The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-08-13
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, AUGUST ID.

lHOISDAI
"REroRx'' is the watchword which has, in
her late parliamentary election, shaken England
to her very center, and made the victories won al
the hustings scarcely less joyous to her people
than that of the Alma. 1t was not 50 much the
bold stand which England's champion leader took
in carrying on the war in China, as the numerous
pledges given that various reform measures should
be brought forward and carried out, which has
secured for him the popular sympathy and aid
Burdened with heavy taxes, from which they have
vainly sought to be released, the people came for
ward and sustained the minister mainly on pledges
from him that governmental reforms should be
made. In every government where popular suf-
frage exists, its officers find their strongest reli-
ance in that suffrage and il listening to the pub
lie voice. True loyalty or patriotism always sup
ports executive officers in the right, and when
ever the national honor and glory is promoted by
their acts. But true loyalty does not stop here
it chides, opposes and condemns, where dishonor
and injustice manifestIy flow from any line OF
policy.
Though no parallel can be justly drawn be-
tween this government and that of England or
even that Of the United States, either in the ex-
tent of their resources, the vastness of their power,
or the number of their people, yet the basis on
which each government is conducted, is the same.
1t is for the popular good that they are admins
istered and any measure which, after having
been tested, has not in view that object, must
soon become unpopular and meet with opposi-
ton.
There is perhaps no subject in which the pub
lie take a deeper interest than in the expenditure
of the public revenues There are so many who
cry to the guardians of the public funds, give,
give and corruption, under its various forms, is
SO deeply implanted in the breasts of those who
aspire to be the dispensers of public favors, that
to watch closely every outlet of the revenue is
the only way in which abuses can be corrected.
The greatest obstacle the Hawaiian government
meets with is the very limited resources at its
command to supply the call for public improve
ments and for the proper administration of its
different branches. But in proportion as the de
mand for improvements increases, and its re-
sources are found insufficient, in that proportion
ought its revenues to be husbanded, unnecessary
expenditures curtailed, and the most watchful
care be instituted over its treasury.
We have shown in previous numbers that the
government is doing injustice to itself and It's
people in the way the finances have been con-
Quoted for the past year. The mere collecting
and disbursing of the public revenues is not the
whole object for which the treasury department
was organized, and a minister of finance required
by the statutes to be appointed We have a ma
tional credit at stake, and the Office should be
honorably filled. The supervision of it by an
other ministerial officer, as is now the case, or
the appointment of a second rate man, not
thoroughly qualified to be minister of finance or
to maintain due respect and restore the pub
lie credit, is an injustice to the people, and
an infringement of their rights, which they ask
may be rectifed. Not every man is fitted for the
post of national treasurer because he may have
held other public trusts. Fitness for this consists
in a most thorough financial knowledge, and in
the faculty of using that knowledge to further
the public interests
In our last issue, we presented a statement of
the receipts and expenditures of the government
for the year ending March 81, 1857 The re-
ceipts were as follows: