The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1903-02-02
LET REASON GUIDE.

There is no better test of the capa-
bility of an administrative and eXecu-
tive officer than that he is able to en-
force laws and regulations without
friction, and while not failing in his
duty, command the respect and the
support of those upon whom these laws
and regulations bear The best laws
can be made to work great hardship
in the hands of an administrator who
lacks the capacity to distinguish be-
tween the spirit and the purpose of the
law and the letter of it,
Collector Stackable seems to have put
himself in the position of wreaking
hardships not only on a very deserving
part of the community the Japanese
fishermen, but upon the whole COM
munity which depends on the efforts of
these for it's supply of fish.
In issuing the order which directed
the japanese to discontinue the use of
1he "flare-up" lights on their sampans,
the Collector was actuated by most
worthy desire. Complaints had been
made repeatedly to him by various
naVigators entering this port, that the
presence of such a multiplicity of lights
on the sampans after dark was an ac-
tual menace to navigation. The Jap
anese were in the habit of getting at
the entrance of the harbor and along
the outer edge of the reef and fishing
all night. The presence of these lights
bringing vessels into this harbor
What was especially dangerous was
the fact that when the vessel was APP
preaching the harbor entrance and
range lights that serve as a guide to
enter the harbor channel, one of these
lights on the sampans would suddenly
flare up and temporarily blind the nav,
igator. The danger of the vessel being
piled on the reef and the lives of those
aboard lost was in consequence great.
Acting upon these general complaints
the Collector after consulting with the
United States District Attorney, issued
an order warning the japanese to dis
around the entrance of this harbor
from Diamond Head to Barber's Point.
In the issuance of an order that was
aimed to remove a menace to naViga-
tiOn the Collector was actuated by the
highest and most worthy motives. No
criticism whatever is to be made with
the general underlying principle that
the lives of people on vessels entering
the harbOr should not be endangered
by the presence of lighted fishing craft
in the track of those craft, but unfor-
tunately, the Collector allowed his or
der to go beyond the bounds of reason.
His order may have the effect of re-
forming the conditions as is desired by
navigators, but it will also have the
effect of working a hardship that is alb
solutely without reason or justice on
the Japanese fishermen.
There is no question but it is dan
gerous to vessels for the lighted sam
pans to be about the harbor entrance,
but to issue an order prohibiting the
use of lights on fishing craft along a
coast line of seventeen miles is abso-
lutely beyond any common sense. A
number of island naVigators have been
asked regarding this order Of the Col
lector and they have said that it was
entirely too severe. No vessel coming
to tn harbor Of Honolulu after dark
goes closer than a couple Of miles Of
the shore when approaching from Bar
ber's Point The navigator shapes his
course for the light at Diamond Head,
and then when he has come up within