The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-03-19
Consequences Of the Pacific cOur Adyer,i,.,,

CIR In your comments on the late appointment
OF Police Justice in Honolulu, in your issue Of 9th
February last, you make the following statement /:
Formerly. there were here in Honolulu, tro Police
Justices" (the italics are yours = one for natives.
presided over by q Hawaiian, and another for for
eigners."
Permit me to ask you to define with some accuracy,
the period 10 which you refer by the term :. former
iy," and also to name any Police Justice who ever
held court here for "foreigners' only. / have made
some inquiries on this subject, and am unable to
trace the existence Of any exclusively " foreign"
Police Court here since the organization Of the Judi
ciary department in 1886. / find that until the
appointment Of the late incumbent, there was one
Police and one District Court in Honolulu, the for
mer presided over by a foreigner. who had and e1er-
cised jurisdiction over all foreign aud mired cases,
and also over all purely q native cases, both civil
and criminal, arising within the city boundary aud
within the jurisdiction of the city police appointed by
the Marshal or Sheriff while the native District
Justice tried all native cases arising in the rural dis
tricts of Honolulu, and brought up by the country
constables appointed by and amenable to the Gov
ernor. The number OF cases in which natives were
parties, tried by the Police Justice, was greatly in
excess Of those tried by the District Justice.
An intimate knowledge of the native language does
not appear 20 have been I" formerly" deemed indis-
pensable or even essential to the due and efficient dis
charge of the duties of Police Justice, for the records
of that court show, what the public is well aware of,
that Mr.. Bowlin, who held that office for some years,
knew absolutely nothing of it nor was Mr.. Girls
void, who held the Office from October, 1855. till
January. 1853, any more conversaut with it during
the first years of his incumbency. although by con.
slant practice he had made some progress in it latter
ly, ~(perhaps not greater than the present incumbent,)
but he never pretended to hold a conversation in it
with a native.
The records Of the court show that during the FIRST
month of Mr.. Griswold's incumbency, there were
tried and disposed of, 268 purely native criminal,
63 mixed. and IA purely native civil cases, and l
never heard that any serious Inconvenience was
found to result from his deficiency as a native scholar.
I have been unable to find any such objection on
your part. but I do find tina: on his retirement from
the Office in January, 1859. you published the follow
ing n )tice OF the event:
POLICE JcsrIcE OF HOsoLrLU.-J. P. Griswold, Esq. who
for some time since has very wOrtIiIy filed the position OF Po-
lice Magistrate Of Honolulu, having resigned, r. G. Davis, Esq.,,
was on Tuesday appointed by His Exceilency the Governor to
has studied hard. and has gained the reputation of a promising
lawyer. We trust he may give satisfaction. The Office Of Po-
lice Justice il one Of the most disagreabIe and difficult posts to
ill under this government, and the incumbent, let him fill it
ever s. worthily, will always find some that will be dissatisfied"
Assuredly the truthfulness OF your closing COM
ment has received n singular verifcation very lately.
have jus. learnt that the native lawyers practis-
ing in the Police Court here, have sent for publica-
ton in the Ruokoa, a document expressive Of their
entire satisfaction with the administration of that
Court under the present incumbent, and denying the
existence of any piLiL;ia on their part because of the
Judges limited knowledge of the Hawaiian language.
Honolulu, March 18th, 1854. VINDEx.