The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-07-15
THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1885.
BONES.

y
aged to foist bone resolution rather
suddenly upon the Legislative As
sembly. The common pro-
posal of Reps. Brown, Castle, Dole
and Kalua that no action should be
taken on the proposal to throw
another $4,000 to the Board of
Genealogy, until that learned and
august body might see fit to report
to the house the use they had made
of the $4,000 previously voted
them, or to refer the matter to the
Committee on Education, was de-
feated. The vote of the session of
1884, $4,000, has all been ex-
pended. For what, no one seemed
able to tell. All that was known
was that the money had left the
treasury, dispensed possibly with as
much care as usually falls to the
fate of fancy appropriations. Not
a line of report of what had been
done with the $4,000 was forth
coming. All that was alleged was
that there may be some bones in the
Kingdom which ought to be hunted
up and identified, and that this bone
hunt is the special function Of the
Board of Genealogy. No answer
could be obtained FROM Ministers
that the BoaFd had found single
heo1fYae hleofYe. No bones were placed on
file, in charge of the Secretary, by
the Board. No jaw-bone was passed
to the Interpreter to diagnose
whether it had been a Hawaiian, q
Marquesan or an ancestral Darwin
an tongue that had, in the bygone
ages, wagged within. No information
was given whether any living native
Hawaiians have been dissected Tor
the purpose of comparing the quality
of their bones with those of the
skeletons identified. The Board
ought to have sufficient respect for
the royal ''retrenchment" message,
not to accept more money until they
can show bone or two in return
for the former 100000 Mr.. Kau-
lukou might have waived his objec-
tions to delay, at least until it could
be ascertained whether an additional
$4,000 would not be required to
buy and feed the required number
of pigs to scent out the right bones
from every lot submitted to their
inspection. Rep. Baker informs the
house that "the pig test is infalli-
ble." If so, it seems strange that
the Board should have $4,000 for
accomplishing nothing, and that the
pigs should be expected to do the
real business gratutously. If pigs
are Indispensable assistants of the
Board of Genealogy, common JUS
tice demands that they be honorably
paid. The Minister of Interiors s
argument in defence of perpetuating
the Investigations of the Board, that
other countries had built statues in
honor of their heroes was a rare
piece of defamation. Probably
there is nothing like it in the annals
of parliamentary discussion. In the
capacity to deliver an Grafton al
once high sounding and hollow,
the Hawaiian Premier excels, and
this time he eXcelled himself.
Other countries have built monu-
ments 10 their great men, conse-
quently, according to the Minister,
this Kingdom should indulge in the
luxury of Board of Genealogy
absorbing $40, 900 year for several
years, trying to find out who theil
great men are, and one of the
methods by which this is accom-
plished is to spread out a windrow
of skeletons and let pig loose
among them, the first one he
scents 10 be infallibly that of ;
chief! If the Premier will ask on,
of the little boys in an English o.
United States schoolroom who thu
great ones of his nation are, he neet
not wait until the youngster goel
out to hunt all the cemeteries, will
the aid of little pig to sniff ou
the great departed, before lie gives
his answer.
Nor had the Minister any need t.
suggest to foreigners the propriety
OF sympathizing with Hawaiians in
reverence for their ancestors. For