The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-05-10

TO THE BENEVOLENT MIN there must be consid-
cradle satisfaction in the fact that the affairs of
our community, however quiet, even dull, they
may seem to us, apparently furnish considerable
interest to newspaper-readers elsewhere. Not only
is our national behavior keenly eanvassed, and
our tendency to sympathy with one or another
ncighboring country carefully watched, in almost
every section of the globe, but the personal con-
duct Of our citizens seems to afford much food for
consideration in other places. So much at least
we may infer from the frequent journalistic para
graphs which find their way hither in the papers
by almost every mail.
Who the q" Honolulu correspondence are whose
pens constantly call attention to our dOings we
will not attempt to guess, any more than we care
to enquire into their motives it is impossible to
deny to them the merit of great diligence in ac-
quiring news and delicate skill in maintaining
their incognito, and, we might add, not a little
ingenuity i'll the spelling of our proper names.
Their purposes are of course nothing to us so long
as nothing is told but the truth sometimes how
ever a good deal Of pure imagination is called into
play, aud then we have a right to look out for
fear Of Misrepresentation and injustice.
Undoubtedly there are in our midst persons
well qualified to act as truthful and able cores
pondents, and it is not on these grounds that we
need fear because +" Il chiefs among us taking
notes - public criticism is a healthy thing which
honest men ought not to shun. But VIC are con-
strained to urge upon the newspaper editors who
publish Hawaiian epistles that a proper degree of
discretion be observed in ascertaining as far rs
possible whether they give to the WQGIbdL tfFffiiI55u r.
nalists to act fairly and q bona fde " in matters
of this kind.
The danger Of misstatement is not great in Eo-
nolulu papers, where editors are able to Judge of
the yeracity of their correspondents to a consid-
cradle extent from observation, and where devia-
tiOns from fact are sure to be corrected by coun-
ter correspondence. But the same restraint does
not exist abroad with regard to leland affairs,
and it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that a love
Of "spIce sometimes moderates regard for
veracity. In recent letters to the Alta California
and other papers we see plenty of truth, told in
an amusing manner, especially as to the interest
ing series of events which ensued upon the death
of the late King and eliminated in the accession
of His present Majesty we find also highly en-
tertaining squibs (partaking somewhat of the
9 stretcher " at times) with respect to subsequent
expressions of private and public opinion in the
matter ofreciprocity treaties, annexation schemes,
foreign pressure, and desire for independence
and the foreign public is placed in possession of
a great deal Of information anent the action of
our government which Hawaii itself has never
yet heard of unless by street-corner gossip. If
the signature " Mark Twain " were affixed to
some Of these letters. a suitable reception would
always await them but it is difficult to know
exactly how much importance may be attached to
anonymous letters by persons who have few other
sources of information.
1t is a pity that charitable editorship and the
privilege of incognito should sometimes be abused,
and that the conscience of writers should ever
become so dead as to permit the subsection of
truth-telling to personal motives or mere love of
mischief; and too much blame cannot be awarded
to the originators of such ISLANDERS upon respected
personages as a paragraph which public opinion
caused lately to be torn down from the bulletin
board where it had beer by a probable oversight
exposed to view. The correspondent who fur
nished the letter in question appears to have been
well-informed as to much that he wrote, and
might ereditably have rested without ~resorting
for " spice to a personal paragraph.
We may be permitted to express a hope that
our government will take pains to fortify its
position by promoting such public acquaintance
with its action in matters of general interest as
may enable US to know how far Honolulu cor
respondents " are right in what they state con-
corning complete understandings" between our
rulers and distinguished visitors, official or other
wise. Possibly the public is now in possession
of full information as to any important steps
which our government may have taken, in which
case no one can make a charge of radical activity
or revolutionary haste; but, whether this be go
or no, the government will lose nothing by avoid
ing the suspicion of undue r~eticence.