The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-11-27

justices, so that in all cases under the Act thew
can only commit Tor trial by the Supreme Court
for probable cause. This WIS by no means the
intention Of those who procured the passage Of
the Act, and it Is only one Of several instances
that may he cited Of careless legislation during
the session Of 1874. Chapter I, IAN Act con-
corning marriages of Hawaiian women with Chi
namen," has been declared uncOnstitutiona nv
the Supreme Court, as being Of the nature Of
class legislation and so has Chapter u. IN re-
gard to divorce. By the latter, the cumbersome
divorce law Of 1870 was repealed, and the law of
l8GG-tO permit divorced persons to marry AGAR,
was re-enacted but nobody in the Assembly
appears to have paid sufficient attention to the
business before them to perceive that they were
leaving the country without any divorce law at
all. But this was the result, until the October
term OF the present year, when a case having
brought the subject to the Official attention Of the
Judges of the Supreme Court, the law was
promptly set aside as contrary to public policy
and unconstitutional Another anomaly Of the
laws Of the last session is found in the fact that
while Chapter 80 amended the law in regard to
the sale Of opium, whereby one license was
granted at not less than $l6 900 a year, Chapter
Sc OF the same session laws strictly prohibited
the importation and sale Of the drug by any one
outside the Board of Health.
These specimens Of the careless and slipshod
legislation Of the last session will suffice to show
what we may expect next year under like condi-
tions, and should the foreign element in our pop
ulation continue to decline taking an active part
in the election of Representatives. Clearly
enough, foreign capital, through the operations
OF which about all the trade and productive in
dustrv of tho counfrv il carried oD ia antitlad fo
a fair representation in the making of the laws
for the execution of which it is taxed but this
it has not had for quite a number of years past.
Formerly-we may say from ten to twenty years
| ago,-there might always be found from ten to
twelve foreign-born subjects in the House of Rep
resentatiyes, who gave a tone and character to
our legislation which is not to be seen at the
present day. We call to mind the names of W.
L. Lee, G.. NJ. Robertson. j. F. b. Marshall, and
Thcophilus Metcalf, among many others, educated
Foreigners domicied here, who sought and readily
obtained the suffrages of the people, and their
record forms an honorable page in the history of
Hawaiian legislation.
That there have been few or no foreigners
elected of late years to the Legislature, is the
result of several causes. One is unquestionably
found in the fact that they as a body have taken
less interest in the internal affairs and govern
ment of their island home, and less identified
themselves with the people than was the case in
former years. The lines of distinction too be-
tween the races, have become more strongly
defined Of late years, and the natives have come to
feel that their interests and those of the foreigner
are by no means identical. 1t is not our purpose
here to inquire how far this has been the natural
result of the acts of foreigners themselves the
fact remains that the feeling exists to a great
extent. Then there was the unfortunate discus
sion about the proposed cession of a harbor which
is not n harbor,-an issue that was created and
exploded solely among ourselves-and which has
left an unpleasant bias in the general native
mind, but which bias with p~oetical justice,
attaches as well to those who by their agitation
inspired the sentiment of suspicion in the natives.
Then again, the Hawaiians who have come upon
the stage of life since the days of Lee and his
contemporaries, are as different in many respects
from their predecessors, as though belonging to
a different race. While generally better edu-
Gated, they are more opinionated and selfassert-
ing, less easily controlled, and, we are sorry to
say, less inclined to respect the authority of law
or of superiors than the Hawaiians of twenty or
thirty years ago. In the battle OF life side by side
with the foreigner, they find that they often fall
in the rear, and there is a sort of desperation as
well as folly in their high-spirited resentment
against what they regard as fate.
But our subject has led us into a DEPRESSION
and towards a disquisition not contemplated at
the outset. For the present we will leave this
branch of the subject, with the remark that it is
quite in the power as it is the bounden duty and
the interest of foreigners residing on these Islands
90 aI;1I o-l ,IS1uoE A. o-oo n I,oek ;ro,e
but now smouldering sentiments of sympathy
and confidence between the races. No people are
more susceptible to kindly influences than the
Hawaiians none are quicker to detect and to in
wardIy brood over and resent IN intentional slight
or a wrong.
To return to the main thought that underlies
this subject of legislation-it is apparent that
the next session will be one of grave importance
to the country, and it will be doubly desirable
that those who are to exercise a controlling infu-
ence in the deliberations of the Assembly should
be men of intelligence, experience, and a fair
degree of ability. Unless the elections in Feb
ruary next are allowed by those who have a right
to be heard to go by default, it may be possible
to secure the return In several districts of mem
bers who will 60 into the House to work for the
good of the nation at large, and not merely for
the petty pay or the expectation of future emolu-
ment. There is besides a prerogative> in the
hands of the Crown which, discreetly exercised as
we feel assured it viii be, may leaven the whole
lump of legislation. There are now some six or
seven vacancies in the list of Mobiles to be filed
by new appointments, in order to bring the men,
bership of that branch of the Assembly up to the
constitutional limit of twenty. The announce
ment of the selections to fill these will be looked
for with interest.
E. O. HALL & %