Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 260, 17 August 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO.

 

John E. Bush.

 

 Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

 

MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1891.

 

MORE ABOUT TREATY REVISION.

           

            In an article published last week, Ka Leo showed that their exist no reasons why this country should sign for an extension (beyond the terms of the present Reciprocity Treaty) of the free list between Hawaii and America.  We showed that all Hawaiian products, except wool, now enter the Untied States duty free, either by virtue of the treaty, or of general laws passed by Congress.  Hence, we have nothing to gain by the privilege of sending thither impossible goods; as to the one exception of wool, we produce very little of that article, and practically none except the clip of the Gay-Sinclair ranch on Niihau, the Gibson ranch on Lanai, and a moderate establishment on the slope of Maunakea.  So that we may say, there are only three families in the Kingdom interested in the wool tariff of the United States, --a number too insignificant to justify the making of tariff changes in their interest.  It is plain then, that we are now receiving practically all the benefits possible to our situation and conditions, in the direction of a free American market for our products.

            As before pointed out, the result to our national revenue, --a decrease of from $80,000 to $90,000 per year, --are so serious as to utterly forbid any extension of the present free list, unless in view of the most palpable compensating advantages to us.  It is plain that no such compensatory advantages are possible to us as a nation, and to pay the amount quoted for the benefit of a trio of wool growers would be as bad, in principle, and worse, in policy, than some of the advantages over the rest of the people, now enjoyed by the sugar barons.

            It is nonsense to talk of "drawing closer our relations with out great neighbor," unless there be some benefit for us in the increased intimacy.  It is not always wise to "draw closer our relations" – with a pick-pocket.  And, with great deference to our venerable and venerated Uncle Samuel, we submit that he now stands to Hawaii in very much the relation of a pick-pocket.  That is, Uncle Sam is sending nearly all his goods into our port duty free, and is enjoying exclusive rights of occupancy in Pearl Harbor of immense value to us, if we now had them to dispose of, and what are we getting in return?  Virtually nothing.  The benefits we formerly enjoyed under the treaty have been knocked into a cocked hat by that Bill McKinley, -- ah! we beg pardon, we meant that McKinley bill, -- and we are now left to get along as best we may, and to carry as best we can, till the end of the treaty term, the incubus of an obligation to stand to its conditions at whatever loss to our exchequer, and injuury to our sovereign rights in Pearl Harbor.

            It was complained of this treaty, by its American opponents in years past, that it was a "jug-handled" affair, meaning thereby that the benefits were not only one-sided, but that they were entirely on our side.  Perhaps that was true.  At any rate certain it is that the chief commercial benefits of the compact were reaped by our sugar magnates, whom the treaty has made rich and insolent.  They were, in anti-treaty days, unscrupulously rapacious, and in that particular the treaty has effected no change in them.

            But the "jug-handled" feature of the treaty is transferred to the other side.  The jug has made a half revolution upon its axis, and the handle is now within the grasp of Uncle Sam.  He is getting all the sap, and we are getting all the "soup."  His hand is in our pocket, taking our scanty cash, while the present treaty lasts.

            In the meantime, it looks as though the obligation to stand by that treaty till 1895 is all that we can bear of that kind of blesing.  The only benefit that can possibly come to us from a revised treaty, will be in the direction of placing United States just where they, (by the McKinley bill) have placed us, vis:  on a plane of equality with the rest of the world.  It is rubbish for Uncle Sam or his apologists to prate of the advantage to us from the present, or any future "reciprocity" treaty which leaves us at the mercy of the rest of the sugar world, --shackled against escape to more favorable markets or conditions, while American goods, flowing free of duty into our ports, cripple our revenue and necessitate increase taxation.  And a foreign partnership, if not ownership in Pearl Harbor, chafes against our sense of national independence, and robs us of opportunities to utilize that Harbor in ways more consistent with our sovereign rights as a free

state, and the best interests of our commerce.

            On the whole, the only true solution of the treaty question, the only solution compatible with the rights and interests of our commerce on the one hand, and our national dignity as a member of the family of nations on the other hand, is for the Hawaiian Government to take all practicable steps to secure the abrogation of the so-called, but misnamed Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, at the earliest possible date.

 

MOUNT TANTALUS.

