Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 5, 22 September 1893 — MR. THOMAS BURKE. [ARTICLE]

MR. THOMAS BURKE.

He vVrites A'0<her Interesti ~g Letter from Henolulu. ! OPPGS£D T0 ANNEXATlC:i } T V T ' k' t *'r V O * i K'r> V r>T * • i* —V w W11W ik U . A • W W i. ktii* > W w ■ Vi3lt the $ueen, 1 To the E<litor of Tbe Obser.cr HuX0LCLū. Hawaiian Is!au.ls, July !•*>.—The ex queeu, Liliuokiiiani, is still in Houolula. 1 bave nnt bad the i»leasure ol met*ting or seeing ber,but I b«vo met tnany of ber very close soc «I aml i>olitical fr en<ls, ex-merabe;a of her cabinet. aml Pnuee DaviJ aml Prince Cupid. l’ho Qaeon bas, no doubt, beiug greatly wrougc*d by a few graspiug selfisb intruders wbo, not satisfie<? witb baving made plentv cf money bere througb tbe hl)erality ot ber, whom tbey betra\e<l aud detbioned, aud ber prtdeces-soi-s, reacbed out for tbe eartb. aud «re uow m possession of abont b.(XH) uiles of it. v.z: tbe Hawaiian Islamls, by virtne of I wbat is called tbo “ProTisional Goveruuieut.’’ To tbis “Provisional Government,’ ’ however, the jx*ople object. Tbe iudepeudeut imt.ves are blttor iu their op ( »ositi.»u to it. nn.l only sucb of tbe natives as by 1»:isiness relatious are eoerced or cojxed to refraiu "from pabli. ly <lenouncing it. excej)ting perbaps 1 a fcw soreheads, wlio are not ;n tonch witb tho royalists when in power, are oj)posed to tbe presenl svstem. * * * The Annexatiou clnb claiu,s to have 5,400 uames un it list’ Its object is to advance tbe cai;se in any practical wav, jnst like any poliiieal club. I was bav.ng aome work dono by a professional man in Honolulu, about four weeks ago, wbo is a member of tbe club. aml while I was in bis oftice anotbcr man eame in, in u great hurry. aud re<juested a iuomeut of tbe professional man’s time, whieh he got. His busmess was to obtain tbe signutures of all menibers of the Auuexatiou club who were wil!ing tc take ai*ms jn an emergency r or when ealleU upon by tbo •‘provisioual governinent.” The professional man promtlv refnsed to sign it, saying, “Thāt is going too tar.” I havo learned ! trom mauy reliable sources sir.ee tbat 103 persons are ali that wouhl sigu it m Houoluln, a city tbat is to the Hawaiian lslanus wbat Denver is tu Colora<lo. To a disinterested j>erson the real true jmtnotic sj)int <loes not appear m tbe Annei.»tiou club nor in tbe {»r<>visionul governmeut. Perbaps it i>i l»ecaase tbere are no genaiue Hawaiiaus 1 in the l«tter and vcry few iu tbe former, altbougb Pres ient Dole is a DatĪT£, bnt a wbite man, tbe son of aii American missionary, lbere Lave been 120 uaturalize<l Hawaimn citizens create«l here in the last eigbt years, so with 8 popuialion oi 85,000, including 45.000 uatives. 2U,0(.MJ J apaneso, 18.000 Cbinese, som« Portagace.«e, Greel », Spauiards. Euglish. Insh, Scotch, Gennaus, etc., ean be bnt few Americaus. fbe provisiouai goTeraia nt pays 840 a montb to )ts soldiers. fhey are imported here from *Saa Fr«ncisco. They know how to carr>- a g in but not how to uae one, jndging fiom tiieir sctioiis at drill as well as in active «ervice. For inst&nce, about fi/tet n days ago the sheriff reported to

heA(lqtuirters the existence of a few people who! were af9ictotl with the terrible’d:sease of leprosv. on the Islan«l of Kaa.-ii prononnced Cow A^a» 1 . in tbe district of Kalalau. His report was annooi.eei at tbe regn!ar session of tbe provisional governmeut. resuitin«: in the sLerirr* being instrnct€Hl to "» at onee to get those f*eople and iake tbeoj to the health olliee for exaiuinatiou. wh.u if tbeir cases were prononnced leprosv th* v wonkl l>e transported to ihe Island of Holekai. a very fine plaee prepared for tbeir comfort and wbere tbey are kept aloof from all other people. So thesberiff prepared bis posse for the work; tbey sailed to Kaoai. and ihenea to Kaial <u on horses wbere, instead of taking ti»e lej ers, tbe lepers took tbem, killed tbe sber:tf and anotber man and wonnded anotber, so tbe dead and wonnded were retarned to Honolulo, and indignation meetings beld. resolutions passed,etc. etc. Tben tbe provisional governiaent resolved to send suuie of the regular army wīth oue pieee of artillery, aud plenty of amnnition, etc. So they loaded up a sbip and oft tbey went. Last Sunday a report eame frora tbem stating that tbree of tbe soldiers were killed. One of them was kiiled by accident. He shot bimself —tbe gun wasstrangetu him, be didn't know it. Anotber oue got bis gnli broken by a wagon ni"ning over it while be was sleeping. Tliey bad tbe grandest military burial beld in Kanni at any time. A great many guns were fired in honor of tbe brave fellows wbo lost tbeir lives iu an effort to capture a fow sick meu and women, ond the provisional govermnent was de1 gltted to learn tbat onlv one out of tbree was awkward enougl* to kill biinself. The lep- rs ure still at large and tbe soldiers have returued. On t!ie whole tbisconntry is in a very bad condition. Sast year’s total product was Iess tban ?8,000,000 and tbey dou't expect it to be near as mneh tbisyear. Annexation is the important question here, but what conutry will tbey get foolisb enongh to say: ‘‘Hawaii, I will ttike you unto rayself and pay all the expense of keeping yon, becanse you are unable tn do it yourself?'’ Some people argne that this would be a coaling station for the United St*tes in case of war witu Japan, China or some otlier countrj’ down tbis way. where Umted States ships could st >p and get fuel, but I say in case tbey refnse lauding for eoal eome in and take it anyhow. and take tbe islands when you want tbem, but tbe United States bas no use for tbem now, and the p~ople bere are opposed to annexation. Contract labor is tbe order of tbings here, aud the Japanese and Cbinese are tbo principal performers, and it is a great advantage to tbe plauters because they bave no fear of strikes or d'.sturbiinces. Under any otber coudition but the ptesent one it would be b>»rd fcr tbe sugar plautrr to succeed, because Asiatic labor seems to be tbe only kind tbat c;»n continue to perform the work in this climate. aud the laws tbe United St >trs prohibit coutract lah<>r, so by annexation to tbe United States the pianters ar- deprived of tbat e!:>s< of labor soesaentiiil to their suceess. To my niiiid. anu-xation seems tbe lieiglit of fo!Iy, becanse tLe isiands are not s* !f su- 1 <in ng nndcr tbe lairs of tbe Umted ! States. «nd the j>euple bere are bitteriy <>pp« sed to it. so I tbink a niee solation of tbe present troubles would be fo- tbe Uuitcd States to undo what it has alre«dy doue, by rep!iu;ing tbe queen ou the throne. aud saving b> the pe»<p!e *‘now go abead aiui ron yoor own bnsiness in yoor own way —we will not interfere w.tb you again." Yonrs truly. Tho*as J. Burse. '