The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-01-27
SOME RIVAL CLAIMANTS
EX-QUEEN LILIUOKALANI FINDS
A RIVAL.
The Crown Land Claims To BE Met
by Counter Claims from Other Ha-
waiian Heirs.

There are fresh claimants for the
crown lands, according to the Wash
ington Post. 1t is quite easy to see
whose pen is again at work. The fol-
lowing is part of an article upon the
subject which lays forth the claims
of Mrs. Pratt to the property. The
vagueness about the rulers of Ha-
wall is clever touch, but the writer
was better informed than he pretends
to be.
What is known as the crown lands
first came to be considered as such
in the reign of King Kamehameha
III, who died about seventy years
ago, says the Washington Post. He
was reckoned as one of the wisest as
well as the wealthiest and best of
the Hawaiian monarchs. The lands
which he owned as his private estate,
embracing thousands of acres thro-
ughout the various islands, were left
by the terms of his will in such man
ner as to have the income devoted
toward the support and dignity of the
throne. 1t is claimed that no pro-
vision was made for their sale, and
that nothing but the revenue derived
from them was to be used by the
reigning monarch. With this condi-
ton of affairs, and the throne of Ha-
waii having ceased to exist. the heirs
of King Kamehameha III assert that
the property should revert to them.
Especial stress is placed upon the
fact that the lands of Kamehameha
III were his own private property and
did not fall to him as King or become
in any way part of the possession
of the crown, and the use of these
lands was all that was left to succeed
ing rulers.
After King Kamehameha III came
King Kamehameha ". King Kameha-
meha V and number of other Kings
with long and unpronouncable names,
the last one of his family having been
King Lunalilo, who was a descend
ant of the fifth Kamehameha and
who died in 1874. With him all that
branch of the family of King Kane
hameha Ill became extinct, a number
of rulers having from time to time
been seated on the throne, but they
left no issue. The ancestry of Prin-
cess Kekaaniau and Princess Kaohe-
lelani then dates back to the house of
Keoua, of which King Kamehameha
III was a descendant to Kaloluola
MALE, the half brother Kamehameha
|, who was grandfather of Keme-
hameha III, and from him the line
descends directly to Mrs Pratt and
Mrs. Wilcox, whose husbands Ha-
waiian name is Wilikol<i. After his
return from abroad, where he receiv-
ed his education, he became possessed
with desire to have an American
name and accepted the one which
most resembled his Hawaiian cogno-
men. These two women have prepar-
ed extensive charts showing their
genealogy and their relationship to
King Kamehameha III land proving
all other branches of the family eX-
tinct and other heirs dead.
The claims of Liliuokalani to the
crown lands are not based upon any
relationship or kinship to the Kane
hamehas, but. rather upon the asser-
ton that the crown lands actually
belong to the throne, or were the
property of the ruling monarch, in
stead, as contended by Mrs. Pratt and
Mrs. Wilcox, that only the use or rev.
enue of these lands could go to the
throne and that the property itself
remained in the heirs of King Kane
hameha III. Upon the death of King
Lunalilo, the last of the line of royal
blood Kalakaua, the brother of Lii
uokalani, was chosen King in Feb
ruary, 1874. When King Kalakaua
died his sister, Liliuokalani was made
Queen.
AS long as there was throne in
Hawaii the descendants of Kameha-
meha made no efforts to secure pos
session of the lands which they now
claim, for the reason that they recog-
nized that the use of these lands was
to be devoted for the benefit of the
reigning monarch, whoever he might
be, upon the throne. 1t is only now,
when the revenues of the lands can
not be devoted to such purposes from
the fact that the throne has ceased
to exist, that they come forward and
M LII. al,