The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1899-07-28
CAPTAIN MURRAY.
Says High Wages Here
Cause DesertionS.
Some Observations by a Master
Mariner on the Penal Contract
Clause Generally.

Editor Advertiser: In today's issue
the remarks. re assertions Of seamen
from ships Antiope and Amphitrite,
seem scarcely fair toward the captains.
The men have been engaged to serve
on board both ships at wages OF from
SIS to $3.50 per month, which are
only due upon the completion OF the
agreement. Now, upon arrival here,
where wages are double, the men nat
urally wish and try to take advantage
of such state. In any cases of cruel
~, assaults, etc, H. B. NJ. Consul
would at once take steps to fully pro-
tect the seamen, or. If such occurs on
board in port the local authorities will
at once step in.
In case a man deserts, We are re-
auired by the Hawaiian laws, after for
fy-eight hours, 10 report the desertion
to the Chief of Police md to take out
warrants for their arrests. under pen
atty OF 800 Their arrests cost ~. and
maintenance 81 per day. SO 1t Is 70
the ships interest in every point that
The men be so treated that they may
have no legal cause to complain or de-
sert. No legal charges of ill-usage
have been made against the ships to
the Consul, nor is it an unusual affair
in the port of Honolulu for seamen OF
American, German. Scandinavian, as
we'll as British, ships to desert whole
sale. The inference to be derived
places us in the same company as the
Frisco labor agitatOrs place the lead
ing gentlemen of these Isles, whose
sole crime has been employing at
heavy expense the best Obtainable la
Dor under an agreement, advancing
large sums, to be repaid by the labor
er's work. Ship-masters legally en-
gage their men on similar conditions
as to advances, penal clauses, etc. So
we may also be classed as taskmas-
tiers, keeping our men in slavery and
for greed, by cruelty, etc,
From my knowledge of the gentle
men of Honolulu, | am proud to be
admitted among them as another so
called taskmaster.
What has given nOtoriety to our
mems desertions is the present evOlu-
ton in the status of this country from
republic to become state, territory
or province of the United States
Opinions are divided in the courts and
commercial circles about the Hawaiian
labor contracts, which the scurrilous
language of the Frisco labor agitators
has made more pronounced The con-
tracts made in Japan with people to
come here and work are legal accord
ing to Hawaiian law, but no such con-
tract can be legally made after these
Islands are fully admitted into the
Union, such contracts conflicting with
q general law passed some years since
by Congress. The illegality is not in
the penal clause, but in the contract
being made abroad in IA foreign land.
Admitting. as stated in your paper, the
other day by IA prominent gentleman,
the United States Government TO be
the best on earth. by the people and
for the people, II seems to have es-
capped that gentleman's notice in his
wholesale condemnation of the penal
clause in the labor contracts that the
United States Government enters into
no contracts, building warships, car
rying the mails, Goals, etc, without pc
nal clauses being inserted for the due
Dtllol ICE, SNVh III w"
tracts for labor sailors and sOldiers)
the penal clause runs from degrade
ton to death. Seldom has the neces-
sity occurred to enforce the clause;
still, il is there II needed to enforce
the contract. All contracts for char
ter contain penalties for non-perform-
ance-bill of ladings, etc, even to
contract job to put up frame house.
The publicity and remarks of the la
Dor agitators' attack was keenly felt
as something too base, too low for the
Hawaiian press to discuss.
Reading between the lines We are
blamed, re desertions, for the very
same things they have sanctioned in
their own citizens, and which Is daily
used by the Governments OF the United
States and Great Britain.
II Is to be hoped that these Islands
will never have a laboring class so low,
so degraded, as TO be protected by law
and order and yet not responsible for
their contracts. When such a state of
things arise anarchy and slavery will
rule. GEO. w. MURRAY.
Master British Ship "Antiopo."