The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-01-09
CORPORATION
LAW CLEAR
Attorney General Peters
Gives the Whole
History.

d
Il General of garbling the law relatin;
n to corporations in a circular to corpor
ations warning them of a penalty il
default of their filing of annual exhibit
with the Treasurer. The circular il
being severely criticised as intended tt
scare people into doing something thai
the law does not compel them to dc
& even though it may be intended to dc
SO, and thereby to bolster up a clum-
silly drawn act the Star article said
AS the insinuation was a serious one
against the head of the Territory's law
department, an Advertiser reporter
was promptly detailed to ask Mr.
Peters for an explanation. AS the
Attorney General went to Waialua on
Saturday afternoon, the opportunity
to see him did not arrive until yester-
day. Then he cleared up the whole
business in the following manner,
showing that he had stated the law
as it bore upon the subject properly
| in the circular:
This matter of corporation exhibits
| has been a bugbear right straight
along IN the Treasurer's office" Mr..
Peters said.
"A great many corporations-suc as
the Inter-Island, the Hawaiian Trust
| Co, etc.-representing the best and
| largest interests in the country, though
saying they considered that the Mer-
chants Association was right in claim
ing that the exhibits were not required
legally, have said that they would file
exhibits anyway. A little over seventy
corporations filed their exhibits last
year.
George w. Smith of Benson. Smith
& Co, Ltd, raised the issue over a
year ago. He objected to filing exhibits
of his company on the ground that
it was an interference with private
business to require that the company's |
affairs should be exposed to the in |
spection of rival concerns. Also he |
claimed that his corporation was a |,
close corporation.
-Four or five months before the SEES |
sion of the Legislature of 1905 Benson, |
Smith & Co. sought the opinion of |
Smith & Lewis as to whether the law |
relative to the filing of annual exhibits |
by corporations was good enough. L
have not heard what the opinion was
further than information that it was
against the contention of the corpora
ton.
EAll the same, the Merchants AS
ISOLATION decided that it would fight
the question. There was some cor
respondence between George w. Smith
and the Treasurer upon the matter of
a test case. First it was understood
that Benson, Smith & Co. would refuse
to file exhibit, but they relented on
that proposition.
''Then it was considered whether an
agreed statement of facts could not be
arranged for submission to the SUI
preme Court. Benson, Smith & Co. at
this stage wrote a long letter object
ing to the filing of an exhibit on the
ground that the form was not proper.
This was beside the main question.
I'VE were trying to get it before the
Supreme Court prior to the meeting of
the Legislature. Then, when the Leg
brought up an agreed statement of
facts which was their own. 1t differed
so much from the statement which had
been under considera ton that we could 1
not accept it.
Now regarding the point raised in
the Star on Saturday, here is the
whole case in a nutshell. When the
Legislature met, one of the first meas
ures it enacted was the Revised Laws
of 1905. In this the law relative to an
nual exhibits by corporations, as Sec
ton 1866, Revised Laws, is a copy of
our Civil Code of 1859, Section 1441, our
Compiled Laws of 1884, Section 1441,
and Compiled Laws of 1897, Section
2O24. It provides for the making of an
nuaI exhibits by corpora tions
I'm 1890 the Legislature of the King
dom of Hawaii, by Chapter 43, Sec 10,
found in Civil Laws 2040, and again,
the Legislature of 1908, by Chapter s,
Sec. 1, provided relative to corpora
tions a penalty for making any false
affidavit, etc, and then used these
words: or hold themselves out 20 be
a corporation without having COM
piled with the provisions of this Act
shall be held to be guilty of a mis- t
demeanor,' etc The compilers of the
Revised Laws changed the words this /
AZ anu s'i'0'eu III lleu li'ei GU
the word law.
This alteration being adopted by t
the Legislature brought IN the entire
law from 1859 with its amendment I
thereby making any violation of the {
law of corporations a mis1emeanOr
The Star has corrected is misappre
tension of the 'aw in today's issue
In preparing the notices to corpora
tons on behalf of the Treasurer, it
would have been surplusage if the I
other stated breaches of the law We're :
inserted. Only the neglect to file ev-
hibits was in point. But as You see,
the Revised Laws make the violation
IF any of the provisions of law applf- G
,able to corporations a misdemeanor." 5
Mr.. Peters reminded the reporter t