment or the disaster may be of still more farreaching results to this community. What is “Captain” King anyhow? One day, he seems to appear as Minister of Interior to the Hawaiian Provisional Government. The next be does certain things as superintendent of Wilder's S. S. Co. The third he is appointed to act for Lloyds as a member of a Board of surveyors. It is perfectly immaterial to us what position he holds as long as it is in a private capacity, but if he is going to remain minister of the Interior, we should suggest that he drops some of the other jobs and give the taxpayers an equivalent for the salary which he is very regular in drawing. The office of Minister of Interior has always been considered the most important of the cabinet positions, and also the most onerous. Former ministers have nearly always kept regular business hours, and been available for interviews with the public during business hours, and remained in their offices for business purposes. Not so Capt. King. His numerous other duties compel him to spend his time at the wharves or in sailing around in the harbor, but every sensible man will admit that it is hardly proper or dignified to expect the public having business with His Excellency to hunt him up around some steamer and interrupt him in assisting in shipping a horse or a cow or ordering the hawsers thrown off, or in any of these other little businesses in which he evidently delights, and feels a great deal more at home than in the ministerial easy-chair answering question pertaining to leases and licenses, brands and fees. For the sake of the dignity of the government, His Excellency should be requested to drop the wharf business and find somebody else to boss the steamers. If he cannot agree to do that he should be politely but firmly requested to drop the ministerial job, and hand it over to some other equally competent Councillor, as say, Waterhouse, Mendonca or Ena. It would indeed be of some in- | terest to learn why Messrs Tenney, Ena, and Young sitting as a special committee have now arrived at the conclusion “that this force (179 men) is larger than is now required.” What has happened we would like to ask whichi has done away to-day with the necessity of the numerous regulars which had not taken place before yesterday or the day before! The action of the government which in itself is extremely praiseworthy is an indirect admission that the military humbug was a gigantic fraud and an unparalleled steal of the public money. If the CounciIs are convinced to-day that there is no need of soldiers nor any fear of attacks and uprisings of the loyalists what has made them arrive at this conclusion? The simple fact is that the councils have for months back realized that there was at no time need of any of the expensive hirelings with whom they, driven by their evil consciences, surrounded themselves.

It was well understood, and the administration never doubted it —that the Queen of Hawaii and all her faithful supporters had left their case in the hands of the United States administration and that no step would be taken against the present unlawful government until the final answer of yes or no came in black and white—the answer which shall decide the future of Hawaii and the honor of the United States of America. The government kept the army together simply because it feared to disband the hired desperadoes. Although it continually boasted of the support which it claimed was promised to it by Admiral Skerrett, it nevertheless kept the army and emptied its treasury for the purpose of feeding, clothing, and paying the pretorian guard. Why not take the step clean out of disbanding the whole mob? A well organized volunteer force such as the government claims to possess—should certainly be sufficient for all emergencies especially with Admiral Skerrett and his men as a standby. The treasury needs a rest from the constant drain on it. The frightful condition of the government finances cannot be hidden by Minister Damon’s weekly juggling with figures. Anybody conversant with finances and accounts can read between the lines of the financial statements and the circular letters from the Minister calling for retrenchment. Besides the wholesale dismissals of men from the police force and army speak louder than words in demonstrating the bankruptcy of the government. But as we said above, cut the cancer which ruins the treasury to the inmost core, and disband the whole gang of alleged soldiers who are admittedly not useful and emphatically not ornamental. And then, by the way, do take those sandbags away from the Palace before Minister Willis arrives. The impression which every intelligent stranger gets when he sees the ridiculous exhibition of dirty bags around the palace is, that the government consists either of cowards or of fools or of both. The administration knows that the solution of the Hawaiian affairs will be perfect‘y peaceful, and that whatever the decision of the United States is in settling the future destiny of Hawaii, all parties will quietly abide by it. Let Road Supervisor Cummings take the sand and use it to fill up the holes in our roads, and let, say, the surgeon general and the other generals put their heads in the bags. Does the Star know that once upon a time the editor of the Advertiser was an Inspector General of Schools and also a live male school-marm: How dares it criticise his grammar and make fun of his English as she is written? We wonder if the scissors which at present edit the Advertiser couldn't clip an editorial somewhere about international usages in general and Russian diplomacy in particular for the delectation of the HOLOMUA. The cruel treatment of the army men and officers alike by

the councils has created a just indignation. If we understand the report of the special committee as adopted by the councils rightly the surgeon-general and secretary of the Advisory Council Rogers, M. D., will have to pay for his own shoes in the future. As the doctor's feet have to be encased by number fourteen and one half's the matter is no joke, but a bitter pill (not as bad as his own though) to swallow.