The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-08-20
NOTES OLE THE WEEK.

-ASN1 pa " All
, city, was on Thursday last a~rraigned before the Po-
lice Magistrate on a charge of perjury, laid by Thomas
Adamson. jr. Esq. u. s. Consul. The facts as they
appeared in evidence are these On the 9th of March
last, Mr.. Adamson received a dispatch from the De-
partment of State at Washington, enclosing copy OF
a letter received from Honolulu, purporting to have
been written by j. I. Blodgett, and containing
charges of a very grave nature against Consul Adam
son in his official and private character, and also
against DIR. M'Grew. the physician of the hospital.
Sometime after receiving the dispatch, the Consul in
quired of Blodgett in regard to the letter, who
denied having written it, and before Justice Hart
well signed an affidavit and made oath that he not only
did not write it but that he knew nothing whatever
about it. This affidavit duly attested, the Consul
forwarded to the State Department at Washington,
with a request that the original of the letter might be
forwarded to him. This was done, and at the pre-
liminary examination on Thursday, the letter was
produced by the Attorney General, and the hand
writing proved to be that Of Blodgett, by Messrs. Ad-
amson. M'Grew, Judd and Bartlett. Messrs. Thomp-
son and Davis, counsel for Blodgett, objected to the
proceedings in toto, as not coming within the pur-
view of our Statute of Perjury, and quoted in sup
port of this position, Sections l and 4 of Chapter %
of the Penal Code, which read as follows:
l. Perjury is wilfuly, knowingly and falsely stating, YER
bany or in writing, some material fact on oath : where The
oath is required by tar, or the requiring of it is authorized by
4 A material fact in respect to perjury is one that is perth
nent to, and affects, or may or might affect the matter in
question, DC.
The counsel argued that by the words of the COM
plant, there was no matter in question in the Courts
of this kingdom, which the alleged perjury could in
any way affect, and therefore it was not perjury
under our statute.
The Attorney General replied that the affidavit had
been made voluntarily by the prisoner, and argued
the a~bsurdity of the defense. Afidavits were fire.
quently sworn to in cases where there was no present
issue pending, and if falsely sworn to, before q proper
officer, it was perjury. The Court overruled the OBJ
lection, and committed the prisoner for trial at the
October term of the Supreme Court. Bail was fixed
at $1,000, in default of which Blodgett was sent to
prison to await trial.
A PLEA FOR THE HoRsEs.-"A merciful man is
merciful to his BEAST says the proyerb, and every
body's experience shows that it is a true one.
Through public contribution and government aid,
two public drinking fountains have been erected in
this city, one at the corner of the Bethel lot and the
other at the corner of the Court House yard. While
thus the bipeds are pretty well provided for, the quad
rupeds, could they speak, would doubtless say in the
words of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner,
Water, water, everywhere,
And not a drop to drink"
ANNASNSpS SpOSidiJ tuOoC uCO4 IL II oauulcs II /
allowed to stand al day in the hot sun in such
weather as we have lately experienced. and nobody
seems to suppose they can possibly need anything to
drink. Two troughs for watering animals, one on
the Esplanade, and one at some other public locality, |
could be provided at a small cost, and would be pub
lie conveniences. 1t may be added, that there are
numerous other kinds of drinking fountains in the
city besides those we have mentioned, considerably
patronized by the bipeds, but for these the horse puts
in no plea. -
STRANGE AND CULPABLE SUpERsTITIoN.-An e-
traordinary case of superstition came to our knowl-
edge recently. A well-to-do native, educated and
intelligent above the usual average, had a little
daughter taken sick with fever, and she soon became
very ill. The father was urged to call a foreign ply
stefan, but he positively refused. This however, was
not remarkable. as a majority of the natives have no
faith in foreign medicines. 1t was then suggested to
get a native Kahuna, and this also was refused. The
old man declared that the girl was " hoonohoia e Ike
akua possessed by a spirit-and that only by con-
ferring with disembodied spirits could anything be
done. So he pretended to receive communications
from the unseen world, and in obedience to their in
structions, went through a performance of senseless
mummeries over the sick child. Of course the poor
thing speedily died, sacrificed to the culpable fanati-
cism of its own father, and then for several days and
nights the doleful ouwe went up, of " Why did you
die, and desert me ?'' The serious results of such fan
atheism call for authorized interference.
SALE OF LOTTERY TIcKErs.-Seventy-three tickets
in the San Francisco Mercantile Library Association
Lottery Scheme of San Francisco, were sold at auc-
ton on Wednesday last by C. S. Barlow. The
tickets belonged to the estate of the late E. Burgess.
The attendance was full, and the bidding quite spir-
tied, the tickets bringing from $775 to 50 apiece,
averaging about So. A number of coupons, of one
fifth each were sold at prices ranging from $2.12
to 1912 each. Had there been q hundred more
to offer, they would all undoubtedly have /;
been sold at handsome advances on the upset
price of S5. The drawing of this great lottery :
is set for September LIST. The probability is that +,
the bark Comet viii be the vessel to bring the =
news of the drawing and q list of the successful |
numbers, and her arrival win be looked for with
no little anxiety by ticket holders, who in the .
have a month in which to build castles in o
the air. Two hundred thousand tickets were issued :
IN San Francisco, ami there are to be only 62s prizes Y
distributed, or one in every 81 tickets-rather a '
lim show for the holders. g
MORE INcENDIARIsM.-We regret to have to record =
another fire on the plantation of Captain Thos. Il. q
Hebron, at Makawao, Maui, showing that some in .
human wretch is at work in further attempts to de- =
stroy valuable productive property. Captain Wood, 4
Of this city, informs us that before he left Kahului On
Monday afternoon, about quarter past twelve O'Clock, Il
! large fire was seen at Grove Ranch. which appeared f
to be Captain Hobron's cooper-shop and trash-house, /.
Ind which were under one roof. AS there was q n
considerable stock of kegs, lumber, &C., stored in the v
building, it is thought that the loss win be heavy. A
The amount of the loss at the mill FIRE, which We v
briefly reported last week, we are informed was s.
placed too high, though the statement was made on II
he authority of a gentleman from Makawao.. There g
ire various reports current regarding the causes of ii
his incendiarism, but we forbear making any state a
nent until more full information is received.
" l