The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-12-25

the master from the servant. As he has quoted
scriptural texts to support his position, we may
be excused for calling to his attention the texts
relating to the thankful Pharisee and the mote
and beam, leaving our readers to make the APP
plication as may best please them.
1.-The law, as it is, does equal justice to both
parties. - says our correspondent. So positive a
statement requires as positive a denial. and IN
support of our position We quote from the report
of the Commissioner to the Board of lmmigra-
ton: "For redress Of grievances the lower
courts of the country are Of hnIe use 10 INN,
1.-THE coolie,) because he does not understand
their mechanism; because he cannot express him
self or plead in his own language, and because,
rs a general thing, the influence of his employer
falls heavy in the scale against him."
We have before shown that the local magis-
trates, before whom the laborer must make his
complaint, often owe their position to the in
Huence of the master that they are personally
interested in the enforcement of the law, so far
only as it applies to the laborer; that the sources
from which they receive their Interpretation of
the law are tainted because of self-interest.
Here arc reasons sufficient to show that the
laborer lies under disadvantages, and when we
couple with these the Ignorance OF language and
the machinery of the courts under which the
South Sea Islanders. Chinese and japanese labor,
the odds against obtaining justice are very greatly
against the laborer.
We willingly admit that honest debtors should
not be imprisoned, but might urge that masters
or their creatures should not be permitted to
make the distinction. To admit that fraudulent
debtors should be imprisoned seems to be right,
but when We consider that it might seriously in
convenience some in our community who hold
positions of prominence, particularly if the nice
distinctions regarding the term fraudulent, known
in England and on some parts of the continent,
obtained in this community, we shrink from the
responsibility incurred by the admission.
The writer says that by the laws of this coun-
try no contract for labor can be made in this
Kingdom for more than five years. a CORE
spondent writes us of cases where natives shipped
for a year, were permitted to run in debt,
and through Ignorance of the law regarding debt
for labor, were held for tuehre years. We our
selves know of Il case Of one held for over five
years. We remember of the case of a native
who, for informing laborers of their rights under
this law, was tried, fined, and we believe i'm
prisoned for a short term by the local magistrate
who is supposed to dole out justice in quantities
to suit.
Many believe that the penal enactment is one
cause of the refusal of natives to make contracts
for labor upon plantations. and consequently the
chief cause of the scarcity of laborers. They
are too intelligent to put their necks in the
moose it can only be successfully accomplished
with South Sea natives, Chinese and Japanese,
who have no knowledge of the language and
laws of the Kingdom. The practical result is
that intelligent Hawaiian laborers will only serve
where they are pretty sure that they will be
dealt fairly with. And hence the demand for a
class of laborers ignorant of tho working of
the laws.-"-