The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-04-29

FROM the Polynesian of Saturday last, we copy
the following official announcement:
cit HAS PLEASED THE KING, in conformity with
the 61st Article OF the Constitution and the 18th
Article of the Amendments thereto. anproved on the
18th September, 1856, to cnnvoke the Legisl ,ture to
assemble in Honolulu. on Friday, the 18th Of June
next. By order of the King"
Considering the fact that many of the members
elect from remote districts are now present in
Honolulu, the above notice of six weeks is per-
haps sufficient, though we have looked in vain
through the columns of the Polynes;an and it's
semi-government ~cotemporary the Haze, for an
official announcement or even an editorial intima-
tion in the language of the country, that the time
of meeting of the legislature was fixed upon.
Our expectation of such a notice will perhaps
appear quite reasonable when it is recollected
that two-thirds of the members elect are as igno-
rant of the English language as the other third
are of Hindostanee. Or is this a "straw,'' in
dicating that the wind from the government
house has changed in the direction of the English
language, and that we may shortly expect a coup
d'etat aimed at the vernacular, forbidding its use
in the schools of the country?
But as the time when the Hono-ables are to
meet upon the business of the country is at length
definitely fixed, it will be well for them to begin
to consider the nature and extent of the matters
on which they will be called upon to act. The
principal business Of the session, as we have be-
fore intimated, is the consideration Of the new
Civil Code, which at considerable labor has been
prepared by the commission appointed by the
Legislature of 1856. This, as we are informed,
involves important and extensive notifications in
the host Of miscellaneous statute laws of the king
dom. 1t will be submitted to the legislature in
manuscript. the commissioners either having had
no time or funds to devote to printing. A matter
of such grave importance to the country should
be long and carefully considered before being
finally passed, and those acquainted with the pc
culiarities of Hawaiian legislation, where the
business is all done in two languages, will agree
with US that the attempt to take up and act upon
the new Civil Code in the ordinary way OF law
will involve the necessity Of a long, ex-
pensive and tiresome session. We beg to suggest
to the Government and the Legislature that a
business-like, as well as economical way of
d~isposing of this important business will be for
the two Houses, Immediately after disposing of
the necessary business of the session, to appoint a
joint committee, to which shall be referred the
New Code, with Instructions to report thereon in
say four or five months, it being understood, on
the part of the government, that, after passing
the necessary supplies to carry on public business,
the session will be prorogued to a certain date.
1t will be readily perceived that if our legislators
indulge their usual penehanf for law making be-
the Code is disposed of, they will only be
IS confusion worse COMPOUNDED" We
IAN see no plausible objection to the above plan,
and we throw out the hint thus early with the
hope that this or some perhaps preferable course
be adopted, which shall secure those desira-
BILE objects in our legialation-dispatch. and
economy. |