Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 304, 19 October 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

"E Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono."

 

KA LEO O KA LA

John E. Bush.

Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

MONDAY, OCT. 19, 1890

The Issuance of Warrants.

            Lately the public have been tr@@ted to @ peculia system of issuing warrants. Cases of arrest have been made of parties, on oath by police officers, one of whom it @@ @@@@@@@ not, was refused cre@@@@@@ in one of our Superior Courts. Again complaints have been made by private individuals, and summons issued by the lower courts, and in others re@@sed on equally, if not better grounds.

            @@@@@@@ of the Supreme Court, Judge @@@ issuing a warrant or summons to a party complainant, where the party had been refused by the Police Magistrate. This @@@@@@@ irregularity or partiality is a matter that should not be exercised in the administration of justice.

            Due care should be taken to look into a charge made by an officer, before a justice of the peace should allow a summons or warrant to issue against a person. No undue advantage should be taken of the party complained of or to be arrested for the sake of satisfying the complaint of some irresponsible individual, upon whose statement an officer takes a formal oath before a magistrate for the arrest of the party complained of. In the case of a hackowner the other day – a police officer was approached by a tram car employee, and upon his statement, and to satisfy the latter, a complaint was sworn to by the officer and warrant issued against the hack-owner for cruelty to animal. Without an investigation in the first stance by the officer, without inquiry on the part of the crown prosecutor or any one duly authorized, the man was brought summarily to the Station House. obliged to drop his load in the middle of the street in doing so, and when on asking the Station House keeper to look into the matter, the man was surlily told to submit and he would have the opportunity to prove his innocence before the tribunal authorising his arrest. We hold, that this course, if we are correctly in@@ med, is unauthorized. The exercise of authority for the maintainance of peace and order, should never be unduly executed, nor should they think that the only duty of an executive officer is to have some one say things against another, and that upon that bare information, a private citizen should be dragged to jail, at the cost of his occupation, and liberty.

            We are afraid that the immunity that surrounds an officer from a suit for libelling a man’s character, in arresting a person, and for damages, leads them to think, a some have been known to express themselves, that all that one has to do is to prove himself innocent of what the officer charges him, and that makes it all right. Reverse the position of the two, and how soon the discovery is made that it is not all right. There is a defect some where, either the law is imperfect, or else the law is misunderstood by the officers who have to deal with the law in the maintenance of justice and order.

 

Decentralization of Power.

            Through the disruption of the plans, of the four gentlement who were suppose to be the popular representatives of the people, chosen as the Chief Executive’s Advisors, it leaked out that instead of a decentralization of power as was at first given out and stre@@@@@ly advocated, there was an attempt being made to restrict the @@@ties of the people, a sacrifice of the independence of the government to gratify the greed and lust of a handful of moneyed autocrats for power to carry out their schemes of making the whole country subject to their will, and under the protection of a power who was being unwittingly drawn in to participate in the attempt to suppress the freedom of this people, a power that prides herself as the foremost withou exception in the world to shield the rights of freemen.

            The hydra-headed usurper appeared in the shape of a nondescript beast. with four horns on his head. and fifty or sixty missionary sugar barons dangling at the other extreme, to whip and ward off all intruders, and to cooperate with the head of the beast as embraced in the four emblematic divisions – representing the four ministers. But as usual with fallible human efforts, the ambition infused into one of the horns, caused the exposure of the baselessness of the whole fabric. This little horn grew exalted, and spoke big things, and undertook to subdue the head of the beast, and to pluck out its cotemporary horns and thrust them aside, and even became so exalted in his ideas as to turn upon the reserve or support dangling at the opposite end of the animal – the barons.

            This attempt on the part of those who had lead and created a revolution against the usurpation of just rights by a sovereign and by his ministers, caused a split in the cabinet. There was at least one man in the Reform administration, who had some honor, and who took part in the action of 1887 on principles. When he saw by the action of his three colleagues, that the very principles they had struggled for and risked their life to obtain, were not being carried out, but on the contrary, a greater evil was being perpetrated. Popular rights were ignored. Four tyrants were substituted for the one dethroned by the revolution. The King, the tyrant, the intolerable ursurper, was to be made responsible for the tyranny and usurpation, of four men who were the tools of an oligarchy composed of men who had come into the country poor and had suddenly grown rich through the intended kindness of a friendly nation towards the aboriginees of the country. A gifted obtain by a sovereign whom the oligarchy were endeavoring to find fault with and create an excuse to make a puppet to further advance their interest and make their authority perpetual in the land.

