The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-10-22

a Brief Explanation.

No report of Legislative proceedings appears
in our paper. a few words will explain why
it is. AS the p. Usher of the only English
and Hawaiian papers, we offered the free use
of the columns OF both the Advertiser and the
Kuokoa to the Legislative Assembly, provided
it would furnish such a report as it wished
printed, and pay a moiety of the cost of setting
it into type, two dollars per diem for each
paper, OF S24 a week. This by no means covers
the full cost, for the expense during the last
session of the Legislature, averaged SIS 90 o day
for the English paper. and about So 90 for the
native paper, for frequently we had to issue
supplements expressly to supply the reports or
to give foreign news, which could not well
excluded. We thought it prOpss kbsslap e
eminent should ASA ~ ""at the gov
asked. tow. -s,st, at least as little as was
p~nush.,~.ards publishing its o,on reports, mas
4-ADas it has always had its own reports
printed for twenty years at an expense Of at
least so per diem. The American Congress
pays for the publishing of the Congressional
Globe. which is issued only during the sessions
of Congress. The Legislatures of New York,
Pennsylvania and Ohio, each pays for its official
reports, and the same remark holds true, We
presume, Of other States.
The Committee on printing to whom the mat
ter was referred, consisting of Messrs. de Varig-
ny, Heuck and Dominis, reported in favor Of
accepting the offer made, as the best mode of
publishing the journal of the house. The offer
embraced the printing of as full report as the
Legislature chose to have-be it long or short,
four columns or twenty-all the debates, resolu-
tions, laws before being passed and after passage.
and even the rules of the House, if required.
A more liberal offer could not possibly have
been made, nor one showing less inclination to
take advantage of our position, as sole pub
Usher. The presentation of their report,
on Tuesday evening, was the occasion OF a
sharp debate, in which our offer was denounced
as an insult to the Legislature. We have
been furnished with a report of this debate,
from which our readers can judge how much
more dignifed the new composite structure of
Mobiles and Commons is. than was the old
House, of Representatives
II. DE vARrGsr, as Chairman of a Committee on Printing.
presented a report. that we had agreed to publish a full report
Of their proceedings as furnished by the Secretary of the Con-
vent;on' on what he considered a very moderate charge for tbe
labor to be performed, and recommended that the arrangement
be made at those rates AS more economical than any other way
of having such a report published as the House would wish.
Mr.. RHODES said that he thought it a novel thing for a pub
Usher to be thus paid-tha. it was certainly his duty to hi. sub
scribers to publish the proceedings, and asked the Committee
to explain what was to be gained by their paying Tor the work
Explanation was made by Mr.. yarigny and Mr.. I. G. Heuck
of the Committee. that the limits of the Commercial 5drertiser
would hardly contain all that The House would wish published.
and that to induce the Editor to print what they would consider
& fun report, he wantrd a remuneration, and that he offered
to DO il cheaper than they could get it done IN any other way.
Mr.. HARRIS said that he thought this a new proceeding. The
report of the Legisla' i've "A Assembly, il was a part OF the business
of the .7duerttser to publish; that they usually had to pay a re-
porter 10 get il, and that instead Of demanding pay to print it,
they ought to be grateful to have it furnished them. Ii was like
giving a man merchandise that he wanted, and then paying
nm 10 take it away that it vas as much as telling the House
that IL they paid him. this man would publish what was true
and if they did not, he would publish what was not true: For
his part, if the paper did not wish to publish IT, he was for let
ting it go without. as when he did not attend to his business, 1t
went without attention.
NJ. DE vARIGSY explained, protesting that his syTpathies
were no, with the paper in question, but it was n matter Of dol
lars and cents, and the Committee we're for having the work
done in the cheapest manner for the Government-tha the in
depreciation given to the report was wrong-that the publisher
did not threaten to publish an untrue report, but that his re-
ports. were lac no. paid, would necessarily be brief, and not 50
full as members might wish.
Mr.. Castle agreed with the Minister Of Finance,-thought
the cheapest way should be aiopted.-that it was well an nn-