The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-10-23
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURsDAY. OCTOBER o.

ever and wherever occasion demands, and without
descending to dispute on minor technicalities or side
issues. But as the government organ has under
taken to make q defense, a very lame one to say the
least, of the position held by the Minister of War,
as head Of the department of public Improvements,
from materials which appear to have been furnished
by himself, we wish to show how far these same proofs
60 to sustain our own position, while enc OR two
of the quotations convey Misrepresentation at which
we are surprised. Ifany defense was to be under
taken by him for his tenure Of the bureau, the public
had a right to expect something different from the
special pleading with which they have been IA
vored.
What on earth is there in the irst or second extracts
given to prove that he was not anxious for " the con-
tinued tenure of the bureau which entails so great
an amount of labor with so small q share of profit
Without expressing the least desire to be released
from it, he says, sit will be for the Legislature
to consider whether the bureau of public improve
ments shall remain under the Department of War;
&c very polite way of saying it is very well as it
is. He merely insinuates that the action of the Legis-
lature man be taken in the matter he does not ignore
the fact that the management Of the bureau is not in
proper hands, for he is very provident in preparing
for awkward questions, but he certainly does not ex-
press any anxiety to be relieved from the troublesome
office.
In the second extract, for want of somebody else's
trumpet, he, as usual, blows his own. Why was the
framing of the bill to transfer to its proper department,
the disagreeahle bureau, with which no one wished
to interfere, to be thrown upon Mr.. Webster who had
his hands full, and perhaps thought that it concerned
His Excellency much more than it did him. Every
body who has the honor of His Excelleney's acquaint-
ance Knows with what facility and efeat he yields his
pen, and with what pertinaci-y he pursaes his pur-
pose when definitely formed, and that if he had
wished to resign the direction d the very troublesome
bureau, it would neither have cost him much effort
to frame a bill fr the purpose or to have had one
framed, and after having 50 framed it, to have passed
it triunphaatly through tire Legislature.
The minister's assursnce In suffering the publ
ca<iar&f the third extract troua his own report, as any
proof In the matter, is amazing. Every body knows
how practised dissemblers ~fwithout applying such an
epithet to tho honorable gentleman in question: can,
without uttering g direct f~alsehood, convey an i'm
preston utterly ut variance with the truth. How
singular that a case exactly parallel, except of
course its being purely accidental, should be now
before us we say accidental, because so honor
able a man as His Excelleney, who lately on a much
less occasion, accused the publisher of this journal Of
attacking him on every point of his character that
was dearest to him, would never be deliberately guilty
of suppression of the truth, misrepresentation of facts,
suggestion Of f~alsehood, or any other unworthy
action.
1t is q fact generally known on these Islands that
the Minister'S private financial transactions and
speculations are something enormous, not confined to
this meridian, but extending in their qualifications to
many parts of the world, and that, with all his pri-
waite business, he keeps no private clerk, but that
his official clerk or secretary does much of his pri-
vate correspondence nay, it is now on record, and
has been for months past, that not only does he so
employ his own, but the clerks of other departments,
lit is to be hoped they are well paid). In a case of
arbitration on business of a private nature which has
been carrying on for several months, in which the
honorable gentleman is one of the principals, he sub
mitted, as evidence, a document from the clerk of
another department in which he reported that he and
Mr.. Wyllie's official secretary had been employed for
one entire week in the business. How, in the face of
that document. and at the very time he was submit
ting 1t to the arbitrator, he could write in his Report
to the Legislature est viii at once occur to you
"that having to conduct the business of the Depart
1" ment of Foreign Relations and Of War, and besides
I" to participate in the usual duties of the Cabinet
and Prvy Councils, with only one secretary, it
" would have been altogether impossible for me to
Sc attend to the requirements, &c."-the honorable
gentleman's apobght viii perhaps be able to inform
US, as he is so fertile ia expedients and frank in his
statements.
And so of the fourth and last extracts. Undoubt-
edly the honorable gentleman gave receipts for all
the monies that came into his hands and took receipts
for money paid away, admitting that as a fact, what
does 1t prove? What was to prevent the gentleman,
In the absence of any system Of auditing accounts,
from submitting just what receipts he chose, or from
Withholding what he chose if he had any pet of his
own to foster? Who examined the different sets of
books to see if they corresponded with the vouchers
submitted ! Were all the books submitted to the
Legislature if not, of what use were the vouchers,
except to sheW just what the honorable Minister chose
and not one particle more In his happy and diplo-
matte style he could have made them represent any
thing, a mirage an IS airy nothing or a sub
stance, just as he represented himselfa as being worked
to death by the hborious duties he had to perform
for the benefit Of the public with only one secretary
while 1t Is notorious that he has a large private bust
ness of This own TO attend to, that it is customary with
him to employ the Government clerk attached to his
Office on his private affairs, and on one occasion as we
have seen, that he employed the clerk from another
government Office together with his own for an entire
week on his own private business. Certainly the
government clerks were not appointed, nor the appro-
prIatlons made for these purposes, and seeing this
state Of affairs, we believe there Is nothing WRONG in