            This in substance was the real object of the revolution, not principles, not decentralization of power, except among the masses, and a few leading men, the history of the Reform administration amply shows, that those who were the leaders and real supporters of the movement were aiming to concentrate and to usurp, not only the sovereign rights, but also to limit the just rights of the people. With an administration ready to coerce the King, and elective qualification that concentrated the power in the hands of the foreign element that gave them (had they been at all honest in their promises to the element who help them to secure these advantages) the control of the Legislature, and with whose sympathies and whose interests were allied with the oligarcs, the people would have been in a state of bondage under the tyranny of a number of religious adventurers and fortune hunters, who, like the beggar on horse-back, knew not how to act under their good fortune.

            The sudden elevation from penury to wealth, was too much for the weak and selfish minds of the real supporters and advocates of the movement. The desire to perpetuate the means of controlling the wealth of the country; aroused the ambition of the wealthy men, who was at the bottom of the movement of 1887, to secure by all means the authority, and in order to do so, no means, was left untried no matter how much it may stultify these men in the mind honest and fair-minded.

            The principles for which the revolution was undertaken, and which was intended to be established, was decentralization of power. This was forgotton; entirely set aside as soon as the King had been clipped of his prerogaties and made submissive to the dictation of a new and more widespread tyranny. The attempt by the Reform Party leaders to coerce the King and Nation to cede the freedom of their government to another and a far more powerful government, by treaty, showed these champions of universal rights in their true light. As they felt themselves growing in power, and as they thought, would be perpetuated in authority over King and people, with the force of the United States, they began to turn upon those who had been instrumental in placing them where they were. But the plans of the most subtle minds who attempt to ride into power, by deception, are soon frustrated; and it was so in this instance.

            A more selfish and dastardly attempt, by people who came to this country to preach charity, and others who came to seek their fortunes, after @eecing the original land-owners of their lands, by allurements, mortgages, and other means, never was attempted in any other country, as was in this. And never perhaps, was a more ignoble attempt to defraud a generous and confiding people of their rights, frustrated and utterly defeated as that tried by the Reform Party Leaders, who are @@@p@@ed principally of members of our religious bodies. (More mahope!)

 

ON DIT.

            That the jury in the trial of “Barefooted” Bill. after an absence from the court, returned and stated through their foreman, that they could not render a verdict, because many jurors insisted that they had been sworn to try the case upon an indictment for “house-breaking,” and not under an amended indictment made after nearly all the evidence had been given. Upon being satisfied on the point the jury rendered a verdict. Who can say that Hawaiian Jurors are not conscientions after all.

            That it is not cruelty to animal to arrest a man who takes the pain, and care that Mr. Quinn does with his animals.

            That in the first five weeks in building the sea-wall, for dumping ground for the new dredger, 750 feet in two tiers of coral wall was laid by the former luna; now, in the same period, only 150 feet in two tiers have been laid, by the new luna and two assistant luna’s. And that the pay-roll in the former instance was from three to four hundred dollars weekly, and in the latter, with more hands, and less work done, the pay-roll per week, has been four to five hundred dollars. How is this for the sweet Mahope.

            That according to “Barefooted” Bill’s testimony, and identification of certain parties as being behind him and as having hired him to do the depredations, which he did the past summer, one is lead to believe that there was a deep laid scheme to create an unpopular feeling against the Marshal, who as near as we can fathom is trying to do his best in the discharge of his duty. But how about this testimony, and why is it not noticed is something that would require a Philadelaphia lawyer to unravel.

            That when a superintendent in charge of work can be intimidated by his workment, he is not fit for that position. That a man did this to a government official on the water-front, shaking his fist in his face and refusing to do what he was told to, it proves conclusively that there was some truth that the Superintendent of Public Works, was obliged to enforce one of his subordinate commands.

 

Platform of Principle

OF THE

HAWAIIAN NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY.

PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION.

