The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-08-19
THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Our political situation is not inspiring to those
who care for the future Of Hawaii nci. The pub
lie have ceased to look for anything but routine
and undoing from the Legislature of 1876. The
only hope is the commercial one resting upon the
American treaty, by which we expect to prosper
in spite of the bewilderment of the administra-
ton and law-making authorities, and their failure
to devise measures for the development of our re-
sources. The government appears to be reduced
to the same hope, and to look to the results of
the expected treaty for the atonement of its pres
ent want of enterprise. Perhaps the negotiation
of the treaty is all that we ought to demand from
the present administration and if this be SO,
then it is our misfortune that we have not an
administration from whom we might demand
other things as well. Our country is yet new in
civilization, and offers n fair field for the display
of administrative ability while the presence of
an ancient and decaying race affords a problem
worthy of the highest intelligence and patriotism
in the task of its solution. Instead, however, of
effort toward the development of our natural re-
sources, under a s~hort-sighted policy some of our
public lands are leased, to be stripped of their
forests others are sold in large tracts instead of
being divided among many settlers sections of
country are allowed to relapse toward barrenness
for want of forest protection, and others from the
same cause are exposed to damage from floods
and the debris washed from denuded slopes. The
growth of the capital is hindered by a failure to
provide an adequate water supply, and the city
itself is exposed, every dry season, to the risk of
almost total destruction by fire, from the same
cause. Instead of new measures for the health
of the people and the renewal of population, the
old ones are relaxed or abandoned.
Principles of government are not confined to
those rare inspirations which are only confided to
g%eniuses but they belong to everyday life, to
business, to trade business energy and common
sense hold them all in their grasp.
From one cause or another, our government
has become so weak as to be correctly judged a
failure. We tremble at phantoms of internal
dissension, which we ought long ago to have laid
beyond a possibility Of resurrection. We look
to foreign men-of-war for home police service.
No government is worthy of the name that can
not stand alone within its own borders and there
is no evidence that we are growing stronger, or
are likely to do so. There is no prospect of our
present government developing the virtues of
sagacity, economy and energy to a sufficient
extent for the prosperous and independent man.
dSClnSLAs vi WV ohethD - eHO OuhhJ Inv
leading cause of this weakness is to be found,
without doubt, quite as much in the system on
which the executive is organized as with its indi-
yidual members. The so-called Ministry is not a
Ministry in any genuine sense of the word its
members are secretaries or clerks of the Crown,
and as such are doubtless often of real utility
but beyond their titles, their er o6fco position as
Mobiles, and som formal duties, their functions
are not radically different from those of their
own clerks. Ministerial responsibility is n pure
fiction, and passes for one. Under these condi-
tions, the position of a Cabinet officer is a real
hardship, and would be to any four men in the
Kingdom.
Worse than this is the unfayorablc influence of
the institution upon the fortunes of the country.
We need what is called civil service reform but
q reform in the executive system should lead the
way. If it were possible that England should
give up her admirable system for ours, the
change would be marked from the outset by seri-
GUS internal troubles, and perhaps end in the
subversion of the government. If we should
change ours for an exact counterpart of that of
England, nome strength, respect and confidence
would be the first results.