The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-05-12
THE PACIFIC
mertlalA0brrtise
SATURDAY. A II.

SATURDAY y. MA IL
The NECESSITY of retrencbment in the expen-
ses Of carrying on the government of the coun-
try, where il can be done without marring
its efficiency, Is 50 obvious, that no rate-payer
is likely 10 question the matter. The super
fuous outlay of the money of the country is an
injustice to the people who are taxed TO support
the government. By all means, let the gov
eminent be as efficient ss possible, under all
circumstances but let there be no unnecessary
expense, no useless salaries, no sinecures. We
do not mean to insinuate that government
officials should not be allowed a fair remuner-
alton. What we wish to suggest is, that it
is the duty of the ministry to enquire whether
certain government places and e~mployments.
whose occupants are drawing salaries from the
public treasury, could not be dispensed with
altogether, or, at least considerably reduced in
numbers. 1t is positively enormous to cal
culate the amount Of public money paid away
yearly in salaries in this little Kingdom, taking
into account it's revenues, and population.
In many instances. it appears that two or more
individuals are paid for doing what might
easily be done by one efficient government
official, We do not propose to go further into
details on this subject, but We venture to sug-
gest to the ministry that it appears to us to
be their duty to examine how far retrerchment
in salarie1 government places may be compa-
tible with the efficient administration Of the
business of the country.
The EFFICIENT working of any administration,
in which the harmonious operations of the
individual sections rightly aim at the success
FIJI icSra Of tho rvhoIa npdar,aL1pn ;r,rarat;va-
ly demands the dependence on a head, under
whose guidance and control the subordinate
members are placed. If this necessity of a
head to direct and govern, is felt in administra-
tions Of an ordinary character, such as refer
to the management of general business, wherein
are involved the interests of individuals, COM
panies, or societies, the case of the direction of
affairs in which the best interests of the entire
nation are concerned should obviously present
no exception to the general rule in such mat
tiers. In point Of fact, in all well governed
countries, where the head of the State, whether
Monarch or President, is assisted by what is
commonly styled a ministry, charged with the
management OF the affairs of the nation, it is
the rule-in constitutional monarchies like
the Hawaiian Kingdom, to speak more directly
to the pointer the Sovereign to name one of
his ministers as the head of his Cabinet, who
is for this reason sometimes styled, as in Great
Britain for instance, 9 the Premier" At the
very first sight, it would seem impossible to 90 on
with the business of the country where a well
defined system of subordination does not subsist
between the members of a national ministry
and its head. All civilized governments are
conducted upon this principle. The members
of the Ministry are subordinate to a head, the
Premier or Prime Minister.
We have been induced to discuss this topic,
in consequence Of q mistake which We made
lately in speaking OF the minister of the In
terror as the Premier" believing, that our
previous remarks on this subject were followed
by such an arrangement. But, it seems, that
this ministry of the Hawaiian Kingdom has no
head. that there is no Prime Minister recog-
missed as such by his fellow ministers or the
King that the minister placed at the head
of each branch of the national administration
is completely independent in the discharge of
his business, of all the others, and only respon-
sible to the King himself, so that, in point of
fact, this Country presents the novel spectacle
of q government in which the King is his own
Prime Minister such a state of things is
a downright anomaly. 1t is easy to understand
how it may have crept into a newborn King
dom. In such a country as Great Britain, a
similar state of things would appear quite
ridiculous, and the government of the nation
in such conditions would be utterly impossi-
BILE.
We think it needless to point out the evils
that must arise from the absence of a system
of subordination amongst the ministers of the
crown. Any person of ordinary capacity must
comprehend at once the anomaly of such q
condition of the administration Of the nation.
Thus, the Minister of the Interiors business
may be retarded or interrupted or even marred,
by causes arising out of the business OF the
Minister of Finance, or vice versa, and neither
has a right to insist with the other, nor can
they call upon any recognised head to settle
their differences, save the King himself-an
unconstitutional course. We suppose the case
merely to illustrate our remarks. We have no
doubt that ministers themselves must feel the
incongruIty and inconvenience of conducting
the national administration without any one
of their body being recognised as its head.
Any one of the ministers of state can be selected
to act as Prime Minister, without reference to
the portfolio which he holds.