Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 218, 18 June 1891 — OUR MELBOURNE CRITIC. [ARTICLE]

OUR MELBOURNE CRITIC.

Witor Ka Lc<> : —Vour issue of Frulay contained an. articlc from tlio Mt'lhovrac Leadrr of Mnrcb 14, ;i weekly liberul papcr pivblished in connection with tbe j)mh/ Aq( in Moll)oiirne, the eapiial city of ViJhtoria. Australia. The Lmūee is a paper of influcnce having a large circulation and correspond- < nce frooi the greai cities of the wr»rld. and it is surprising to me, iv.-; an old friend and contributor to that ioumal in the sixties; to find, after it had chanipioned the cause cf • I free secnlar and compulsory" <?ducation successfully since the year 1805, that the Geography of the Victorian School Board, has ap!>arently, placed our kingdom in' the wrong hemispnere. This in itself would not be a matter of mueh s:gnificance were it not for the fact that the article is erronioas in # every other particular on whieh it i;ssumes to be the judge of our eon<lition, and the loftv disposer of <rjr existence. The old proverb that vou mu?t -go from home to hear news of yourself is remarkably true of Hawaii. This mav be partly due to tJae fact that having no wire with the outside world, the artist wiio grinds out press sensation at per ineh, is snre of a few weeks start l>-fore his mendacity ean be detected aml exposed. There ean be do doubt but that the slanders '.vhii.*h disfigured certain Californian papers ear!y[in this year, have l."»ut too well answered the purpose of their loeal authors; the $. KxC 'tiui<>r articlea having found their way to Melbourne are exercising ju«.t the inAuenee to be expected in ini?representinsc Havvaii's Queen and People. The underlying idea in the īj;ader writers mind is. that we are in a #»tttte of chronic )ssurer.tion against Bomething; that we are bordering -on anarchy, that {, native rule has broken down," andasif to illuetrate the subject of onr a native rule" to the life, we are cuopled with Tcnga, Fiji 4 aad Samoa. The Leader pffiee an iHns : trated mouJWy aM it would not to up a picture of natites in antique .oii xnatB and - < &»©gislature." tbeZeaffcrs at r one

Th.e Ijr.adcr nsks : <4 0n whoni ' (loee the duty of maintaining order ! re6t ? Th<? qu€6tion is addresscd to tho outside worid. but both the < qucKtion aud the cause for it are i < quuilj supcriluous. There is but i.ono refsponse to tlie question in Ilawaii itself. Life and property were nevcr in danger froni popular tuinult in Hawdii, they are nōt now, and it is safe to as(3ert that if the permanent forces in the pay of the government were inadequate to the of riot or tumult, • this governnaent could d0... as the } government in Melhoum.e woiild j under a similar exigencv; eail 011 | its citizens to maintain order. The J jnstification for an open revolt against government does not exist in this country at present. There is ne province in Australia whieh cnjo3's a coristitution so advanced as oui\s, in all the principles of pure deniooracv, and therefore so ealeulated to prōmote contentment |and peaee among the masses. | The pi ineiple of manhood sufterage | lias heen the sole qualification for ihe election of members to ihe lovver house of legifclnture in Ha'waii, from the date of its first eoni stitution,nearly half a century ncro: j Whereas in every Australian Coj lony to day, the manhocd sufferage vote of the toilers is swamped by j the faet that 500 dc>llars worth of i !■ propertv in any or every electorate, i i entitles a man to a vote in eaeh : electorate, m whieh such amounu of landed property mav be held, and in order to faeititato matters-< for the plunil voter, the elections are held in batches - of three, usually several weeks apart. To this plural voting New Zealand is an exception, a victorv gained two years ago. The utter ignorance of the Lcader writer is seen in the foliowing, - — ik The experiment of native rule has been tried not # only in the Bandwieh Islands, but in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and the results have in I no case been satisfactory " ' Every j trayelier who ever had the p]easure i of becoming iacquainted Tpith oiir late lamented King hns borne testi- j i mony to the fact that he was a! man of culture, and under'difficul-1 ties maintained his reputation at j home and abroad as the possessor of all the courtesy of a King, or rather might we say, a President, as he could be approaehed by the humblest native or foreigncr, and j in these qualities our Queen is a j worthy successor. Our svstem, of jurisprudence may be deficient in the upholstered barrister o/ the horse-hair wig; who vigorously! claws the air, and the cliente| guiniee in Melhoume; but our laws I aresimpler, and law acfmirtistra-j tors ae pure as anywhere on anjfl part of the earth that I have seen: i Melbourne not excepfce»d. This lat-J teV circumstanc& is acceb|ed ns tlte' best test of genuine civilization.! It wo\ūd pay the V&fcorian peopie ft few of our nativs liawaiian lawyers to go down to that law Bchool at ,Carlton, and deliver a series of lectures on Law Reforn>.! " 1 ■ v As to security for lif« and pi\v| perty in this kingdom no one here question it During the nearly ten ye*r« of mj residence I nev«r it necemry to own a weapon c*f *ny kind, although I know how louae them: hnvinc

