Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 316, 4 November 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

KA LEO O KA LAHUI

 

John E. Bush.

Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

WEDNESDAY, NOV.4, 1891

            Elder Geo. B. Starr. at Y. M. C. A. Hall, continue his readings on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.

 

Subscription.

            That a Minister is said to have told Mr. Kahoonei that he would put in fifty dollars for the Hui Kalaiaina if he would drop Messrs Wilcox, Nawahi and Bush out of the executive committe of the said Hui. A lady, so Mr. K, says also promised him one hundred dollars, if he would do the same thing. We remember once, how during Mr. Gibson’s administration, when the chief executive and the ministry did the very same thing, dabbling so much and so barefacedly in politics – that it lead eventually to a revolution. History often repeats itself, and there is no knowing what such action, if true, may lead to in the present enlightened condition of the masses. The three estates are divided and their function distinctly stated in the constitution, and any example or pre cept to the contrary by the authorities are readily used against them.

 

What Captain Ross did Say?

            We are pleased to furnish our readers, with the manly opinion of Captain Ross on the subject of labor given at a meeting a week today before the Mechanics’ Protective Union. It is terse and to the point, and gives many needed reproofs to our sugar planters, in aiming to satisfy themselves in this matter without any other consideration except for their own interests and for no others. It also gives wholesome ad@@@@ and criticism on the unprecedented manner in which plantation owners live with their families abroad, in expensive style, saping the profits of labor and of the soil, and employing expensive inexperienced managers to imagine their estate during their residence abroad, at the same time, coming @orward in piteous tones, before the public, and asking they must have underpaid labor brought into the country to satisfy this extravagant state of living and plundering management.

            Captain Ross on rising said he wished they had called on someone else. He supposed that all reasonable and fair thinking men would admit that the prosperity of the country was owing to Sugar Plantation and to another industry which has been overlooked, that is the Rice Industry. While traveling on the other Islands he found that laborers of rice cultivation were scarce and the industry suffered. All that sugar planters think of is their own interest they overlook the fact that the rice industry has suffered greatly from want of labor – labor which in no way conflicted with the natives or foreigners, and while willing to concede to the sugar planters, it must not be forgotten that there are other industries whose interests must be thought of.

            He also said, that without any intention of being severe on the planters that they owe the trouble and uneasiness about labor which they are now experiencing to themselves. Four years ago when they had all the labor they wanted and were prospering on high prices and the fat of the land, they did not think of the future. He warned several planters of his acquaintance of conditions that might arise before long as regarded labor, but was not heeded. While traveling recently he was reminded by some of them of his former remarks and was told that it now appeared that he was then correct in his supposition of impending trouble, at the present impending crisis, arising from the fall of price of sugar. They the planters ought not to think only of getting cheap labor, but look inwards towards themselves and some of their extravagances. Wouldn’t it add to their prospects to reduce the fancy salaries of some of the managers and grand plantation equipages, extraordinary freights and commissions, before crying out to make fortunes out of the bone and muscle of cheap labor alone. Something done in that direction would tend to good feeling instead of saying of others, himself included, that we are down on the sugar planters.

            Why, it is well known to those familiar with the country, that were it not for the favorable yield of the soil owing to fortunate location, there are several plantations which could scarcely exist even with high prices simply through the way in which they are administered. He himself was for the general prosperity of the plantations, so long as they allowed the full rights of others ad their existence in this country. There is abundance of room for other industries. Only one tenth of the available agricultural land is now in use.

            Now if the sugar planters were in earnest they should have encouraged other industries instead of depending on one. Their only cry is cheap labor. They say nothing about population; they have taken their wealth from here where they made it and invested it abroad in land and foreign corporations. There are thousands of acres on Hawaii alone suitable for homes and the rearing of families and the cultivation of coffee, cotton, ramie and other agricultural pursuits. Have the planters invested in or taken the risk of opening up these industries or the encouragement of these undertakings? No, they take their money abroad and do Europe. They take their families to Berlin and Paris. They might take them to Bagdad as far as he was concerned as long as they shew a desire to do something here.

            A short time ago while engaged in conversation with the manager of a plantation, he complained of his being hard up, that he wanted 200 more field hands. The speaker put the query, how much of a crop he was getting. The answer was about 6000 tons. What? the speaker replied, you must indeed have very cheap labor at that ra@e, for you have more people now than is needed for that amount of sugar. The gentleman replied that he had been thinking for sometime that there was a waste of labor somewhere, but wasn’t quite certain about it. The speaker was then talking to a gentlem@n who came to the country two or three years since and from managing a glass factory. Both the boss and the manager were Americans.

            The boss was in Europe luxuriating, the manager mostly in Honolulu driving around in his carriage. The estate was run by cheap lunas, and when one asked for an advance in pay he was told it couldn’t be done, but that if disatisfied with his pay he could go to the office. Such institutions run in such a spirit will be sorely in need of cheap labor; may perhaps think of having laborers without pay and find themselves; however, it must be allowed that all plantations are not like that. All fair-minded people went to see the plantations exist, and in fact to see more of them, but we also want to see people who live here get their just dues. Let the plantations have labor, but not such laborers as will infringe upon the rights of the natives and foreign workingmen and mechanics.

