The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1883-05-30


alluded TO the coinage as being actually
in hand: by last weeks issue of the SdtuT
doy Press we notice that Mr.. Thrum has
addressed a letter to the Government, on
the subject of the new coinage in which
he asks six specific questions, and we also
note the reply of the great tinancier, His
Excellency John NJ Kapena, which simply
avoids making any answer to the questions
asked The miserable jugglery Of theI
reply shows that though the handwriting
may be Mr.. Kapena's, the inspirer can bel
no other than the astute and foxy Premier
Far from agreeing with MIR. kapena'sI
letter, that there is no grave apprehension
and alarm in the public mind about theI
new coinage, we have every reason to sup
pose that there is considerable ''apprehen-
'sion;" and that every sane man in the
community is anxious to know what is be
ling done by the very incompetent set of
men now in office AT many things theyI
may tinker and do no great amount of
harm, that is not irreparable harm, but if
they once get our coinage into mess,
heaven only knows what trouble and eX
|pense the country may be put to get i'll
out of its difficulty Moreover Mr.. Ka
Ipena's letter is calculated to do great
harm, and increase the apprehension,
/ for to plain set of questions, asked by al
prominent citizen, he should have beenl
liable TO give a specific set of answers, andI
THAT he. or the premier. should have to|
resort 10 subterfuge and evasion is notl
calculated to gain much confidence foTI
E.......1 - III 4lnI
great Montague act when he reformed thel
coinage of England. Every intelligent
man, let alone the leaders of public opin-
ion could make himself thoroughly con
versant with Montague's scheme: he was
careful to explain it. Our set of nincom
|poops. however, intend to spring their
little scheme suddenly ON the community.
OF course, as the Government will mott
inform us as TO exactly what it is going to|
do we must argue on what premises wei
have access to. We know that that coin
age of silver pieces is TO be of the same|
weight and fineness as the American dollar
We know that the American dollar isl
worth SIS cents We further know that
our financiers are striving to get loanI
and we have every reason to suppose,
until contradicted by the official organ.
that large portion of that loan is TO bel
taken in these silver dollars, with King
|Kalakaua's image and superscription on
them. The loan is repayable in gold only i
|if we receive large quantity Of silver wei
shall not only have TO pay the interest on
the loan, but we shall have to pay heavy
premium for gold to pay it with.
Had the Government gone INTO thel
market at San Francisco, and bought
bullion. coming it into dollars little less
in value than an actual dollar. the profit
|of the transaction would have come TO us /;
every man, woman and child in the
country would have profited by the trans
action indirectly: but as far as we can see.
the men at present in office intend to giveI
all the profit to some one, or some body of
men. outside the islands and to lay the
loss entirely on the shoulders of the in
|habitants of this country.
For a moment consider what Will be theI
result of a large influx of silver stamped
with the Hawaiian imprint and of thel
same value as the American standard dol
lar! The American standard dollar suits
us. because when we take it over to the|
coast, We can pay it for dollar, it is legal
tender there at its face value. But lett
any one go up with Kalakaua dollar andI
how much will he get for it? exactly its
bullion value viz: IS cents. The result
will be to send the American standard dol
lar up to a premium here and no doubt
some smart transactions Will take place: al
few will manage to benefit themselves. the
mass of the people viii suffer.
There is one thing that it Will be WE'LL
for our citizens to keep in mind, and that
lis that though an ordinance of the privyI
council may give an arbitrary value toI
Ia coin it cannot make it legal tender TheI
government of Great Britain once tried toI
put coinage upon Ireland which was dis
tasteful to the people, and it only required
the Drapier letters and little determine
ton on the part of the people to ~bust''I
that coinage higher than a Ete, it simply
fell fiat: no one would take it, and theI
|man who had the contract for supplying
|it had to be bought off with a pension of
$1,000. With this warning before them, or
rather him. for we suppose the Premier is
the only member of the Cabinet thor
oughly conyersant with the Woods coin
age matter, the Cabinet should have hest
tated before answering a citizen in the
way they have Mr., Thrum Theproposed
measures with regard to coinage requireI