Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 182, 29 April 1891 — WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT. [ARTICLE]

WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT.

Paet 11. The Finance Department is the one in whieh the largest amount of reforms were expectMl by the Nāiional Party, and a,lBo the one in whieh such reforms have *been most Btrenuougly avoided. The fact is not Burprising for any one who knows the stubborn asinine J Bhallowriess and the vfndictive I ;neanneB6 of character of the late Minister Brown; but, that\the present incumbent, the ex-leader of the National Party, should have followed Brown's example and advice, is moBt surprising and unaec©untable, unless it be through fear of some of the family compacts of the old Reform. Iu that department, we fjrst find the Gustom House, in whieh the neceBsity for a general revision was so plafnly indicated by the irtvetftigationg on tbe opium t4 brickB ,, and the passport steals. | Here a]one. a score of promising | and worthy young Hawaiians have been summari]y dismiss«d, under a trumped up charge of criminal dealing in Chinese paesports; yet, at no time since their innoeenee has been estabiished, any attempt has bfeen made to i»demnify these* your.g men. The least that could have beert done by a Naiional Reform administration, ought to have heen to reinstate the«, in heu of some officers strongly suspected ef smuggling: but they werg HawaiiāiiB, whilst these last are foreigners, lienee the dilatoriness of dur justice ! I In the same bureau, we find the [ Port CollectQrs, about Beveral of! whom so mueh has been stated, j of a fisby nature; here again the I bad ought to have been eJiininated | in spite of any family compact. ! But "ought" still remains to be| <ione. j In second liae, in the Einanee ' T)epaTt'rjon t, we niust note the | Tax Assef?sors and their supposed j eheek the Tax Board of Appeals. j Tbe cf>lumnB of even the reform i press have been repeatedly filled | with .coinpiaints about both the j Collectors and the Boards of Ap-! peals on all the different Islands,! and now the iime is approaching, 1 when the indignant but patient| public will look out to see whether : or not any proper changes will be | inade, —if possible among the Tax : collectors, —but at any rate most decidedly in the conetitution of the Boards of Appeals, whieh are now nothing but family compacts of the worBe kind. Will the pre-

sent Minister of Finance leeieem himself on this pdnt of his past in§ctivity. or will he allow the iast days of his life tō be bloated under the public dissatisfaction and scorn, for nut doing his duty ? Time will s©on show. Last, but not least, in this department is the Post Office bureau. So inueh has b*en said and written during the last two years, agxiinst the present P. M. (5.. that it is unnecessary to acld anything here, unless it is this fact, that by far the largest share of discontent in the ranks of the National Party have been caused by the stubbpm maintainance of this unpopuJar official, who have de-, clared himself above the Legislature and above the Government, whom he defied and cowed. AVithou4 dwelling on the wholesale dismissal of all the Hawaiian clerks in that bureau, replaced by foreigners, it will suffice to mention here that the last Legislature voted special funds for granting a general and just increase of salary to the rural post-masters and nia 1 carries, and also for regulating tjae salarieB of all the clcrks in the Honolulu Post Office, so as to protect them froin any arbitrary favoritiem; yet, nothing of these 1 itended reforms have been carried out, but the moneys appropriated are being spent at the whii» and caprice cf the P. M. G., who is reported to have answered some of the Post-masters claimi»g the iucreased salary whieh they werej justly expecting, that ll he did nct! care a d—n fūfr th*e Legislature. ■" The disrfiissal of that verv autocratic official and the re-instate-ment of the Hawaiian clerks discharged for having done their duty by stating the truth in affidavits sworn for the Legisiature, are-the reforms that the puhlie are anxiously waiting for. In the Interior Department, if the reforms accomplished had been as plentiful as the promises, no more complaints could now be formulated; but eheol is paved with good intentions, and the public are still waiting for the decisive changes whieh ought to have been made: (A, in the Board of Education, —the removal of the incompetent and bossy secretary general being the first necessity ? together with the proper carryins: out of tho intenti@ns of the Le— gislat«re about the equitable increase of the teachers salaries) ;[B, in the Board of Immigration]; [C, among the difFerent Roads Supervisors,—specially the Honolulu one, —and in all the Road-boards on the other Islands, where fauaily compacts are in full blo«m. Several other points in this department must be left outr for the present. fbr want of space, arid to terminate, we shall briefly allude to the Attorne5 r Generai's department, in whieh, however mueh ma3 r have been accomplished by the present well-meaning. Marshal, yet, as mueh more stiil remāins to tx» done, especially in the matter of the different Sheriflfe ofthe Family compact. The district of Hilo seems to be the Maost disgracefully situated in that resDect, and we must warn the Attorn*.y Geueral, that,—even if Justic.e is repreBented bhnd-folded, —yet if he chooses to remain blind to certain scandals on Hawaii, it might lead bim straight to an impeaehment befbre the next Legislature.