The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1881-01-05

THE question of party formation in our poll
tics is one that calls for attention in issue of
last week we published letter signed :" b. which
speaks of three distinct parties as already formed
We think that B." is a little hasty in his con-
illusions. When men talk of party they mean
an organization with distinct aims, regular plans
acknowledged leaders and so forth. Thus we have
the Republican and Democratic parties in the
States, the Liberal and Conservative parties in
England, the Home Rulers in Ireland. and we
might 60 on picking up instances from France,
Germany, Italy, Spain, and in fact every country
where there is a constitutional form of govern
ment- In every instance, however, there are some
prominent men, who act as heads, who lay the
lines upon which the party campaign is to be
fought out, who constantly keep before their fol-
lowing and the public the main issues of the con-
test, who choose men to GO to the polls pledged to
earTy out particular policy and who stand by
their colors through good and i'll fortune. At
present IN the Hawaiian Islands there is no form
alton of " party" s1ch We have above indicated.
but there are the germs, the elements out of which
such organizations ian be formed; in fostering
the germs, collecting and asserting the elements
lies one of the great Gorks of the Hawaiian poll
cians of the futu2e. The grand object of all con-
stitutional systems of government is the happi-
ness and prosperity of the governed; the good of
all classes must ne considered for instance the
interests of wealth and agriculture must not out
weigh the interests of other classes in the COM
munity, but ON the other hand the interests of the
latter must not cramp and restrict those of the
former. 1t is to obtain representation of the
interests Of al classes that parties are formed
party to be successful must be popular, it must
hfh nF b,-,
terests must be sunk for the sake of the common
good, 1t must have at its head men of ability and
integrity, and its followers must spend time and
money IN advancing its progress. When we see
such an organization will agree with =" b. that
party has taken distinct phase in our politics
At present men only JOIN together for a short time
to advance some particular scheme or fancy and
day or two afterwards have separated and in con-
junction with Others to whom they were but re-
Gently opposed put forward some fresh scheme
Our political parties up the present can be aptly
compared to the ever shifting and changing com
binations of the Kaleidoscope.
Attempts to form a national party on
sectional, or still worse issue are sure to
fail, by the effort once made in America to
form Free Soil or native American party. Even
the Solid South is now regarded by the most in
teligent classes in the Southern states as having
been fatal mistake. There is really no division
line between the interests of people who live in
this kingdom which can honestly be drawn on &C
count of their complexion or their race. Aborigi-
mails, Creoles and Immigrants, all have at stake |
and at heart, if they either honest or intelli-
gent, the prosperity of the Hawaiian Islands If .
any party should be attempted to be formed which
absorbed most of the ignorance and excluded most |
of the intelligence of the country, no prophet is
needed to foretell its doom. The division sug-
gested last week by our correspondent " B." of |
native Hawaiian, missionary and cosmopolitan
foreign parties to not to exist in point of
fact, and it also seems TO us to be division which
can never be made to succeed if attempted.