The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-02-24
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY q.
Ii ia not often that We feel ourselves compelled
TO stop and notice the course of the government
organ. The public look mp IN that Journal as they
do on an insane person, with pity-almost con-
tempt-and treat it as unworthy either their pa
tronage or support Supported rs it is almost
wholly at the public expense, and by legal stat
ute, il apparently matters little to the govern
ment what course is pursued by its conductors, if
it only stands BY and defends the Ministry through
right and wrong. A spirit of insolence, bigotry
and responsibility always has, and ahcays must,
characterize a Journal supported solely to defend
a Ministry. Hence, although from week to week
it finds its greatest delight in aiming to traduce
a rival publication, and seeking its defeat, as
though that were the sole object of an annualap-
preparation Of ten to twelve thousand dollars of
the public funds, we generally pass its attacks
by, viewing it as the public do, in the light of a
public nuisance, existing only by sufferance-
Without stopping for a moment to consider
how thoroughly it is depised by the public and
how soon it would cease to be printed were the
public treasury TO be closed against it even for a
week, its conductors appear to think that the
principal object for which it is established is
to viIlify and impugn, at the public expense, a
rival publication, and that they are not earning
their daily bread unless constantly bearing false
witness against their neighbors- Like an unwhipt
truant schoolboy, it needs an occasional useof the
birch to bring il TO a sense of responsibility. The
Commercial serves as its IS harp of q thousand
strings,'' on which to vary its weekly tune, now
blowing high, now low, till the community are dis
gusted with its courses and with the government that
continues to indulge the morbid fancies of a treas
ury-paid editor. And although the Ministers may
not be advised of all it publishes, yet on them
must rest the responsibility Of a Journal issued
at their control, and the odium created by the in
discreetness of those who may have the immediate
charge of it.
Last week we published, in advance of the official
Journal, a statement of the finances of the govern
ment, acknowledging the favor we had received
from the Registrar of Public Accounts, in brief
terms, to be sure, as the report was only furnished
to us at a late hour and was inserted by the ex-
clusion of matter already in type But because
we printed it first and did not devote a column in
adulation of the Minister Of Finance, or did not
find fault with his official course, we must be
accused of a want of courtesy in our remarks, as
the following will show:
aThe readiness and courtesy with which the Minister Of Fl
press, whenever in his judgment 50 doing win subserve the pub
lie Interest, without part Hsy and without f.vor. nighthAved de-
served a passing notice from 80 great a sfiekier for Publicity IS
manners q the drawing room, It knows atIeass the way to the
kitchen and can patrouize the COOK
That we pursued the only proper course, in ac-
knowledging the favor from Mr.. McCoughtry,
(who may have furnished it at the order of the
Minister of the Treasury will be seen by the
Ill l.
HGvAnAx TRk.srHr,l
publication. a statement Of the Receipts and Expenditures Of the
Hawaiian Treasury IRON April lst, 1855, 10 Feb 1s1h, 1889, and
your NOS obr .rr
Registrar Public Acoounts-
From this statement Of facts, il would appear
that the government editor is the one who needs
to be taught his manners. But let that pass"
In regard to the impartiality shown this jour
nal, no one knows better than the editor of the
government organ that. previous to the publication
of the statistics which appeared in last weeks
paper, referred to In the above note, the only ones
that this Journal has been able to obtain and
publish from the government Offices (customs and
shipping data alone excepted} have been procured
solely by copying from the government Journal
that the eiitor of that Journal has always had
access 70 and ooealneo governments tatisucs wnen
sought and he might have learned further, with
out much trouble, that when the publisher Of
this Journal on one occasion sought statistics from
the Finance Office, he was coolly rebufed with q
reply which amounted almost to insult, from the
then Acting Minister Of Finance, and that since
that time we have not troubled the Minister for
statistics, but have generally published them
after they have appeared in the Polynesian.
We have alluded to this subject much against
our viii, for we then considered, and still
think, that the refusal was injudiciously made,
bot with no iii motives nor should We have felt
called upon to alIude to it now, had not the gov
eminent editor asserted that I" Official documents
and public accounts are furnished g without
partiality and without favor,'3shereby imply
ing that it has invariably been done, which Is q
pervesion Of the truth. For what we have re-
ceived in this first instance, wetender our thanks,
to vhomsoever they may belong, be it the Min
lister of Finance or Registrar Of Public Accounts,
and trust that this journal may IN future receive
at least an equal partislity and favor" and