been an efifeclivo in ,Er.glandi and efthe K.\st Mtibourtie Artillery froni the vear ISG4 to 1871. Our Legislature in Haw.-iii ■never 4 ;tbrew out" an appro|)riation bili as the Legislative eouneii of Victoria <lid iit 1865 when tlu? poliee and the civil sr;rvice remained unpaid (exceot hv I. 0. U's) for nearlv a voar, and the outside* ''World began to specu!ate injon the 1 thickness of the 4 *vc-neer .of civilization" whieh seperared ?vre;hourne from anarchy. I regret that time . and ■ spaee prevents me from doing j.ustice to the c3sses of l, failure of native rule in Fiji. ,} Ii is a tale of one of the eraftiest swindles, and boldest daylight robberies everv attenjped on a ssnple and ignorant people, and lam certnin that there ninst be a new hand at ttic īj i>tirr wliw.'l, or Fiji \yould r.ot be īnent:oned in this t:onnexion. it to say, that the principal nnd peonle of Fiji implored tbe British govcrnment to }>rotect th'*m from a. liost, of vampires led by one B , .itt( i rs. an i ex-mayor and stocklrokcr of Mel- j houme, who with others made a! pretence ofbying thc land and sell*! ing if again as the "Fiji lnnel eoio-1 nization Co/' Tlie imperi;il government—at tho urp?n: reqivoFt uf the Australian govornments hoisted the Union Jack at Levuka, and the fillibusters frotn Melbourne had to give up tlieir ill-gotten lands. The swind!') was exposed in the Melhoume in a series of letters, afterward discovered by | pressmen to have been written'by | j the Ainerican Consul at Fiji, nowl J Sir John Thurston, (are you listen-1 jing David Syme). The Argns was jin oppositition to the Lmdcr\ and j the of k tte timej i were as innoeent of any condemnation of the rascally transaction wliieh led Majcsty*s government to assume the sovereignty" of Fiji, as if thev had been an Egvptian papyrus of Ramesis the First. j The Leadt-r could plead tenderlv ! and forcibly on behalf of the infant! Nation \vith whieh is e )inmenced life j thirty years ago. It. v> 'as I | not wont to in(hilgein earamelsand I mumhle with a lisp .in. those livid J times when it chronicled no?ans of jubilant prophe'cy about ,4 brnken heads and flaming houses." petted j "i>krry,~ithe lust©r up" of big csltates v enlogised wor)i>s the wattyi.er of the time, haloed lalor the past-rebel and pitchfoiked into life o'Loughlen, the firet man to| publiclv suggest i: cutting the paint- j er with England, Buttimei jhas changu all that, and the Lemi- \ jcr proprietor has become wealthyj | beyond th« of a coniposi- i ! tors av«irice, and Melhoume is no i ; longer the haunt of the aboriginal; | and the enly kl Bhaded" monarch i the young editor has ever seen is j Billv" of Bullarook forest Iwho struts abroad with a braes |plaUs a»ul pants hitched wrong, and a2l of May blanket; and the ! unfortunate thing is, that the/>arfer writer like tnany loose thinbere } takes <»pportunity to adryinister i praise or hlame from any point of j vantage as aeeaskm' auit9« )>reapective of wheOw bl« logio mlghi diftplaee the verf homiepheree. I 7d. M. Crowlsy, I