The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-05-28

pet of the Cabinet, without which they appear TO
think the wheels of government would stop. The
Minister of Finance and the Minister OF Foreign
Affairs, very discreetly said nothing during the
debate on the resolution, probably knowing from
experience the consequences of dabbllng with
printers ink, and the resolution was disposed OF
according TO the motion of His Excellcncy of the
Interior Department.
4 looker-on at tie sessions says that at about
l or 2 O'Clock every day there are a good many
empty seats, the mcmbersa appearing by that time
to have lost all interest in the proceedings. On
some occasions even. it is said, that If a count OF
the House were taken, there would not be a quo
rum for business. Properly there should be a
call Of the roll, as in other countries, and absen-
tees noted, so that the people who pay the bills,
may know who are the workers and who the
drones. Mr.. Hitchcock resolutions, in Thursday s
proceedings, were intended to censure these alb
sentees. but it is doubtful whether they will
have any effect.
On Wednesday, one of the members for Maui
introduced IA resolution to the effect that the
Hons. Chas. Kanaina and P. Kanoa should be
paid an annual pension each of 81 900, the lat
ter on condition that he releases all claim to
salary as Governor of Kauai. A motion by the
Minister of the Interior to reject the resolution,
brought up Prince L%unalilo, who said that those
two grey old men had done a good deal of i'm
portant work III conjunction with others, as far
back as forty years ago, in bringing this people
out of the darkness of Paganism to the light
which they now enjoyed, and while he was not
particularly anxious that his father should get
the pension, he thought he had as much right to
receive it as some others, and very properly added
that the founders of the Government should be
remembered in their declining years. The mo-
ton of the Minister got a dilatory second from
one of his colleagues, with only three or four
votes from their side, and the resolution was re-
fcrred to the appropriate committee, by almost a
unanimous vote.
The idea advanced by Prince Lunalilo exhibits
the spirit of a true Nobleman. The Hawaiians
people owe a debt of gratitude to all those vener-
able men who have done so much to elevate this
people to the position they now occupy. No one
ever begrudged the pension of four thousand Il
year bestowed on Governor Kekuanaoa, nor the
two thousand on Judge Ii nor will any one OBJ
ject to a pension of one or two thousand n year
to both Kanaina and Kanoa. Let the world see
that monarchics are not ungratcful, if rcpub-
lies are.
The latter part of Wednesdays session was
consumed in the consideration of the Appropria-
ton Bill. Item after item was hurried through
with but little discussion. When the salary of
the Second Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court was mentioned, as it-stands in the Budget,
at 81, 600 per annum, the sam as flat of the
First Associate, one of the native members had
the courage to get up and move its reduction to
$4,000, apparently thinking that the latter sum
was quite as much as the present incumbent was
worth. But he found no one to second his
motion.
Yesterday the House was occupied in the con-
sideration of the Appropriation Bill. The saIa-
ries of Ministers were under discussion, and
although there had been numerous petitions pre-
scented asking that those salaries be reduced, the
Committee of the Whole passed the usual $4,000
per annum with scarcely a murmur. Straining
at 4 gnat and swallowing a camel. some of the
members make n great deal of talk over minor
matters