The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-05-14

REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF FOR
EIGN AFFAIRS.

The departmental report which the
Minister of Foreign Affairs presented to
the Assembly on Saturday last contains
a very complete history Of all the i'm
portant business which has been dealt
with during the last two years. 1t ex-
tends to 254 pages OF reading matter, OF
which, however, only twenty-five form
the report itself. The papers which are
given in the appendix are 50 vOluminous
that they render lengthy explanations
unnecessary. The report is clean and
concise document, going straight to the
point in regard to every subject on
which it touches. In the appendix,
besides repeRts from various commits
sioners and other important papers,
there are to be found full reproductions
of the Minister'S correspondence with
His Majesty's representatives abroad
and with other persons, and the replies
thereto, which give the history of what
has been done by him not only fully but
in the most open manner. No after
gloss is attempted. Negotiations and
correspondence are laid bare just as
invited.
The report is characteristic of the man
An impression prevails that because Mr..
Gibson is Il fluent and effective public
speaker he is therefore mere rhetori-
clan. Nothing could be wider of the
mark. Instead of trusting to rhetoric,
hD 10 r
sound arguments. Hence he is always
listened to. and his opponents in debate
seldom get the best of it. When he takes
up the pen it is the same Here in this
report which he presents as Minister of
Foreign Affairs, voluminous as it is, and
plentiful as his own writings are in it,
there is no waste of words. Everything
is to the point that bears his name; and
what he presents of other peoples is
precisely that which it is due to the
Legislature and to the public, as well as
to the writer's themselves, should be pub
lished.
We propose in future articles to treat
of the more important contents of this
report in detail. Many of the docu-
ments which are presented with it are
of the highest interest, and bear upon
matters which are at the present mo-
ment exercising the minds of all think
iag people in the community Such are
the papers and correspondence relating
to the proposed extension of the term of
the Reciprocity Treaty, to the inmigra-
ton of Chinese, to the efforts which the
Government propose to make to save the
independence of those islands of Polvne-
STA which have not already fallen under
foreign domination, and to Japanese i'm
migration. Then we have some valua- /
bic reports upon the Expositions at
which Hawaii has been represented dur
ing the biennial period. These are from |
the pens of Hon. DR.. j. Mott Smith and |
Hon. Samuel Parker, and contain much |
= lformatiOn in regard to the sugar in !
dustry, ramie, etc, which everyone en- !
gagged in planting or in business enter
prises here will find valuable Professor /
Alexander's Report Oh the Meridian |
Conference" contains Il lucid history of /
conclusions arrived at, with the reasons
for them and for the counter propositions
which did not find favor report by
His Majesty's Consul General at Ant
werp, Mr.. Victor Forge, on matters
which specially attracted his attention at
the Antwerp Exposition of 1885, is full
of valuable information, especially about
ramie, and is accompanied by concise
account of the present position of the
ramie industry supplied to Mr.. Forge by
the French Government.
Besides the above the report presents
MS with the final diplomatic correspond
enee in connection with the matter of
the steamer Madras, in which the case,
of this country is 50 carefully and judi
,iously explained that we are not sur
Drised to learn that the owners OF the
Madras have been left to pursue their
enedy in the courts Of the kingdom, as