Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 408, 11 March 1892 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

KA KEO.

 

John E. Bush.

 

Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1892

 

 

TANTALUS ROAD

 

   The P. C. Adveriser speaks approvingly of the Mount Tantalus Road, and the superior wisdom of the Minister of  Interior in building it, not only as an accomodation to the people but also as a sure and profitable investment.  With equal sense the same may be said of the road partially built around Diamond Head.  While admitting the possible advantage to the public and to the government in the next one hundred years, in the enhanced value of property, @&c., if the country does not go back to the primitive days of fish and poi and a maro for a state dress for all genders, we cannot agree, however, with the wisdom of building new and expensive roads in an uninhabited section of country simply for the accomodation of a few wealthy families and for the opportunity of placing lands in the hands of speculators, as undoubtedly would have been the case had lots been sold at public auction as intended.  Money has not been plentiful in the Treasury, and other and more necessary works and improvements have been postponed and neglected, where there were urgent demands for it , for this reason we may class the building of fancy drivers, &c., as nonsense.

   Much more sense and justice would have been displayed in cutting down the Pali Rosad, connecting one-third of the cultivatable and habitable portion of this island by a good carriage way to the city, where people are necessitated to pass over as it being their only outlet to and from their homes.  It is now about fifteen years since the Legislature have biennally passed a large appropriation to do this needed work, a work that would give a hundred-fold more profit to the people and revenue to the government.  But unfortunately for that large and valuable section of the country, none but Hawaiiana and Chinese live there, whose interest and necessities, (not luxury as the Tantalus road is allowed to be) would be subserved thereby.  We believe that the English dailies would call a substantial road over the Pali to Koolau a piece of folly while they would strenuously maintain the Tantalus Zizag and Brown’s Boulevard around Diamond Head as quite the proper thing.  There is a time for all things, and as with individuals so should it be with governments, that necessity should precede luxuries, and in the light of a declining revenue for the maintainace of needed public works, we can well be excused in saying , without either “misapprehension” or “Misunderstanding” that the Zizag up Mt. Tantalus and the Boulevard aroung Diamond Head. – though excellent perhaps for the same purposes that Hannibal and Napoleon  build roads over the Alps. – evince in this time no genius on the builder of our roads unless foolishness may be called such.

 

 

 

  THE PROPERTY OF THE PEOPLE

 

   The “Hawaiian Annual” informs us that the term “Crown Lands’ is applied to those lands received by Kamehameha III, March 8 for himself, his heirs and successors forever, as his private property.”

  That “at the death of Kamehmeha III, it was decided by the Supreme Court, that under the above mentioned instrument executed by Kamehmeha III reserving the Crown Lands, and under the comfirmatory Act of June 7, 1848, the inheritance is limited to the successors to the throne.”  That “afterwards an Act was passed January 3, 1864, to relieve the Royal Domain from encumbrances and to render the same inalienable.”

   “This act provided for redemption of the mortgages on the estate, and enacted that the remaining lands are to be henceforth inalienable and shall descend to the heirs and successors of the Hawaiian Crown forever. and that it shall not be lawful hereafter to lease said lands for any term of years not to exceed thirty.”

   The origin of the Crown Lands, as we perceive, is the work of a native chieftain executed forty eight years ago.  At that time the native were not as well informed as they are now, and those whites that resided here, then, curried favor with the native chief, and had very little to say.

 

   The native Hawaiian’s lands were seized upon with impunity by this chief (a man of considerabel shrewdness, and above average of his countryman), and his white cohorts.  Times are now changed,  Nearly a generation has passed; Hawaii nei is more intelligent, cosmopolitan ideas have a firmer foot hold,  Still notwithstanding all these changes for the better, the same old law, foisted upon the nation at a period when they were easily to be duped exist today.

   The present ruler, a chieftainess, derives an yearly income, it is said, in the neighborhood of $80,000 from these Crown Lands.  i cannot comprehend, considering his present knowledge, how it is possible for the Hawaiian to stand such a condition of affairs.

   To all appearances the native has no rights in his own country, even the revenue from his own property lands which were given him, is unjustly diverted from its proper channel, and it enjoyed by one who has neither the shadow of a moral or legal claim to the same.

   Are the Hawaiian people going to be bound by such laws?  Are they going to allow their rights to be continually trampled upon?  I think not.  The time is not far distant when usurpers of public property shall be taught a lesson.  How often has the same routine, been repeated and invariably followed with the same result.

   In every instance where the rights of the masses have been persistantly ursurped, or where they have been kept under the thumb of arrogance, their patience has worn out and the have revolted.  The ear even when pressed too much, will show his teeth: the people will grind a good deal, but if you ever reach the limit – Beware !