 

            A road is building to Mount Tantalus.  It is evident it is for the benefit of a certain Mr. Gent, who owns all the available land in that locality.  He obtained it lawfully by purchase, paying $300 for it.  It is worth $20,000.  We hear that the Queen refused to sign the royal patent for it.  But somebody went and saw somebody, and the matter was kept see-sawing till it eventually saw the patent issued.  We would be pleased to explain the true inwardness of this transaction, but according to law, and a law that has been abolished in every enlightened country about fifty years ago, for the protection of bad reputations, we would be liable to two years imprisonment; and as we would be the only party responsible in the whole affair, we leave it to the public acumen to divine the wherefore of the see-sawing business.  The purchaser dwells in this high place and entertins all his friends joyously every day.

 

DEATH'S DOMAINS.

(Continued.)

 

            It seems all but useless to attempt to educate these leper children, who have no hope and no future.  Education can never be of the slightest use to them.  To hear or to read of the outer, busy happy world can only add to their dispair.

            Then the party visited the hospital where they saw trunks without hands, without feet, without human features, blind, mere lumps of raw, corrupting flesh, but breathing and feeling endless tortures, and thinking, yes, thinking – what thoughts come to the soul in such a position? – and fearing, still fearing something worse – the king of horrors--death.  Let us turn away; it is to much.

            The clothing and quarters of the lepers appeared clean and comfortable.  There are many neat cottages that were in much better order than those of the average native elsewhere.  There is some complaint of crowding and insufficient room, but there seems to be no great distress on that account.  The lepers wore clothes as good as the average, and many were provided with excellent horses, whose clean limbs and sleek hides contrasted strangely with the deformity of their riders.

            The party then started for Kalawao distant about three miles on the opposite side of the Peninsula.  When the summit was reached a beautiful view met the visitors, a series of rolling hills descending to the sea, dotted with white cottages and pretty gardens while on the right the lofty precipice shut off half the sky.

            Kalawao contains about half of the leper population, but from some cause none appeared to greet the Queen.  Some one said the people were all in their houses crying with their friends, and others that the lepers were thus expressing their dissatisfaction with Her Majesty for making certain further changes in the Board of Health.

            At Kalawao the Queen listened to some exercises by the boy's school, not different from what was seen on the other side.

            When the party reached Mr. Tell's house on the return an excellent lunch was served according to the native fashion.

            The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sam Parker was beseiged with applicants for re-examination.  Many showed only very slight signs of the disease, and some none at all.  This was the case with two or three little girls who, even on being stripped appeard to be perfectly healthy.

            The Minister expressed his surprise at the number of apparantly well persons confined here, and promised to make a thorough investigation.  There is no doubt that some persons have been sent to this Golgotha because they have chanced to offend some official.  In Hawaii here an official with a pull can easily send an enemy to jail or to this charnel house.  Some of the persons showing symptoms of the malady recover after a while and are to all appearances well.

            Abotu 3:30 o'clock the royal party went on board the steamer.  The visitors and lepers gathered at the landing to say the last farewell.  Loud wailing and lamentations filled the air.  Men and women were clinging to the remains of their near and dear kin, hugging and kissing the ghastly festering bodies and sobbing convulsed with uncontrolable anguish.  Wht sounds could express the infinite pain and dispair of such partings?  No one can discribe or imagine such a scene.

             At last it was over, the people on board again, and we sailed away, leaving the inhabitants of the settlement to their sores and their dying.

            On board things were not altogether pleasant.  The Steamer was crowded.  The passengers lay on the deck in rows closely packed occupying every foot of available space.  The Queen and suite took their places on mattresses spread on the deck and could not be distinguished from the mass of natives around.

            In the cabin things were worse; every bunk and bench crowded, with snoring and perspiring natives while the lack of ventilation rendered the heated atmosphere almost unsupportable.  So freighted the steamer slowly made her way back to Honolulu, and so ended an excursion into the land of delirium and nightmares.

            The people who went on this trip were mostly the near relations of leperes on Molokai.  An observer might imagine he saw many signs of the dread desease among them.

To be Continued.

 

ON DIT.

