The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-02-03
ml,,ses 10 have po~er n arn bin.

II
Iorrin A fhufsson sAid that chic
Justice Ffear had given him n brie
summary ~ some ~ the difficulties b.
he'd met with In his work some day
l since. and OF some 81 the recommends
tons he would propose In the line 81
Improvement, and he thought that
II would be Of great value II Mr
[ Frear would consent to make the Who'll,
association the same exposition be hac
made In his talk with him.
Mr.. lIartwoll also thought that II
would be an excellent idea to hear froh
l the Chief Justice, and Mr.. Frear came
I forward and told the association What
he had been doing, briefly, and what
I la his own opinion, 1t was necessary
Z yet 20 do.
There seems 10 be an idea In some
quarters" said Chief Justice Frear
that | am drafting a brand new code
for the Islands. That Is not the case
AZ all. | have not even been making a
compilation of existing laws. Ii would
be task too arduous and there would
be no assurance that il would be adopt
ed as a whole at the brief session OF
tho legislature, IL such compilation
were made. ] have thought 1t best to
make kind of patchwork of the laws.
harmonizing conflicts and doing away
with dead statutes so that any one
could codify them after the legislature
had passed the acts necessary to make
such changes operative.
I'm fact, | have been working with
three ideas in view. The first idea has
been to make this patchwork from the
old laws upon which to base a harmon
ious system. The second idea has been
to have these laws codified after they
were harmonized. My third idea has
been to recommend some changes in
the powers and duties of the Judiciary.
Under the first heading, let me state
that there has been no compilation Of
the laws of the Territory since 1857.
The laws, as they stand, are full of i'm
PROJECTIONS. In some cases the same
ground is covered by three sections. In
other cases sections overlap each other,
and there are sections still on the stat
ute books that depend for their action
upon some officer whose Office has been
abolished. The whole body Of the laws
of the Territory, in fact, is full of in
constituencies and invalidities. The Or
ganic Act of the Territory alone wiped
out 1000 sections in round numbers
Now, it is my first idea that an attempt
should be made to so patch UP our laws
that We could bring order out of the
chaos, cutting off the dead matter,
while losing nothing that is good
Under the second heading, / would
have the patch work made under the
first intelligently put together. The
Organic Act made sweeping changes in
our laws and in their system of opera
ton. The proposed new county gov
eminent bill will make more sweeping
changes. 1t is almost an impossibility,
as the laws now stand, for the lawyer to
find any rule of law covering any sub
ject. 1t is maddening. And yet there is
no valid reason why the laws of the Ter
ritory should not be contained in one
volume, not large, with an index that
would make 1t easy in practice to turn
to any section. Further than that, the
old edition of the civil law of the Is
lands Is exhausted. 1t is almost i'm
possible to get, and 1t is costly when
obtained. There is no reason why the
whole code should not be put in one
volume, at cost Of say $40, which
would pay for itself.
Thirdly, in the matter of laws relat-
ing to the judiciary, We need new
jury law. 1t is even a question wheth-
er, under the law as it is confused, any
part OF our old jury law remains.
Judges call juries under different acts,
with result that grave doubts arise
as to their validity in most serious
cases. This should be regulated, and
the expense Of calling juries should be
reduced
There should be a regulation of the
terms of the circuit court so that the
court should hold its sessions only at
Hilo, on the island of Hawaii and not
at Hookena, and at Waikiki only on
Maui. Hilo and Waikiki are to be the
capitals OF the counties, respectively on
Hawaii and Maui the court houses are
to be there. the clerks there and the
libraries. 1t is bad for litigants and
lawyers and court officers to be drag
sed needlessly to places where there
is little business, and most expensive
Tor the Territory. Then, the sessions
or the circuit court should be, in effect,
continuous, in the first and fourth cir
cuts To meet the great and growing
business in those circuits
IN criminal practice, we should adopt
the system of finding indictments by
grand juries. Also, some supplemental
legislation is needed in defining the
jurisdiction of district magistrates. We
should make the distinction that dis
trict magistrates should commit for
minor offences only, and the superior
court for Infamous crimes, as is done
IN the states. There are number of
ohenses for which the penalty should be
reduced TO one year, to relieve the pres
sure on the grand juries. among these
peing larceny in the second degree,
which should be made to consist of
stealing sums of less than $50. For the
crimes of embe2zlement by a public Of
hcer and burglary in the first degree,
the life sentence as imposed by our
statutes Is too severe. The statute rel