The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1900-12-13
FREAR NOW
At TTACKED
First Circuit Judge Is
His AssaiIant.
COURT FUNDS INVOLVED
Chief Justice Smiles at His Subor.
dinate's Attempt To Adver-
tise Himself.

His letter making the attack and the
Chief Justices statement, together
with Clerk of the Courts Henry Smiths
explanation of methods, appear below
Honolulu, Dec -, 1900.
Hon. G. F. Little, Circuit Judge.
My Dear Judge: l wrote you official
iy yesterday and in purely formal
way, endeavored to give you the key 10
the situation. l am sure that you We're
misled by Smiths letter, else you wouio
not have asked me TO rescind my rule
| in regard to the handling of trust 1
funds Smiths letter to your clerk-a
Icopy of which he states was sent TO the
other clerks-was written behind my
back, evidently with Chief Justice
Frear's approval, and was intended 10
be, as firmly believe. a small and mea.l
Icriticism of judicial act of mine. 1t |
was designed to create the impression |
Ion the clerks that / had by some un- |
usual and arbitrary rule deprived the
chief clerk of the power to use moneys, |
available and proper to be used for
that purpose for the purpose of paying
the running expenses of the courts in
the various circuits; whereas, in truth
and in fact, the rule was only intended
to conserve the trust funds belonging in
the hands of the court.
Now that you have SO kindly furnish
ed me with a copy of Smiths letter TO
Porter, Frear takes the position that
my rule was correct. The fact remains.
however, that he permitted his clerk to
review and criticize the rule in ques-
ton behind my back upon partial and
ire ompete statement of the facts.
Whoever heard of a clerk of court
] seriousy claiming the right to tenn
pCrarily divert trust funds until the
l claim was made by Smith? In what
conduct be tolerated, either by the
courts or by the community?
I The truth Is that not only have the
trust funds of this court been used
by the clerk in the past to carry on the
operating expenses of the courts in the
other circuits, but the Judges here In
Honolulu have between pay days
4 drawn from the office cash, leaving
! their due bills in place of the cash so
4 withdrawn. This was of course very
convenient and very improper. Ny
1 rule prevents the temporary diver
! sion" of trust funds in the hands Of the
D lcourt for any purpose.
/ am pleased to note that upon, what
= seems to be second thought, my rule
commends Itself, to the approval Of the
iChief Justice, but whether it does or
docs not / shall go along just the SANE;
neither the Chief Justice nor the chief
clerk of the Judiciary Department will
be permitted to run the Circuit Court
of the First Circuit as long as am it's
Presiding Judge. While bowling in be-
Supreme Court at all times, the extra
judicial opinions of it's various members
will have no terror for me. That is the
only proper and self-respecting view to
take.
Trusting that you now fully under
stand my position, I remain,
Yours faithfully.
A. S. HUMPHREYS,
First Judge.
Chief Justice Frear's statement, when
asked if he had anything to say in re-
gard to Judge Humphreys correspond
ence, was as follows There is really
no occasion for saying nything Judge
Humphreys seems to have sought All
excuse for erecting men of straw to
knock down, and appears to have been
even anxious 10 go out of his way to
sling mud at others, apparently for pur-
poses of self-advertiSing. He appears
To be offended at a portion of Mr.
Smiths letter to Mr. Porter, which
no one took as rejecting on him. Judge
Humphreys spoke to me yesterday OF
this matter and | told him in substance
that / had approved Mr.. Smiths course
in declining to send funds to the other
circuits, and also that l had told Mr.
Smith at the time he wrote to Nj. Por-
ter that Judge Humphreys order was
all right and cut no figure in the matter
and that the course proposed should be
taken as a matter of correct practice
independently of that order also
wrote to Judge Little to that effect and
Judge Humphreys said he had read my
?, letter to Judge Little and thanked me
) for putting the matter as | had in that
letter To my surprise, though entirely
in line with his past, Judge Humphreys
came out in this mornings paper and
understand, intends further to come
out in the papers with an effusion OF
self-virtue and mud-slinging at others
He is seizng the occasion of certain
nd hot tIa alAy- lie n
two courts with which he has uothins
to do as an occasion for publishing {
lot of yellow matter of his own concoc
ton to the community, merely because
small portion of that letter appeared
to his mind to reflect on him. though
hect on him. AS for my connection
with his order, l have never questioned
its correctness or propriety to anyone
or paid any attention to it and do no
see that it should give Judge Hum
: phreyS so much trouble AS to my ap
a proving his order now on secont
n thought, as he insinuates he knew tha
had approved it in my conversation
with Mr.. Smith two weeks ago and /,
my letter to Judge Little, which
wrote and Judge Humphreys read be
fore he made the statement that 1 nov
approved on second thought or after h
had heard from Judge Little.
Clerk Henry Smiths explanation WI
as follows:
] make the following explanation i
n regard to cash deposits in my hand
as clerk of the Judiciary Department
Tne reply of Judge Humphreys to Judg
Little would seem to indicate that
had been using trust" funds to pa
court term expenses with: whereas
Is nothing of the kind The widows an
orphans funds are sacredly kept, a
our books will show; what l have use
was the cash deposited or "tenderej
:. by htigants to await final judgmen
pall money. cash bonds or other Kin
dred deposits which all have to ava
n. hnal settlement of cases. and which ar
lentered in our books under the head {
general deposits" and which belon
TO something like 400 accounts, which
II they were simultaneously close,
would not justify my continuing to a6
vance cash to defray court expenses. 8
under the practice in question, the Aui
1t Act prohibiting the Treasury frol
advancing any money, as was the Gu.
!. tom in years gone by
Moreover, 1t was not so much .he rt