                                                                                    JUSTICE

 

                        LIFE

   The mere lapse of years is not life.  To eat and drink and sleep, to pace round in the mill of habit, and turn thought into an implement of trade, this is not life.  Knowledge truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, hope, alone can give vitality to existence.  The laugh of mirth that vibrates through the heart – the tears that freshen the dry wastes within -  the music that brings childhood back – the prayer that calls the future near – the hardship which forces us to the struggle -  the anxiety which ends in trust, are the vital nourishment of our intelectual being.  Life Crystals.

 

                        THE BRAIN

 

 

   It is not intellectual work that injures the brain, says the London Hospital, but emotional excitement.  Most men can stand the severest thought and study of which their brains are capable and be none the worse for it; for neither thought nor study interferes with the recuperative influence of sleep.  It is ambition, anxiety, and disappointment, the hopes and fears, the loves and hates, of our lives that wear out our nervous system and endanger the balance of the brain.

 

 

                                    MODERATE DRINKING

 

   A moderat drinker became angry with a friend who argued that safety was only to be found in total abstinence.  “What, sir,” said he, “do you think I have lost control over myself?”  “I do not know,” was the reply; “but let us put it to proof.  For the next six months do not touch a drop.”  The proposal was accepted.  He kept his promise, and at the close of the time he said to his friend, with tears in his eyes:  “I believe you have saved me from a drunkard’s grave.  I never knew before that I was in any sense a slave to drink, but during the last month I have fought the fiercest battle of my life.  Had the test been tried later on, it might have been too late.”

 

                                    ON DIT

 

 

   That the Kalakaua Monument Frauds will meet on the level and try to part on the square.

 

   That a Honolulu Bobby is a signal for gamblers to gather up their tools and vamoose the roost.

 

   That Lousiana Lottery games here have had full control of a portion of the machinery of this government.

 

   That Baker is ready to do what is right, but the two Sam’s object on the ground that that would be a straight.

 

   That the Chinese, with all his loose notions of morality, says that the che-fa has been allowed to go too far.

 

   That a police Captain was dispatched to seise a Chinese gambling den, which was a sign for the den and Chinese to pass off in to smoke Hi yah !

 

   That the men from the men-of-war in port were evidently from the green mountains of Vermont, - but the stuff is all there.

 

   That the new hotel on Nuuanu Street, owned by an Asiatic admirer, will be called the “Crook’s Roost,” or “ The Devil take the Rest.”  This is a free adv.

 

   That spirit of socialism rampant in Berlin, took possession by electrical affinity or instinct of some of our anarchists at a late meeting as the news reached us last Tuesday.

 

   That blowing about fighting is an indication of only a certain amount of brute force, and that when met with the same force generally winds up in a fizzle.

 

   That a police officer, a Hawaiian, is likely to be discharge for being too sincere in his arrest of a privileged gambling celestial.  That the order to arrest came from the Supreme Court, otherwise the Chinese would have known before hand of what was coming.

 

 

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 end wed with the inalienable rights to life, to liberty, to property, to the pursuit of happiness and to self-protection against arbitrary concentration of power, irresposible 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.

 

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’s goods are undervalued for assessment or entirely escape taxation; we shall therefore demand 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 dimdaraging the locking up of large tracts of uncultivated lands, a differential tax should be levied in addition to the usual agreement on valuation which should be in proportion to the ferility of the soil.  We shall also favor the establishment of a graduated Income tas, 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 iadvileges to special classes shall be rendered impossible, by full, definite and mandatory statutes.

 

PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRIES

 

7  We are in favor of encouraging all home agriculture and industries, and all 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 Government, in its contracts and other operations, to give preference to national products over imported ones.

 

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 porportion of the public moneys for the development of their resources and the satisfavtirm 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.

 

PUBLIC SERVANTS

 

            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 services rendered.  All excessive salaries should be reduced and all sine cures or superfluous officers abolished.

 

PROTECTIONS TO THE LABOURING CLASSES

 

            9  We shall endorse all measure tending to improve the condition of the working classes, and consequently, without injuing any vested rights, we will advocate laws to prevent all further importation or employment of contract labour 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 interst of the better protection of the poor ask for more liberal exemption of their property from forced sale on execution and and from seizure in bankruptcy proceeding.

 

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 conducive 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 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, - loca, national and international, - as to provide, in all the districts, cheap means of conveying the product of the soil to market.

 

ELECTORAL RIGHT

 

            11 We hold that upright and honest manhood and not the possession of wealth, arbitrarily fixed, should cometi-@@ 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 sufficient 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.