The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-01-22
THE PUBLIC LANDS.

w ~ "thtThA L nc AhasBiBueu
Lands Historically Considered.
The decision Of the Supreme Court
ia Bauco, recently rendered, decid-
ing that all Of the unassigned lands
are Government property, settles one
OF the most interesting questions
that has arisen in our Courts.
The report of Prof. w, D. Alexan
der, Surveyor-General, made to the
Minister of the Interior prior to the
beginning of the suit, considers the
subject from the historical point of
view, and is we'll worthy of preserva-
ton. We have therefore obtained
permission to publish it. The re-
port is as follows:
In regard to the subject of the IN
assigned lands, referred to me, l beg
leave to report briefly as follows: As
was stated In my report of March 81,
1886, this question is increasing in
Importance, and calls for settlement.
There l04 lands of this class, SO on
Hawaii, II on Molokai, 2 on Lanai
and 2 on Oahu" The question does
not seem to turn on statute law as
much as on fundamental principles,
and takes US back to the first organi
cation of constitutional government
on these Islands. I shall endeavor
to make brief statement of the case,
not as a lawyer, but as a layman and
a student of history.
It is admitted by all that under
the ancient feudal system, the aJIo-
dunn OF ali land belonged to the
King, not, however, as an individual,
but " as the head of the nation or in
his corporate right" to quote the
language Of the Land Commission.
The Constitution of 1910 declares
that the land of the Kingdom was
not the private property of Kameha-
meha l. ut belonged to the chiefs
and people in common, of whom IA
mehameha I. was the head, and had
the management of the landed pro-
perty." Thus all lands forfeited for
non-payment of taxes reverted to
him. His consent was necessary 5r
any transfers of real esstt.c51 IN the
Kingdom, and ..7Gsso for real mort
cages, an nGd Tor seizure of land for
dot. (See Old Laws, p. 179) When
he labor tax first began to be regu
ated by law, every tenant was re-
Iuired to work one day in every week
for the King, and one |
lay (F'riday) for the landlord. But |
his tax was afterwards reduced to !
Sc days in the year for thu King, and |
an equal number for the landlords. |
Old Laws, p. 81. At the same |
lime, it is doubtless true that Kane
nameha III. would not have ven
rured at any time to dispossess one |
Of those high chiefs whose titles to
land dated from the Conquest, and
who were consulted on all important
affairs Of state.
The ideas of nation and Of a
as distinguished from
the person of the sovereign were
formerly not understood, and first
began to be clearly recognized in the
of 1910. From that
rinno it was seen moro and more
clearly that the King held twofold
character, first as an Individual chief
and land holder, and secondly in his
official capacity as head Of the gov
It was in this dual char
acter that the Land Commission de-
cided that one-third of the lands in
the Kingdom belonged to the King.
It is hardly necessary in this report
to repeat the history of the Land
Commission and of the great Divis-
ion or Mahele" of 1848. cit was
evident" to quote from the decision
of the Supreme Court, in the mat
ter of the Estate of His Majesty Ka-
mehameha ", that the lands held
by the King at the close of the Ma
hele were not regarded as his pri
vate property, strictly speaking.
Even before his division with the
landlords, a second division between
himself and the Government was
clearly contemplated, and he appears
to have admitted that the lands he
then held might have been subjected
to a communication in favor of the
Government in like manner with the
lands Of the chiefs" And on the
very day after the "Mahele" or di-
vision with his chiefs had closed,
viz, the 8th Of March, 184S, he pro-
ceeded "to set apart for the use of
the Government the larger part of
his royal domain, reserving to him
self what he deemed a reasonable
amount of land as his own estate. :"
This latter class of lands che re-
served for himself and his heirs for
ever," as his own private estate, and
they are now known as Crown Lands,
the word heirs having been de-
clared by the Supreme Court to
mean successors to the throne"
(Haw. Rep, Vol. II, p. 1850.
On the 7th of the following June,
1913, the Legislative Council passed
the Act relating to the lands of His
Majesty, the King, and those of the
Government" which merely con-
firms and ratifes what had already
been done by the King, and desig-
mates the several Crown Lands and
Government Lands by name. As
the whole work of the ''Mahele" was
pushed through to completion in
forty days, it resulted from undue
haste and from imperfect informa-