The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-03-11


The STATE PAPER known as the Ministerial
reply to the memorial presented to the King
both of which documents have been laid before
the public in these columns-calIs for farther
comment than the few hasty lines we penned last
week. The feeling of respect with which we
began the perusal of this document gave place,
as we went on, to one of shame and sorrow.
Considering the source from which it apparently
comes, it should deserve the most respectful
and thoughtful considerations; considering it's
contents, it is worthy of-something quite the
reverse. Who wrote the remarkable paper? Was
it one or both Of the signers? We would fain
think better of them than to believe this. We
read some of the long, involved sentences aloud,
and then the mystery seems to clear up. The
hands are indeed the hands of Esau, but the
voice is the voice of our political Jacob, as aptly
observed by " q memorialist."
I'VE will proceed to criticize somewhat this,
probably the worst written document-and that
is saying a good deal-that ever came under our
editorial eyes.
First of all, it is to be remarked that the reply
is by a Committed appointed by the King for the
purpose, and not by the Cabinet or a Minister.
-S AUNN5 NONBNON III tHO corresponding III
that the address was presented to the King in
person instead of to the Ministers or a Minister,
shows the weakness of the present system, and
bears out the assertion of a late correspondent,
to the effect that the Ministers are not the real
governors Of the country, and are not so re-
garded.
Our limits forbid us to follow out in thorough
detail the various statements diffused through
this extended paper, in which the ideas are
drowned in a flood of words; but after diligent
study we fancy we have decyphered the meaning.
The reply really confirms the complaint of the
address, that the question of repopulation has
never yet been dealt with in an enlarged or liberal
SpHTE. our JACOB does not handle the matter
straight-forwardly, but su.aaAs He would Give
US to understand that attempts have been maui
to get people from Japan and elsewhere, while
the fact is the effort made was simply to get some
plantation laborers. Indeed, the author of the
reply, with a haziness of thought that runs all
through, steadily confounds the labor question
with that of repopulatiOn-the very things the
memorialists evidently tried to keep distinct. 1t
is by colonies,-a word of wide meaning,-and
not by a few hundred plantation hands, that the
decay of this people is to be stayed and the nation
saved, if saved st all.
Z Thus also in reference to the Chinese. There
is no objection felt nor has any been expressed,
so far as we are aware, to the importation of
families of Chinese; it is importation of males
alone whether Chinese or of other nationalities
which IS should be stopped instanter. > st is
no doubt true, - say the Committee Of Reply,
SO that the disproportion of the sexes is an evil in
any country; but it is a period of trial'-note
the grammar which many countries have of
necessity to pass through, and from which they
recover in due time" How can this country
recover? The evil-perhaps the greatest the
country has to deal with-increases with every
ship-load of laborers. The sentence above quoted
is but one of many which show how altogether
inadequate is the idea the Ministers have of the
evil. No doubt a very few Cinnamon in Homo
lulu have native wives and large families; but
let any one who knows anything about the matter
say, how the bulk of the Cinnamon live, here
and on the plantations. The denominations are
unspeakable.
As to the Malays-we are assured by men who
understand the subject as well as the Committee,
that the procuring of Malayan immigration is by
no means impossible. At any rate, until more
thorough efforts have been made, the contemptu-
GUS term " Will-o-the-wisp'' is premature.
We turn next to India, and here again assert
that this is the right field for us, and that no
adequate attempt has yet been made to work it.
No doubt the Chinaman is physically stronger
and harder and better fitted for gang work than
the Indian; but for the small-farming, such as
would best employ immigrants here, the people
of India are admirably fitted. We repeat the
o.sort;o1 tboE NJ Dro,or - dao,,aEa 1ip1ODoofia
action has yet been taken to present our case to
the British government. Our present Cabinet
does not even profess to have done anything in
the matter. But if the British government finds
reason to suppose that these Islands are shortly
to be annexed to another and greater State, or
that our rulers are pursuing a policy tending in
that direction, we cannot of course reasonably
expect it to sympathize with or care to help us.
Once convince it, however, that we are thoroughly
in earnest in the effort to maintain our indepen-
dence and autonomy, and we may confidently
look to it for help, for political as much as for
philanthropic reasons. 1t must be
also. that times are altered since the former
feeble attempts were made-if, indeed, they can
fairly be called attempts; for, firstly, the pressure
of population upon the means of subsistence has
~latterly become very severe in India, and at least
one terrible famine has taken place, to relieve
which even the Imperial resources were heavily
taxed. And secondly, the foreign policy of the
present British Cabinet is far holder than that of
former ones for a very long time. MIR. Gladstone
would never have annexed FIJI or bought up the
Suez Canal, as Mr.. Disraeli has done.
We refer next to a paragraph in which with
that bllowing) the writer of the reply but
s~cantiIy disguises his evident feeling of contempt