Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 286, 17 August 1893 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

The Planters Monthly for Au-g-ist contains a lengthy article on the Postal S.ivings Bank, recoramending that the accumulated deposits in the hank be io the future invested in foreign 8ecurities of such a nature that they easily could be realized upou. The writer gives the present government considerahle taffy, and evidently desire« to create au irapression that the Poatal Savings Bank has beend»ing unusua!ly well since the 17th of January. When we remember that the Postal Saviugs Baok has heen ! onahle h’* meet the deraands on it on the ordinarv course of biisiness, * * ’ and that it haa heeome necessary to make new atid apeeial laws to prevent the depositors from gettiug their money escept long term notices are g;ven, it seems ratber preposlerous lo find tbe writer in the Planters Monthly coming oot wilh a eulogy over the affairs of the haok under tbe present regmoe. The fict is tbat the PuaUl Savings Bank was a misUk« from iu start, and the continoance of that institntion is a still greater trror. We understand very well that tbe difficulties whieh ihe present hankrupt adaiiaislraUon would eneounter if ibey tried to eloee up ihe

business of the bank, but the ini*torv t«> bco»nDplish it sbou!d beUken withoul delay. Mr.Dam <n snd hi? colleagues #hou!d rememl>er lhat it wae lheirgreat partis»n, ! and polit : caI friend Mr. Thurston, ! who «’ »rted the hank, and who | brought it int<» th.it h<n>c!ess finanj eial poailion in wineh it i? to-day. I \Vith an :np.tr.»Iei;eii recklessn«9s | Mr. Thurston p»*ured the money ! whieh a coufidiug pe iule dep*isited in the hank in the treasnry. and pourcd it equaliy recklessly out agam on alleg*d improvetnent» — | iu>proveuient8 whieh n»<b *dy ean pomt out the v% hereab »uts ot to day. Theimpn»veniente areout ofsight, but thedebt of more tban a half million whieh the government owea to thedepoeitors, is very raat»-rial and very real indeed. The hami)ering of the depositors in their eff >rts to get their own agaio by special legislalion will not help matters in tho long run. The single, double, or tnple entrieg, and charge«, and contra-charges between the treasurv and the bank do not soive the question at issue. The cold fact remair.s that the debt is there and that some duy it will bave to be paid. N<» honest man ean at present advise the tax payers to deposit their money in the Postal Savings Hank, or to allow the money aiready deposited to recnain in the hands of a govern ment whieh treats the deposits as ordinary revenue, aud squanders it on unexplainable items with no thoughtof to-inorrnfw —with nocare for the possibility of repayment. Wind up the Postal Savings Bank gentlemen of the govenunent! Tlie s<x)ner that the country has got rid of that unsound institution the sooner will the hnaneial heallh of the puhlie treasury improve, and ' get on an honest and aoproved basis. The recommendation of the writer in the Planters MonthIy to invest the deposits ineasilysaleable f>reign securities is absurd, when we know that there is not sufticient cash on hand in the b.mk to-day to meet the demands on whieh notices will mature in August and September, Let the writers en this question try to devi°e some means whereby the depositors will get a show of getting their money back some time or otber, and then eloee tbe hank. Any other proj ositions is simply folly, and will only bring the government deeper and deeper into tbe iinaneial muddle, out of whieh they never will get extricated before a etable government takes hold of the reios of couniry—and no governraent will ever become a stable government except it be a governmeut by the peuple. of tbe people, and for the people. And that —Mr. John L. Steven's administration through bis proxy Mr. DoIe—is not. One peculiar feature in the Planters' Monthlv editoria! whieh is reprinted and end*»rsed m tbe Advertiser this morning, is the absolute admission that the Hawaiian Government Bonds are not realizable either here or abroad aa cash 8“cur.ties. Considertng that the Advert;ser itself hae, forevery mail ste»mer past. beeo asserting that the utmost financial confidence prevails in the community in the Provisional Government and its mode of conduct<ng tbe coantry’s finances, it seems to us to be extraurdioary, to say the least of it, that the Adverttser should now stultify itself by endorsiog state> mente, Ihe truth of whieh everyone elee knew but the financlal wiae acre of the Advertiser. and praetiealiy admit that oow Hawiiiin

Government Bonds, whether U* the Postmasler General or n«»t. <re not s«-curities whieh the financial i men here <»r abroad, care to parl with their ready e ish f>r. This was notso under the mon.»rchy f>r when the deposit»»rs in the s-ivings hank, : tben wish* s d their money returned, i when h ird times ei.ne after the I McKin!ey b;il passed, lhey g »t it- ! The bonds wr-re s.ileable then, ar.d raoney was reidilv advanced on their security locally. so th.«t oo stringency, such as now exisls, oe ■ i curre«i in postponing the rei»»yments of ihe pev»ple’s hard-earntd savings. N'ow, how diflerent, as witness the PU*nters’ Montbly, and its editor the ex-P.M.G.