The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-01-10

The NEW GOVERNMENT BUILDING is approaching
a partial completion, so far at least as to furnish
accommodation for the Legislature at its coming
session. We have on a former occasion charac-
terized this undertaking as " a huge sin and
bIunder,' . and we believe that we shall be justi-
fed in the pungent remark by the judgment of
our readers who may pay the structure a visit at
the present time. In wandering through the
| SPACIOUS chambers and corridors with which it so
lavishingly abounds, one is compelled to pause in
wonder and to ask if this is not all a delusion,
rather than that we are actually looking in seri
GUS matter of fact upon apartments intended for
the accommodation of the Legislature and gov
eminent of this little kingdom, in course of cree
ton on a scale of such vastness and magnihcence
as to entail an outlay which the very limited re-
sources Of the country can i'll afford at this not
encouraging epoch of its history. The extrava-
gantIy large scale on which the several Offices
have been designed and built is ridiculously out
of proportion with any possible requirement, for
nobody was ever delayed or impeded in transact
ing business in any of the old Offices by reason of
their limited area and certainly there does not
exist any reason to anticipate such an increase of
business as to require SO large an extent of office
room in future. No question but that a building
was required for the purposes which the new one
is destined to fulfill, but all reasonable accommo-
dations could have been had in a building on a
moderate scale at less than half the amount which
must be absorbed by the one now in progress,
when furnished in a style at all commensurate
with the size of its eapacious chambers.
Unfortunately however, the scale and cost of
this splendid monstrosity are not the only objec-
Ill s-o.l0-s. --I.oL .kt,o e - e. A.
purchase of the extremely inconvenient site on
which it has been placed, is still more unjustif-
able, seeing that it was prompted by a willing
ness to conciliate and crafty a powerful owner.
1t is understood that the lot with the large house
formerly standing on it had been formerly ap-
praised at $4,000, and at a time when real es-
tate stood at a high figure that a bargain had
been made with q certain claimant of the lot that
if the title should be decided TO be in him, the
Ministry was to pay him $4,000 for it and yet
the site without that building was actually pur-
chased at $4,000, and paid for out of the public
purse, and with n title so defective that proceed
ings have been taken by the present Attorney
General and are now pending in the Supreme
Court to recover back the purchase money for
the government, to whom the land is claimed to
belong!
Moreover, If the site were in all respects an
eligible one, the purchase of it was quite unwar-
rantable, inasmueh as the government at that
moment owned and had the control of n site in
all respects superior, and in fact within the bust
ness part of the city. We mean the ample space
Immediately makai of the Court House square
and extending to the land in the rear of the Gus
tom House. This would have been within a
short walk of the main business establishments
whose people have so frequent occasion to visit
the public Offices. \ continuation of the hand
some Court House square fence around the Gov
eminent House would have formed a spacious