The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-28
IT'S TRUE, TITS PITY.

Hardly had the words under the cap
ton taxes" in yesterdays Star been
written when another case came up
which was, If possible, worse than any
thing contained in that article.
Now what is it that the tax office did
yesterday? The facts are as clear cut
as a gem, but 1t is a gem from whose
facets flashes back a very unpleasant
and baleful light. Indeed, it is sort of
Scrooge's or Harpagon's light which
flashes on us.
A Japanese laboring man, one Nishi-
guchi, was burned out Of his home in
Chinatown. He lost his all. He had,
with his poor old wife, to go into quar-
antine. When that was up, as he had
no work and no home, he was obliged
to go into a relief camp and there he
stayed till yesterday. He then got a
job as a house servant. He went to his
work with a light heart, and he and
his old wife looked forward to once
again getting a few dollars together and
returning to the land of the cherry
blossom and the chrysanthemum. 1t
was a pleasant dream.
But there was a rude awakening.
Nishiguchi lived in land where taxes
had to be paid, and where the people
who collect the taxes care neither for
plague, nor fire nor sickness. The
pound of flesh must be paid, even before
it is due, or else the Jail is the place
for the unfortunate poor would-be tax
payer. So Nishiguchi, who had not
| completed his first days work since he
was burned out of Chinatown, had a
warrant signed by the chief of the bu-
reau and was consigned to Jail, because
in one day he had not earned five dol
lars and a dollar for tax office ex-
penses.
Poor Mrs. Nishiguchi followed her
husband to the police station and ex-
planned her woes to a sympathetic ear.
She said she had only the kimona that
she stood up in; she had no other
clothes; her husband had no other
clothes, and beyond the wage he might
earn, which by the action of the tax
| officials he was prevented from earn
ing, they were in a state of starvation.
Could anything be more pitiful. Two
poor people who had been most hardly
treated by a fire which got beyond the
control of the Government authorities,
two people who had had to live in en-
forced idleness for many weeks, two
people who We're so poverty stricken
that thav had IN oocaot D,,I,1io ~, n ~ . =,
in relief camp, and then when the
head of the family got chance of earn
ing fifty or seventy-five cents a day,
at the very moment that he commenced
to earn it, to be hauled off to the police
station under a warrant, signed duly
taxes which are not delinquent till
March 81
Oh, it is a beautiful pictured 1t makes
one appreciate the beneficence of civiIi-
cation. 1t makes one satisfied that
Christ's doctrines are fully lived up,
fully believed in by us of the nineteenth
century.
The wall of that poor woman who
went down to the police station to see
what she could do for her poor hus-
band must ring in many a heart We
are not all callous, though those in
charge of public funds may be- 81
have only one kimona," how pitiful.
How can get anything to eat?" how
dreadful. But then how dreadful the
crime of not having paid the taxes.
Ones sympathy dries up instantly
when one considers the enormity of the
offense. Murder, arson or theft are,
after all, not so dreadful; but when a
man has failed to pay his taxes before
they are delinquent, why put him in
prison and let his poor wife chatter
herself to death outside his cell door.
He ought to have had money enough
to defy the tax collector-owed thous-
ands to the Government, and not a
word would have been said.
| All connected with the Nishiguchi
case, from the Minister of Finance
| down-and the upper men are just as
much in fault as those who act for
them-shOuld feel very cheap over
this gross injustice done in the name of
the law.