Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1881-04-16

The Advertiser and Truth.


the Adretis1, on the sui !cct of the sessions
of the Special Committee of the Privy Coun-
ell on Pardors, which, says that paper,
" ELECTED great deal Of talk and opinion,
none Of which was under oath" This we
suppose for the sake of discredi'ing the said
opinions, as it is we'll known thar none of the
proceedings were under oath that the com
mittee was not tribunal for examining per-
sons accused of crime, but investigating the
grounds for the opinion professed to be held
by the signers of a certain petition, who were
"cited," which the Chief Justice explained
meant in this instance "called or invited" to
give their reasons for holding these opinions.
"Much was said" proceeds the Adoer,Ser,
"by several medical gentlemen, but no m"i-
icm op6,iyns, bts~d upon a persojud eemiaa-
tiOR, ,csre qirea, ec'ept phdt ,Uas altered By Dr..
Web6." This s the statement of the Adser-
tiSer, and we venture to assert that no state
ment more Intentionally, wilfullv, consciously,
the EXTREMIST departure from truth, was ever
printed. No medical opinions, based upon
personal examination ~ What do the medical
gentlemen say2 Dr. McKibbin says as the
Adreriscr very well knows, "I saw Polua at
Oahu prison the day betore yeste,iiy at request
of the committees; had long conversation
with him. Then follow the particulars of
the conversation with him aud with the officers
of the prison, and the confirmation of their
answers by the prisoner himself. AT present
he is in perfectly sound mind there is no
excitement; he is perfectly cool from the
1 n,l I ah, l,.
was not insane when he committed the deed,
but from taunts and drink he was excited
said lie bought the knife at the store
and sharpened it for the purpose of killing
her" DR.. McGrew "wem IN Oahu prison
with DR.. McKibbin; found Polua
could talk pretty good English; have just
heard DR.. McKibbin's statement: have no
carnations 10 make; Judge him to be a
man slow to anger; had been cool and COL
lected purchased the oh0lelt,o to nerve him
self; if had not had careful report or dag
nosis of his case made by skiful person who
had seen and ecnmined him, and had only
street rumors of incidents, I should not be
able u medical man to give any valuable
opinion touching his sanity or insanity; =
| do not consider Polua was insane when he
committed the deed" DR.. Brodie: AT re-
quest of chairman of committee visited Polua
in prison yesterdav, and from my examination
do not consider him to be of unsound mind. I"
DIR. Hoffman, has been surgeon and medical
attendant of Oahu prison for twenty years,
more or loss; hare seen Polua ere sererdi
G.. a.. u 4 L.
diton very good, when l first saw him, and
now; pulse good; not insane
now, ETC." And this is what the AdcTt,ser
represents as "no medical opinions based
upon personal examination" Can anything
be more fatty opposed to the truth DR..
Webb's opinion is excepted whereas the fact
is that at the time Of that gentleman's first
appearance before the committee he had not
had personal examination of the prisoner; but
when he visited the committee room the
second time, on Monday, he stated that he had
visited the prisoner Mat naorning; found heart
disease high and fluctuatng pulse and con-
sidered him insane at the time of the murder.
Here is the truth of the medical opinions
based on personal examination, and it must be
admitted that it is directly opposite to the
Adoertiser's statement. Again, that paper
says "H is ecidea, as Judge Jones says, that
u very weak defense was made at the trial,
whereas Mr.. Cecil Brown says, Kalua and
Nawahi were assigned to defend him; Nawahi
is, in my opinion, the best Hawaiian lawyer
ut the bar; from the evidence ad-
duced, think no foreign counsel could have
defended him better; from the nature of the
crime and the evidence, believe he was fully
aware of what he was doing when he COM
mtted the crime" Both A. Spencer and +
Spencer had every opportunity to offer evil
dence. Here the professional legal opin-
ions. Four clergymen had oonversed with the
prisoner, once, twice. and several times. cover
ing period, in the case of the Rev. H. II. Par
ker, of " some MONTHS" To Father Raymond
and to DR.. Hyde he pleaded intoxicaton. TIC
Mr.. Parker that he was enraged, overcome
with passion when he did the deed bnt on no
occasion did he suggest insanity. Temporary
insanity, as is very well known, is merely a
phrase permitted by coroners, in order to pre-
serve the property of suicides from forfeiture
and their remains from the indignities which
formerly followed the verdict of .felo de Sc
With murder it is otherwise. Suicide is
crime which cannot be repeated, and therefore
the verdict is of comparatively no consequence
Murder may be, and often has been repeated
and we never yet knew of verdict of iena-
porGry insanity accepted in murder case
and in this such a verdict would have been
wholly contrary to the evidence. To plead
for mercy for ap avowed criminal is well to
plead irresponsibiliiy in the OF respon'
sible agent is the reverse.
FRoLIcsoME and enterprising young goat was
browsing on the spur of the mountain just where
the ridge overhangs the pools of Al-koke. Wish
ing to investigate the characteristics of certain
lunches of vegetation growing in the cracks and
crannies in the face OF the cliff he jumped down
on to a little shelf or projecting table rock some
five or six feet below. He leaped and goat-like
landed in safety and on his feet, and having soon
satisfied himself that The grazing on the cliff was