The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-09-08
THE KOHALA TROUBLE.
EDITOR BULLETIN

ing statements, winch, II not cor
rected, would leave behiud very err
roneous impressions, so far as | am
personally concerned.
In the first place the correspondent
above referred to omits entirely TO
mention the fact that on the Sunday
afternoon esd AugusD | accompan
led GO or more men, at their request,
to the office of the KOhala Sugar Co.,
to assist in explaining matters con-
nected with their contracts. Finding
no one at the office (being Sunday,
we went to the house of Mr.. Nc
DougalI, the acting manager, who
explained through his interpreter the
meaning of the monthly charge for
amount deposited with the Govern
ment, which seemed to be the prin-
cipal cause OF discomfort. | was
prevented from fulfilling by promise
of visiting the Union Mill on the fol-
loving morning by the disturbance
that occurred around my premises,
which has already been explained.
Again, there is an assertion that
on Monday, 800 men. more or less,
waited in vain all day at the Court
House for my appearance, thus IN
ferrng that / had arranged to be
present there. AS a matter Of fact,
| never agreed to 90 to the Court
House that day, and purposely re-
Trained from doing so, thinking It
better that the laborers, who affected
to disbtlieve my statements, should
alone confront their employers at the
Court House, using as Interpreters
men that did not know and who
would be disinterested parties.
1t is true that, about an hour after
the people had started from my
house for the Court House, the Dep
uty Sheriff suggested that | had
better 90 there also, but, for the
reason given, declined to be present
at the proposed interview between
the managers and their men. There
were present that day at the Court
House, Kohala, Messrs. Hind Bros,
Mr.. Renton, Mr.. Hall and others,
who explainedto the people what
! they desired to know.
| will state here that | was in
formed by two gentlemen, managers
of plantations at Kohala, that many
of their new men were quite satisfied
with their contracts and did not wish
to be present at the Court House on
Monday, but were afraid, as they had
been threatened by some of the ring
leaders that if they refused to join
this demonstration at the Court
House, they would be made to pay a
fine of So each, and be marked
men.
The ?. &. A. correspondent makes
| the statement that the Chinese in
sist that the interpreters on the
ship at Mahukona interpreted false
ly." This is i grave accusation, but,
nevertheless. easily dlsprovea, as will
be shown by the following facts:
Before any contracts were signed,
the Sheriff of the island of Hawaii,
| (Mr. Hitchcock), came on board the
ship, accompanied by some of his as
sistants and a Chinese interpreter.
| He questioned very closely the Chi
! nese lunas who came on the ship as
TO what were the terms, as obtained
! In of ntrna t In
people were expected to sign. To
which the lunas replied: "Three
years contract; pay their own pas
sage, $50, to come out of their wages
to be deposited with the Govern
ment," and all other conditions
which were found to be in accordance
with the printed contracts then on
| board. Chinese tranSlatiOns of the
same were in their possession. The
terms of the contract were once more
explained to the laborers by the lu-
mas, in the presence of Mr.. Hitch-
cock and other gentlemen attached
to the Board of Immigration, wHo
were then on board. The Chinese
we're then interviewed by Mr.. Cbaplu
(NIanager Kohala Sugar co.,, who
also had with him his own nterpre.
ter, Chinese named Akona, when
the terms Of the contract were ex-
| planned to the WhOte of the passen-
| gers who were assembled on deck,
prior to shipping the 80 men who
signed contracts TO work on his plan
tation.
Finally, in the saloon of the ship,
each man was Intercepted Both by
an officer Of the Board of Imnigra-
zion and the manager of the planta-
ton who shipped him, as to whether
he understood his contract, and in
no case was man permitted 10 sign
contract until after this routine
had been observed.
| think that the above proves very
conclusively that the men did under
stand their contracts before signing.
The gentlemen present, members Of
the Board of Immigration staff and
others, were not likely to assist in
fOiSting contracts upon unsusprcting
Chinese that were not properly I'M
derstood, and prefer to believe that
they did not do so, rather than credit
the utterances of laborers who have
been tempered with by members of
some secret organization, whose OBJ
ject is to create trouble and disaffec-
ton amongst new arrivals that are
WILLING tn work at a lower rate of