 

            That according to the Bulletin's kangaroo, there are only two kinds of politics, that which suits its own and its patrons purposes, and that which suits the people.  That paper's rose colored politics are the only kind it considers worthy of attention, since the kangaroo feeds in the government manger, and it is really "too bad that any different sort of politics should be forced on public attention."  Too bad, by jove, that any one should dare to feel dissatisfied and complain, when the Bulletin gets all the pap it needs!

            That the Leo declines to act as mermaid in the Bulletin menagerie of beaver and kangaroo:  because the beaver is only a muzzled echo of waning powers, and the kangaroo is losing caste because no one knows whether he will jump with his short legs or his long legs, when government pap is the incentive.  The mermaid prefers to court her lovers among manly men of action and character not with creepers.

            That by the manner in which "Hawaiian Politics" was drawn out in an evening contemporary of the 15th inst., people are led to think that some of the Leo's articles, in its criticisms on Sam's speeches, had affected the Premier's jaw and eye-tooth so badly, it required his dental friend to draw the aching tooth out with a two column poltice called "Hawaiian Politices" instead of one made of "Beaten Spider," with a decaction of awa a la Hawaiian.  We really don't know which of the two doses is the worst, we know that "Beaten Spider" nearly cooked Sam; but we hope this last application will not force Sam to seek a sorcerer, but turn his attention to the royal fortune-teller, who handles only what he is in all probability use to handling himself.

            That the wheezy little bantam who roosted high on the shoulders of his friend Joc, and tried to manipulate all the old roosters of the national roost last year, has now conceived an idea of erecting a platform where he can roost all by himself without fear of being trod on.  Oh, ye power infantile, come off your perch!

            That between the Micks and Macs of the National Party last year, we prefer the Micks.  Two of the Macs were recreants to the party, and will never more be trusted.

            That the late Premier is ambitious for a return to power, in order to give some of his friends an opportunity to play the light villain parts, whilst he will appear disguised as Caesar.

            That the Bulletin's "orb" is only a worn out mirror, whose deficient quicksilver lining is incapable of reflecting anything but the ungainly contortions of the kangaroo.

            That the half starved condition and want of proper sleeping accommodation forced her Majesty's driver to retire from going on the tour around Oahu, substituting a gentleman lately from Fayal, who was highly recommended as an expert with the ribbons on a pair of thoroughbred jackasses.  The capsize and narrow escape of the Queen at Waialua has proven that the Fayal gentleman has not the same command over horses in driving.

            That from Kahuku to Waialua quite a number of the Queen's party had to walk and carry their luggage with them, a distance of over fifteen miles.  Many of them began to believe that all the country had not bowed the knee to Baal, as the Leo had prophesied.  But when the party found that they were the "first to cross the Waimea bridge, since it was built," on foot, as "the Queen was the first to ride over it," they felt they were not altogether without hope, and were enabled to reach their destination.

            That the Queen intimated to the native ladies, constituting the Women's Patriotic Society, to use all their influence on their different masculine relations and friends – husbands, fathers and lovers, to induce them into voting at the next polls, only for the ticket endorsed by the missionary Reform Party, because the National Party must be downed.  But the ladies stoutly refused her Majesty to do anything of the kind, preferring to dissolve the association rather than be traitresses!  There are some women, thank God, who are not rich either, that have the law of love implanted in their hearts, that not even selfish sordidness can make them turn and betray one of natures holiest and noblest gifts – LOVE OF COUNTRY!

 

OLELO HOOLAHA.

 

            E ike auanei na kanaka a pau, eia ma ka Pa Aupuni o Makiki nei, kekahi lio hele hewa, hookahi lio k ahinahina, 1 wawae kuokeo hope hema, hao kuni ano e ma ka aoao hema, hao kuni hou @ ma ka aoao akau hope, ekolu wawae ahinahina.

            O ka mea a mau mea paha nona keia lio e pono e kii koke mai ina aole e ki@ koke mai a hala na la he 12, alaila, e kuai kudala aku no wau ma ka la 22 o Aug. M. @. 1891 awakea Poaono hola 12.

David Kaoao, Luna Pa Apuni.

257 4ts-d*

            E hooia ia ana ka maemae o na wai a pau.  E hookoia no na kauoha a pau loa mai na Mokapuni mai a me ko ke kulanakauhale nei.  231 1yd