The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-12-29
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, DEC. %.

4 I8IUS u very ltIuc IcBuy W SiS -
the position assumed by this journal. Without
attempting to rebuff tho arguments advanced by
us, it resorts to special pleading and apologies to
sustain the anomalous position in which the gov
eminent is now placed-a position condemned,
we confidently assert, by every person of reason
ing faculty in the kingdom-and a position
which we are officially told, the Minister of the
Interior " acknowledge but is unwilling to
carry out, at least for the present. The article
to which we refer commences with a statement
about as near the truth as that journal usually
comes. The sc cause of our remarks was not,
as stated by it, the s. competition of the Polyne-
san - but the competition of the government
the Hawaiian government,-which holds itself
up as a compeer with England, France and
America, and yet stoops to trample on and fetter
an honest branch of industry-that prostitutes
its funds to sustain a printing Office, not simply
to do its own work, but to scour the town to beg
work from this, that and the other one, and thus
take the bread from the hands of industry.
That was the point of our remarks, and that is
the point that the public, the government organ,
the Ministry, and all, must see and ackn6Wl-
edge.
The Polynesian says that it has 60 not been
honored" with any especial explanations why
the government has not taken some steps to dis
pose of its press. Perhaps it would be well,
when it undertakes again to write on an abstrusc
question of Hawaiian policy, to inquire if the
Ministry can find g nothing to step on" but the
necks of those who are SO unfortunate as to en-
gage in the printing business. The "truth."
whenever that journal may be " honored" with
the /" explanations may be rather too un-
pleasant to make public. Says the government
exponent:
aBut, booking at the subject from another point Of view, were
the Pofynesian office sotd.-and. II sold to the proprietor of the
Advertiser, crippled as a whole, or sent out Of the country to
that six Iaonths would hardly elapse, certainly not a year, be-
fore another press and journal would start in opposition to the
This is just what we have always been driv-
ing at-the establishment of an honest and hon.
orable competitor-One thGl na,st rely on its oen
industry for its support, and one that cannot
run up to the public treasury every Saturday
afternoon, as regularly as the week closes, to
draw out whatever sum it finds itself short.
That is Just what we ask-to have two Offices
placed ON the same basis. We care not whether
the Polynesian is sold or leased; we expect
ai,oaps to have a rival, and we believe it to be
for the interest of the place that it should be so.
So far as the Publisher of this papers desiring
to purchase or lease the government Office, the
allusion is all gratuitous. He has never ex-
pressed any such desire, and so long as he POS
sesses Il far better Office, would not take it under
any circumstances. The Poiynesian Office is now
being replenished with new stock, ordered at a
heavy expense, and it is currently reported that,
when the government treasury has been sapped
of all the funds it can allow, and the Office thus
made new, a proposal will be made by those at
present in its employ, TO take it on some terms.
This is no doubt q cunning and shrewd maneu-
YER; but for the Poiynesidn, knowing all this, if
true, to make the groundless insinuation it did
that the Publis her of the Commercial alone
wished to obtain possession of it, is nothing less
than bearing false witness.
The vanity and egotism displayed in the gov
eminent journal has rarely if ever been equaled
in Honolulu journalism. Here is a specimen
And now that WE have ohviated the very objections it
then made, that We have enlarged and perfected the avaiIabii-
match (our friends say an over-matclo for the Adrerfiser in
each and every department which makes a newspaper valuable,
for OR Improvement, and for the zeal and faithfuiness with
which WE have labored, /" &C.
To boast of what can be done solely wih pull
tic funds drarcn from HE public treasury. as
though it were done with priva.e means and by
private enterprise, requires more impudence than
can be overlooked by an intelligent community
like that of Honolulu. The acting director of
the government press knows quite as well as the
public what he did do and didn't do, when left
to rely on his own industry and management,
and yet with an impudence rarely equaled, boasts
of what he can do with the public's taxes.
"In a small community, like this, where ever body knows
require pro lorna prociamations Or lengthy advertisements to
ascertain who are capable, competent and wiling to either lease
we confess that for the present, we know Of 90 one uniting these
munny, he viii soon be known, aud then. aud then only, can the
first step be taken to carry the Act OF the Legislature into exc
If the above is an official announcement of the
policy of the Ministry in regard to its press, we
might as well settle DOWN to the stern fact that
no change will be allowed to take place for the
present. Who can expect that there will be
offers made until there is some intimation on the
of the government that such a thing is de-
sired There are men in California now, if not
here on the islands, who would gladly take the
Office on favorable terms. 1t is not three months
since a former director Of the government press
SO arrived in the community" seeking an OPEN
ing ani we mistake very much if, had the offer
been made to him on equitable terms, the gov
eminent might not readily have disposed of its
office, and secured its printing to be done at half
its present cost, and on very favorable terms.
truth is, there is no disposition to dispose Of
IFS office on any terms, but a firm determination
to cripple and cramp the printing business here
On the islands, and it is that determination that
we are seeking to expose.
awe believe that the change Of Office by the foreman in ques-
was effected without any breach Of the first business obi
cation by MIN or by us, and the motive was greater congeniality
and not higher wages. We believe that so far from being dis
or even incommoded, the Advertiser had some three
notice Of the change"
No notice was ever given to us by the director
Of the government press of the intended change,
and if he means to assert that, we deny it. Nor
was any intimation given to us of the proposed
change until after the contract was entered into
by our foreman, who assured us that nothing
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