The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-02-17
THE PACIFIC
Commercial A0btrttser.
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY II.

The Gazette of Wednesday last has a brief but
very disingenuOus article under the head of "The
Australian Mails, 5" in which the Ministry attempt
first to shift the responsibility of their not keep
ing faith with Mr.. Webb on to the shoulders of
the Privy Council, and then go on to argue that
it is a question whether they would be legally
authorized to pay the subsidy even with the
Consent of the majority of the Privy Council"
The reason intimated-for it is not clearly avowed
for this latter proposition is, that the Webb
Line have received a subsidy and encouragement
from New Zealand alone, and not from Australia.
The law says, in so many words,-' any line OF
steamers running between the port of Honolulu
and Australia and New Zealand, making Homo
lulu a stopping place for receiving and delivering
cargo When it is remembered that these boats
have, with but a short interruption, run direct to
Sydney from New Zealand, and that they have a
branch line to Melbourne, the miserable quib-
bling of the Ministerial organ is apparent.
Where was this talent for subterfuge and nice
points of law hidden when the Hall Line, that
did not go 10 Nel1 Zealand, ana that never had a
prospect of becoming a permanency, applied for
and got the subsidy from Ministers? We are
told that the Cabinet, " however DESTROYS they
may have been to grant a subsidy to the steamers
are entirely controlled by the action of the Privy
Council. This idea of controlling the action of
the Ministers by the Privy Council, of which they
are er-o6ciO members, is a proposition that Will
be received by the public with a smile of mere
dulity. That the controlling was generally all
the other way, would be more likely to be be-
lieved.
The truth is that the Ministry themselves, leav-
ing that mythical and highly respectable body,
the Privy Council, entirely out of the question,
assume and exercise the power of paying out the
public moneys without the same having been
appropriated BY the Legislature, or on the other
hand of Withholding the payment of other sums
which have been so appropriated, just as they
please.
As to the free wharfage and coaling facilities,
of which the Gazette declares while mentioning
them that it will say nothing-it has been almost
n traditional policy of the hawaiian government,
ever since trans-Pacifc steamers were first talked
OF, TO offer the most liberal accommodation to any
responsible company that came along. BY treaty
sIipulations with the L. ). American steamers
carrying the public mails across this ocean are
exempt in the ports of this Kingdom from all
- duties of tonnage, harbor, lighthouses, quaran-
tine, or other similar duties of whatever nature
or under whatever denomination The Act of
1862, which so far as we can ascertain has never
been repealed, gave extraordinary privileges TO
any Incorporated company that should first estab-
lish a line of trans-Pacifc steamers between Ho-
nolulu and San Francisco or Victoria, b. c., in
Guiding land on the Esplanade for wharfage and
coal depot, and a marine slip or railway, for
thirty years free of rent or charge.
The error was committed in the first place by
the Ministry in paying the subsidies to the Hall
line of boats but having done so, on the discon-
tinuance Of that line, and the fact being plainly
evident that the Webb boats are performing the
same service, better, more regularly, and in
stricter accordance with the requirements of the
terms of the appropriation bill, there is no Tea-
sonahle ground whatever for the present refusal
of Ministers to pay the balance of the subsidy as
appropriated.