            They say the native won’t work, but the speaker would like to know whose business it is as long as they or others could get along without working and did not become a burden upon them. The speaker had worked as hard in his day as anyone, but was fortunate in having a little left for a rainy day. He was a firm believer in the doctrine of equal rights for all. The Hawaiian was the true son of the soil, and an aristocrat by nature, the attempts of many others around us are merely shoddy and very in different material some of it is at that. Let the planters prosper, but to do so at the bringing in of hardship, squalor, general misery and distress upon the natives and foreign mechanics and workingmen no, there must be a guarantee that others are not to suffer thereby.

            Thanking the audience for their indulgence, Mr. Ross withdrew amid, &c. &c.

 

ON DIT.

            That the President of a certain Bureau is called an old dry-rot.

 

            That a Crabbe appointment is recognized in Clarence’s first initial as an executive officer.

           

            That Chas. Balmaceda would give a great deal to know who gave him the title in Bush’s paper. We apologise, and say that Balmaceda is not at all honored by the assumption.

 

            That the Bureau of Health is endeavoring to find out who it is that tells about things as they happen on Molokai, so as to put the man on bread and water to weaken his writing and thinking faculties.

 

            That a good joke was played by a Hawaiian woman, to stave off immediate suspension of water from the government pipes, on being caught using water therefrom outside of the hour set by the Bureau. As the jovial “Captain” Craned into the bath house and began to @emonstrate the lady started in to prepare for her morning ablutions. The “Captain” fearing the lady was trying to entrap him into a case of breach promise, set all sail and left instanter. The Crane, though not a water bird, is not so easily fooled by a duck of a woman in the guise of a water nymph.

 

            That the Board of Health is too mean ts keep a regular file of Ka Leo. and yet it is continually sending a high paid officer to buy or borrow a copy f that paper. It likes to see itself as others see it, but does not care to have it known that they take the only newspaper that mirrors them as they are.

 

            That it is a gross libel on the Hawaiian that he won’t work – true enough, cultivating with the hoe day after day, is too hum drum and unprofitable for him as much as for his white brother. But treat him as a man, where intelligence and tact are required and he is there as a man every time.

 

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 propertp, to the pursuit of happiness and to self-protection against arbitrary 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 dersire to retain the independence of the Country and defend its autonomy, under a liberal and popular form of government; but out Treaties with Foreign Powers, and especially with the United States of America, should be revised, 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 sectarian or patisan 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, by which the property of the poor is excessively taxed, while much of the rich man ʻ s goods are under-valued for assessment or entirely escape taxation; we shall therefore command the passage of laws that will more effectually subject the property of corporations and rich citizens to their just proportion of public 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 differential 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 favor 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 favortism 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 @@@@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@ 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 adequate compensation for the sarvices rendered. All excessive salaries should be reduced and all @@@@@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ abolished.

PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRIES

7. We are in favor of encouraging all home agriculture and industries, @@dali 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 thei 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 HOMESTEADS.

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 conducive to the stability of the State, it should be encouraged by a new and more liberal Homestead act, by whch the ownership of small tracts of land and the settlement thereon of families of our present population, -and especialily of the native Hawaiians who have been left almost homeless in there 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 transportation, -local, national and international, -as to provide, in all the districts, cheap means of conveying the product of the soil to the market.

ELECTORAL RIGHT.

11. We hold that upright and honest manhood, and not the possession of wealth, arbitrarily fixed, should constitute the right to vote for nobles as well as representatives, and no more power should be accorded to the ballot of the rich man than to the ballot of the poor man. The discrimination in favor of wealth now made in our Constitution is contrary to all the eternal principles of right and justice, and must be abolished. To this end, we will favor a leveling of the present distinction of wealth and classes which blemish our laws with respect of the right to vote for nobles, thereby restoring to the native Hawaiians privileges which pertain to them in their own country, and of which they have been unjustly deprived.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS

12. We favor the expenditure of authcient sums to secure a number of needed public improvements on Oahu and other Islands; school, railroads and harbors and wharves, public light, and also a thorough system of reservoirs and water works, not only for Honolulu, but through-out the other Islands.

Public Notice.

Know all men by this notice that from and after this date, I have this day discharged Mr. B. C. Ukukou, i@@@@ acting as an agent, for me in any sense whatever, in the charge and administration of all my property, and in the collection of all dues and @@@@@@@@ @@@ and @@ my estate in this kingdom.

            Any one who holds or is in possession of any property or who has any business or payments to make, will @@@@@@@@ the @@@@ with me personally, at my pl@@@ @@ H@@@@@@@@@, at Honolulu, Oahu.

KAPIOLANI.

per Jos. Nawahi

Honolulu Nov. 3, 1891.          d-S@@