The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-05-13

IN rejecting upon the vote which was taken
on Friday, Miay 9Th, upon the question as to the
right of the Ministry to vote, we were struck by
the very large proportion of names that we had,
at some previous time, seen upon the lists of
tax assessors, and collectors. AS a general thing,
we believe it is sound policy to call for the ayes
and noes on any important question but in the
case above, the Opposition attribute their defeat
to this cause.
1t is not in the nature of the average man to
tight against his /" bread and butter" as the
common saying goes and this is the explanation
why one side of the voting upon this question
among the Representatives was so largely COM
posed of assessors and tax collectors.
We give but one instance Of the way things
are worked by government, merely to introduce
the subject, as the long existing. and successful
system of Ito use a mild word) conciliating Par
lament members, is too we'll known to meet
further illustration. Although the law requires
that the assessors shall be appointed son or
before the LIST day of July, and that they shall
make their returns 8 on or before the lst day of
September yet the appointments are seldom
(perhaps neyer) made within that time, and GER
tainly their returns are never made " on or
before the LIST day of September" as required
by law.
Persons strange to the Legislative machinery of
our little country, might inquire why our laws
are not observed by those whose Constitutional
duty it is to attend to their proper execution. So
many and various are the short comings of the
Executive, in this wise, thatit would be impossible
to notice them here but in regard to the tax col
lectors and assessors we will state in the plainest
and most common place English, that although
not SO stated by law, it has been a fixed rule of
government to reserve these Offices for such as shall
have served the Ministry during the Legislative
Sessions, i e., who have voted on their side, and
supported their measures generally.
Common sense, common honesty, and a desire
for order, which shall certainly characterize the
Kings Cabinet, would demand that none but the
most intelligent and upright men be appointed
to assess the value of property throughout the
country, and that these should alone be the
~criteria to regulate the appointment of assessors.
But common sense does not invariably point
to the Representatives of the people as the
necessary representatives of either superior in-
telIigence or unsullied character, as the Ministers
would have us suppose, and that the appoint.
meuts referred to were the result of such an
estimate. 3
Were such the case, however, it would not be
necessary to stay the appointments until it were
known how this, or that man had voted neither
would it be a necessary inference that because a
Representative had supported the government
measures, he must necessarily be the more-intelli-
gent or honest. The cover is too thin the
disguise too naked to hide the deformity beneath
ord ;f sucb a state of affairs must longer exist,
the injury to property holders and to the country
at large, will still increase its dimensions; for
the time will come under such q rule, that the
very name of these Offices will be a by-word and
a reproach, and only the man of blunted moral
sensibilities, the knaye, or the fool, can be
induced to hold them.