1. We deem that all Government should be founded on the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity; we hold that all men are born free and equal before the law and are endowed with inalienable rights to life, to liberty, to p@@p@@@@@ to the pursuit of happiness and to self-protection against arbitraty concentration of power, irresponsible wealth, and unfair competition. We believe that just government exists only by the consent of the People, and that, when it becomes necessary for the public welfare, they may abolish existing forms and establish more advantageous and equitable system; and, as the present Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom never has had the approval of the People, but was established by intimidation and fraud for the benefit of a certain class, therefore we favor the adoption of a new and more liberal Constitution, to truly secure a Government of the People, by the People and for the People.

INDEPENDENCE OF THE COUNTRY

            2. Out of consideration for the inherent rights and present opinions of the native population, we de@sire to retain the independence of the Country and defend its autonomy, under a liberal and popular form of government; but our Treaties with Foreign Powers, and especially with the United States of America, should be revi@@d, so as to better meet present necessities and to obtain more equitable advantages in exchange of those granted by us.

JUDICIARY REFORMS

            3. Our Judiciary system and Code of Procedure must be submitted to a thorough revision, so as to secure a cheap and prompt administration of justice, free of all sect@rian or pat@@@@ spirit, and to render the Judges more directly responsible to the People; and we are in favor of a more liberal interpretation of Constitutional guarantees of the freedom of speech and the press.

TAXATION

            4. A more just and perfect system of Taxation must be inaugurated, to abolish the present inequalities, @@@@@@@ the property of the poor is excessively taxed, while much of the rich @@@@ goods are under-valued for assessment or entirely escape taxation; we shall therefore demand the passage of laws that will more effectually subject the property of coporations and rich citizens to their just proportion of @@@@@ burdens, while granting more liberal exemptions to the poor; and as a means of discouraging the locking up of large tracts of uncultivated lands, a @@@@@@@tail tax should be levied in addition to the usual assessment on valuation, which should be in proportion to the fertility of the soil. We shall, also @ayer the establishment of a graduated income tax, and thus expect to obtain ample funds for conducting the government and attending to all necessary public improvements without any further calls on the masses.

MONOPOLIES

            5. We shall use our efforts to obtain laws by which all favoritism in the government and all monopolies, trusts and privileges to special classes shall be rendered impossible, by full, definite and mandatory statutes.

            6. Better laws should regulate the Civil Service. The principle of the election of officers of the government by the people should be established, and no man should be allowed to hold more than one office of profit, whilst salaries should be adaquate compensation for the sarvices rendered. All excessive salaries should be reduced and all sinecures of superfluous offices abolished.

PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRIES

            7. We are in favor of encouraging all home agriculture and industries, andall our native products, like rice, coffee, wool, tobacco, etc. should be protected and fostered by proper tariff regulation; and also it must be the duty of the Govment, in its contracts and other operations, to give preference to national products over imported ones.

PUBLIC SERVANTS.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

            8. We desire a more liberal policy towards the different Islands of the Kingdom, outside of Oahu; they should receive a fairer proportion of the public moneys for the development of their resources and the satisfactirn of their wants. In fact, the principle of local Self-government should be extended, whereby giving localities may choose the most important of their local executive officers, and levy taxes for the purpose local improvements of a public nature.

PROTECTION TO THE LABOURING CLASSES

            9. We shall endorse all measure tending to improve the condition of the working classes, and consequently, without injuring any vested rights, we will advocate laws to prevent all further importation or employment of contract labor of any kind, upon conditions which will bring it into a ruinous and degrading competition with free Hawaiian or white labor. We shall also, in the interest of the better protection of the poor, ask for more liberal exemptions of their property from forced sale on execution, and from seizure in bankruptcy proceedings.

SMALL FARMING AND HOME STEADS.

            10. The wealthy fraction of our population have hitherto prevented the development of an independent class of citizens; the public lands have been acquired and have been tied up in a few hands or parcelled to suit favorites, and small farmers and planters have been driven out by corporations or combinations of capitalists; but as small farming is @@@ducive to the stability of the State, it should be encouraged by a new and more liberal Homestead act, by which the ownership of small tracts of land and the settlement thereon of families of our present population, -and especially of the native Hawaiians who have been left almost homeless inthere country, -should be rendered possible. To that end, the Government and Crown lands. (in so far as can be done without invading vested rights) should be devoted as soon as possible to homesteads, and conferred upon bona-fide settlers free of taxes for a limited period.

            it should be the further aim of government to, at once, so far improve the means of transport: @@@@, -local, national and international, -as to provide, in all the districts, cheap means of conveying the product of the soil to market.