The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-01

tenn. The following extracts are taken
from that report:
Hawaii, having been hitherto a sin
gle independent state, its courts have
exercised much of the jurisdiction ex-
ercised by both the Federal and State
Courts in this country. In this re-
spect the Hawaiian courts have reseIn-
bied somewhat the courts of the Ter
ritories of the United States, which, as
a rule, have had much Federal juris-
diction, as well as jurisdiction of cases
arising under the Territorial laws 1t
seems very desirable in the case of
Hawaii to separate these jurisdictions,
leaving all cases arising under the
laws of the Territory to the Territorial
Courts and transferring all jurisdiction
of a Federal nature to a District Court
of the United States to be esta ablished
for the Territory of Hawaii. This Dis
trict Court should have also the juris-
diction of a Circuit Court of the
United States.''
"By making the relations between
the Territorial Courts of Hawaii and
the Federal Courts, as to appeals, re-
moval of causes, etc, the same as the
corresponding relations between the
State and Federal Courts. all cases OF
d lOCdi ntluTG CdH DS anu sGSleI-
mined finally in the Islands, and thus
the expense and delay of bringing such
cases to the mainland, and possibly to
Washington, a distance of 5000 miles,
will be avoided
The organization and procedure of
the Hawaiian Courts is already very
similar to what is found in the United
States. This has been the result of a
growth of sixty years of Constitution
al government in Hawaii under Amer
lean influences"
THE people of Hawaii, of all classes.
as shown by the memorials presented
to the commission, desire the judiciary,
as at present organized, to be retained
with as little change as possible, with
the exception that they generally deem
it best that there should be a United
States District Court to take jurisdic-
tion of Federal cases"
The House Committee on Territories
having in charge the bill to provide
government for the Territory of Ha-
waii, adopted the commissioners re-
port in its recommendation concerning
the Hawaiian judiciary, using the fol-
lowing language, namely:
In view of the foregoing report, it
must be considered wise and safe to
provide for the Organization of the
Territorial Courts of the Territory of
Hawaii by substantially continuing
them as now existing under the Re-
public of Hawaii, and this has been
done in the present BILL"
This recommendation of the House
Committee on Territories was accept
ed by the House of Representatives,
and a similar recommendation by the
Senate Committee was accepted by the
United States Senate.
There is no doubt of the Importance
to the people of Hawaii of retaining
this provision of the Organic Act. The
proposed change would work great
hardship to the business interests of
the Territory, and especially to litigants
whose means would not enable them to
incur the heavy burdens of expense and
delays incident to appeals to the Su-
preme Court at Washington from Ter
ritorial Supreme Court decisions. Such |
appeals would amount TO denial of |
Justice in a large number of cases.
AS to the proposed amendments re- |
moving the requirement Of citizenship |
In cases of the Governor, Secretary |
and Judges, your committee is aware |
of no reason which has been suggested |
for going outside of this Territory to |
obtain suitable men for such Terrific |
rial offices; and is of the opinion that |
no worthy reason therefor can be |
named. There is no community in any |
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