Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 399, 29 February 1892 — OUR PERSENT SITUATION. [ARTICLE]

OUR PERSENT SITUATION.

(CmnmunictUe<i). E<iiu»r Ka Leo: I deera it to be the duty ae weli as the priviiege of every patriotio citizen to discass puhlie an4 to put forward and adva«ioe ali such ideas ar appear oaeeaaarv for the jiublic good. One obJect of eueh discusBion is a!so to elieil dlscufsion from otl>ers for the porpo#e of throwing light upon the eubjeet discu»ged in order to «how the correctne»s or iallacy of the ideea advanced. lf people would only discusB more, and be lessdogmal»c and positive about asserting thedr ideas, ptobably the puhlie §eaenU* ly would be nxore beaefiled ai)d j there would be less injury done to | body the poliūe. 1 have been mueh interested in! reading in your paper a series ofi articSeB upon the Hawaiian Monarchv. It is reading these artic)es whieh uae induced me to write this letter. At the presejat time affairs , in Hawaii are at «vhat mightbe cailed a verv low tide. Nearly everv one is depressed and is look- J ing torward with some apprehen-1 »ion to the future lt is very tain that unle»s there should be' iinprovement in the outlook in the | near future the revenues of the | country :nust soon be very mueh i decreased > and with a decrease of revenue comes the ir.r . .ty to j>ay our runuing ezpenses i ' our debts.! As soon as we cease to « iy iuterestl I on our Jebts and our expenses, disI SBter must eome. The wise man looks ahead to the future aed piaiie his expenditures aqpording to what his expected to be and thereby, when depression | couiefe with disaster. ig better en-1 ab!ed to meet and contend with the j disuster. But do we see ary signs of eueh wi*e forethought on the part i of our olheiaia in this country ? I fear not \W hear no talk what»oever of cutting down the heavy • xpenditure whieh 18 made in our country for the expfnses of government. When we consider the ex» pense of carrying on our govern-1 ment in connoctioo with our revenue, wiih the sixe of our country t | with its populttion and then eoni-! pare tbis with ihe expenditures of other country in likecircumstanoes. ; the contrast is indeed depreeBing } 1 and perhaps appalling. If we iook i at the appr<»priaiion bill paased in I the year 1800 we get a very good idea of what it costs to run thegOYernment The appropria«ion bUlj amounteil to nearly 3,127,600. Ko ' inconsiderable part of this waa; made up of the expense of main- > taining royal state with nonie permanent settlements. and an im- j menae l*st of salariee. It is cer» j tain that these salariee and expenaee will all he paid in ft»ll a»dl if the revenue «hauld fatl shor( ;t vviU be cut off frow thoee improv nients whieh are intetided to beneftt the whole country, b.ut whieh were inore |uirticu!«rly aimed at up the far dintunt interior of the Ci>uii*rv ar.d it:aking eon* j neetiuns'.with ih**'Sea ports. whereby the whu!e countrv wouul b# ln*fic :it*-d hy tlie ir.cr»'H§e in va!ue of tne land» whieh nr* ihereby opened. giving an inmai**! rt*v«* nue to the country in increased 1

tases. Already, if we-aref» judg*» by the quarteriy re|w»rtB made by the Finance Department v we find that ihe revenue is <lecreasing, but With decreased revenue wē shaU haye nodecrt Aiein interest whieh we jmust pay. And we all know that |the puhlie debt bas largely increased and that in a most insidious manner, When the act wae dis* cussed in the Legislature of 1886 |to negotiate a loan in Kngland, it was a very pubiic thing, and peo« ple understood all about it, and feared runuing into debt. The act. finaily paBsed and wefind that the puhlie debt on these bonds now amountē to over a miliion dollara. The appropriatiou biil of 1890 provides for the payment of intereet £mounting to $420,000 and y«t if we iook at the returns of tbe l|in!fiter of Finance from quarter to quarter we find that anoiher debt has inereased until now it is not far from one million dollare; that is amounts deposited in the | Postals Bavings Bank. Tbis i8 a deht of the government as mueh as the debt on the bonds, and this debt is liable to be drawn out at any j itime. We know that there is notj sufficient mon*y in the treasi|ry • to*day to pay one half of that debt| and if it shoul<l »11 be oalied for, th? governmeiit n.ight Uieome barkrupt. The Bession of the legielature is approaching. Whut is to l>e <lone! with regard to all these taing? We , cannot Boe exactly how we. shall decrease the ot govern-! iment. The salaries now paid to poliee oflßcera, district judge& and !other officers of that kind through- i I out the country are small enough; | they cannct be cut down. In the same maniier if we shnu]d attempt to cut down the salaries of higber offic«rB. the minieters t clerks of departmente, or to decrease the expen»e of royalty, we Bhould alf»o :find protests. There must be in- ; creased amounts to pay the int»rest on the public d*bts; and with decreaBed revenue. h«v*r snnil we. have anythinß at aU left for thcse improvenient.« in ihe wav- of roud builfling. the laying of l>m>vs aiul preparirtu of landings to pfrmit ihe countrv to inuke that progress without whieh we f»haU go to ruin and decay ? To be ( % ontinued. - ♦ ♦ ♦ ■: