The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-05-07

operation of designing persons"
1t is hard to see why free immigrants arriving
here for the purpose of getting employment
should be confined against their will on thu
quarantine grounds " until they shall have {
reasonable time to secure suitable employment,
as the ordinance declares. Such confinement is
not for the government or control of the immi'
grants it is not in order to promote free lmmi
grafton. If the immigrants were sim ported" By
the Board of immigration. then the ordinance
might apply. But they were not so imported
Again the ordinance prohibits the landing oil
immigrants @'until permission to do so shall have
been granted by the President or by an Agent oil
the Boars of Immigration These immigrants
hare been landed by order of the Board of Health;
and there is nothing in the ordinance or in the
Statute which authorizes the Board OF Immi
grafton to detain them as it Is dong and claims
to be entitled to do. These men are In the
country; they are landed here, they are under
the protection of our laws and are now restrained
of their liberty. The respondent admits these
facts and seeks to Justify them. There is no
legal justification for them which [ can find.
The sentence which the law allows for Migrants
is detention at a Jail or wOrkhOuse not to exceed
six months, or Imprisonment at hard labor not to
exceed three months.-Penal Code, Page 81.
There is no limit of the time of restraint for
which these petitioners may be held by the re-
spoEdents, and that without any charge or ac-
%cusatiOn made against them or any hearing before
d SOuIl, vi blc lmpOsCu Nv duN IlDuDdl
Unless they enter into labor contracts or find
sureties, they may be kept imprisoned for life by
the respondents if the President of the Board of
Immigration continues to think that they have
no visible means Of support or may become
Migrants or a charge on the community.
NY points NAV thus be summarized, viz:
l.. The Legislature cannot lawfully delegate
to the Privy Council the power to make a law
authorizing the Board OF immigration to re-
strain immigrants of the liberty until they make
engagements for labor or furnish to the Board
evidence or sureties that they will not become
Migrants or a charge upon the community.
III. The Acts of 1864 and 1868. relied on for
the law or ordinance claimed by the respondents
to have this power, do not authorize and were
not intended to authorize the making of such "A
law or ordinance.
Ill. The ordinance itself does not authorize
the Board of Immigration to confine immigrants
after they are landed at the depot or quarantine
grounds until they shall make such labor con-
~tractsior furnish such evidence or s%ureties, but
merely declares without providing any penalty
that - immigrants not desiring To make engage
ments for labor shall, before leaving the depot,
furnish to the President of the Board of Immi-
grafton satisfactory evidence that they will not
become Migrants or a charge upon the COM
muniIy."
". These immigrants having been landed at
the instance Of the Board of Health are now
within the. Kingdom, and entitled to the pro-
lection of it's laws relating to personal liberty.
If they become vagra' Is, they are liable to Grim
inal prosecution as such under the general laws,
but cannot be imprisoned because OF anticipation
that they may become Migrants.
'. This ordinance gives no authority, and
the Statutes on which it is based give no author
ity to enforce It's provisions by imprisonment or
restraint of the person. " 1t is scarcely neces-
sary to add that unless the authority be plainly
given. it does not exist. and when given, before
IL an- y 49, H. 5000 - A., 80
certainment by a competent tribunal or magis-
trate OF the guilt OF the party billions.
Mimic. Corp. Sect. 287. and English and Ameri-
can cases there cited.
Respectfully submitted,
ALFRED ). HARTwELL,
pefItIopar-S Counsel