Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 393, 19 February 1892 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

KA LEO

John E. Bush.

I una Hooponopono a me Puuku.

Friday, Feb. 19, 1892.

 

B-B-B.

            Boss-Boodle-Bowler, of Boodle Castle is again posing as an Emerald patriot.  He is endeavoring to again catch the sympathies of the honest Hawaiians as he once did before, in hopes most likely to work up a vote in favor of $11,000, the balance of his trumped up claim or it may be, that he is being scared at a possible investigation by the incoming Legislature, as to the legality of the vote that brought our little B.B.B. friend into so much notoriety since as a capitalist, steamer owner, bridge builder, and land speculator.

 

An Interesting Dialogue.

Good mornin, Mrs. O. B. Sure, an its moity sorry I am that poor Johnnie didn’t get elected.

            Ah! Well you needn’t be sorry ma’m, for its roight glad his ould woman is that Johnnie was defated.  I didn’t want to lose him.  If he got in he moit have been sint as an ambirsedor to some ov thim furrin coorts, an mebbe its fallen in leve wid a Roosian Princess, he’d be now?

            Mrs. O’Relly:  Then its well the missionaries fooled the bye, and Mr. O’Soolewan, too.  Ah hanamondio.

 

ON BANKRUPTCIES.

            The columns of assignments and bankruptcies which appear in the daily papers are but a phase of a coming event which is thus casting its ugly shadow before.  The policy of the planters in introducing labor has had the effect of filling up the country with a diverse population whose national prejudices and antipathies run counter to the first valuable element in national life, namely:  a homogeneous people.

            As successive nationalities of laborers introduced they traded with their own countrymen, and the result has been a periodical displacement of business conditions and business men.  Thus we find that of the white men who kept stores on the islands ten to fifteen years ago very few remain.

            They have been replaced by Chinese and Portuguese, and as nearly the whole of the plantation labor is now Japanese, it is safe to say that the Portuguese storekeepers will become extinct and the Chinese will be replaced by the Jap, who in his turn may have to give place to the cheaper Hindoo.  There is a long train of cruel suffering in all this.  The man who has sunk his hard savings in a stock and building is seldom philosopher enough to observe, that the caprice of the plantation owner or manager in the matter of labor, is a thermometer in which he may read his ruin, and if he be a Portuguese or Chinese storekeeper with a tide of Japanese labor coming into his district, it would be wise for him to surrender at once to a business Jap, before bankruptcy and possible starvation overtook him.

            This ferment to which the sugar business has subjected or business population, strikes at the very root of national prosperity – our very life.  In the meantime it is hoped that the poor Chinese storekeeper has saved up enough to procure a horse and hack or get a set of house building tools.  To be a Honolulu cab owner or mechanic is the refuge of the replaced Chinese storekeeper.

The Transient Nature of the Hawaiian Monarchy.

[No. 2.]

(Continued).

            In returning to the consideration of this subject, let us briefly refer to some of the more recent changes which have come about and note their significance.  Let those who are hugging the delusive phantom of a permanent Hawaiian monarchy, with a native chief upon the throne look the facts squarely in the face.  Let them consider the situation seriously and judge how vain are their hopes, how baseless their expectations, and how utterly hopeless of realization.

            It is only about a year since Kalakaua, the last male of the present dynasty, passed away dying at an age when a man of his fine physique and great natural vigor ought to be at the perfection of his bodily and mental powers.  Upon the throne to which Kalakaua left was no direct heir, there sits his only surviving sister, a childless widow, now well past middle life ad without hope of issue.  Her health is generally believed to be somewhat precarious and her probable tenure of life not a long one.  Her niece, the daughter of a deceased sister, a somewhat delicate girl of half foreign lineage, is the only other member, by blood, of the present royal family.

            This young miss, who is now abroad at school, has been duly proclaimed s heir-apparent in the manner prescribed in the constitution.  She is about sixteen years old, with the advantages of good looks, and a fair share of that dignity and grace of manner which is the almost invariable attribute of Hawaiians who have any educational or social advantages.  Of her character and capabilities, her mental and moral traits, the public knows very little, but it is impossible for any well informed resident not to be aware that the greater part of her life has been passed amid surroundings, and under influences, but illy calculated to develop or foster the qualities needful in a sovereign of the modern constitutional type.  No other type of sovereign can be long tolerated – we use the word advisedly – in these islands.  A person who is to reign successfully in this country as it is now is, and still more as it is coming to be, must have very different ideas of government, and will need to shape his or her public and private life upon very different models from those that have been heretofore, and are still dominant at the Hawaiian court.

            Even should Liliuokalani end her reign in peace, and her niece be duly proclaimed, the latter would enter upon her high office under many disadvantages.  To youth, inexperience, imperfect training, and early surroundings, and the strong probability of the inheritance of undesirable moral traits, would be added the inherent limitations of her sex.  The woman undertakes what is generally a man’s work, and who has to conduct her government and carry out her ideas by and through men, enters upon her task heavily handicapped.  How apt the sexual element is to come in to warp the judgment of female rulers in purely official and public matters all history tells.  It tells not the less surely how great are these dangers, and how often the supremacy of personal favoritism over public considerations has involved both sovereign and favorite in one common ruin.

            The present Queen was generally regarded, pervious to her accession, as a woman of exceptional force of character, good sense and self control.  She came to a position to which she had been the legal heir for some fourteen years, to which she must have habitually looked forward, and to the discharge of whose duties she must have given much thought and preparation.  Yet at the very outset of her reign she came perilously near recking her whole future upon the rock of her femininity, defying the recently expressed will of the legislature, believing the confident predictions of her admirers, seriously alarming her best friends, and inviting a constitutional crisis which might have resulted in disastrous consequences.

            Another element of weakness is the fact that Kaiulani has no near blood relative except her father. This person has resided here for a good many years, and through his connection with the royal family, has been brought into considerable prominence.  His official career, his business record and his personal habits are too well known to call for any extended comment.  It is safe to say, and the statement is well within the truth that neither in his public nor private capacity does he enjoy the confidence or respect of this community.

            That the heir-apparent is only half native is a fact whose significance should not be overlooked.  So far as the mere sentiment of personal loyalty is concerned – sentimental loyalty to the sovereign as distinguished from intelligent obedience to law and respect for duly constituted authority – the main dependence of the throne must be upon the native Hawaiians.  It is not to be expected that the inherited and ingrained reverence for the ancient chieftainship, and that enthusiastic and unreasoning personal devotion which went out in such unstinted measure towards Lunalilo and Kings of the Kamehameha line should be transferred intact to a half-white girl whose descent, even on the mother’s side, is not from as high a grade of chiefs as just named.  Her accession would be extremely distasteful to a large and influential portion of the foreign community.  At the same time it would cause no satisfaction and excite no enthusiasm among the natives.  The unpopularity of her father would only aggravate the situation.

 

ON @IT