The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1906-12-07
A ROYAL
CLEANUP

humorous or tnOusanus OF collars II
paper money was kicking around in tn,
Tax Assessors office Tuesday. 1t wa.
all over the floor and stuffed into boxes
Occasionally an employe bearing books
or boxes, showed a few thousand dol
lars aside with his foot with the most
nonchalant air Sometimes II was act
ually trod under foot. Never before In
government circles in Hawaii has
money been so spurned and carelessly
loked after. Had 1t been so much
waste paper 1t could not have beer
treated with so little concern. Had
King Kalakaua been alive and on his
throne those employees would have beer
more careful of the money, but as Ka-
lakaua is dead and the monarchy is
dead also, the money is treated with
absolutely no consideration as to its
face value.
No wonder, for the money has NO
value to day, except as relics. 1t was
good money during the monarchy. With
the passing of the Hawaiian King LON
and the erection of the Republic rpon
it's ruins, and eventually the establish
ment of Hawaii as a Territory of the
American Union, the money became
null and void.
. These shinplasters are little more
than two inches wide and four inches
long. They were laid away In the
treasury vaults in sheets containing
sheets where each shinplaster repre-
sented $3.50, making each sheet worth
$500. A bunch of sixty sheets repre-
scented value of 100000 1t was such
a bunch that was kicked aside. Then
there was an armful of shinplasters of
the value of $50 per plaster. There
We're perhaps hundreds of thousands of
dollars worth of money in lesser de-
nominations than the $3.50 ones. In
fact there was money to burn, for in
all probability the stuff will shortly be
converted into smoke and ashes at an
official bonfire presided over by the
Territorial Archivarian and Territorial
Treasurer.
Then there We're great blanket sheets
of bonds, the remnants of the famous
London loan of million dollars which
was negotiated by Col. George w. Mac
farlane. These bonds were elaborate
and bore a handsome vignette of King
Kalakaua. This was the loan of 1886
Each bond represents 100 pounds ster
ling, or did, and there was a great ar
ray of coupons attached to each. There
were many thousands of dollars rep
resented by this batch of bonds.
Then there was "a common wooden
box Inside We're small tin cans and
in each was coin die. From this
collection of dies was coined the Ha-
waiian silver currency, since called in.
There We're dies-face and reverse-of
10, rs and 80 cent, and one dollar pieces.
The face die are mutilated. The coun-
tenance of Kalakaua has a deep cash
across his Misunderstanding counten-
ance. The Hawaiian coins were minted
at San Francisco.
All this stuff came from an old safe
in the Tax Assessors vault and yes
terday and the day before were clean
ing days. Tax Assessor Holt, Deputies
Medley, King and Wilder shaved in the
dirty interior and fairly reveled In
no-good money and royal junk.
Among the royal junk was the fam
GUS crown of the Kalakaua dynasty.
This crown after the fall of the mon-
archy had an interesting career 1t
was discovered that the, gems in it had
been plucked and that the crown was
practically worthless in that state. 1t
was finally ascertained that a soldier
of the Republic had done the robbing.
The plundered crown was sent over to
the Archives building the other day.
Then a fine silver service which was
presented by France to King Kalaka-
ua, was found. 1t is unmarked by the
usual royal coat-of-arms and has no
clear identification with the former
is the set, nevertheless.
letter in faded envelope was
found which contained some interest
ing reports, The face of the envelope
bore the following inscription:
His Royal Highness,
prince l.. Kamehameha,
"Actg. Minister of Finance.
Papers in regard to the Custom House
Robbery, 1858"
There were several reports in the let
ter all bearing on the famous robbery
case. In this instance some consider
able sums of money disappeared from
the Custom House between Saturday
night and Sunday morning.
Then a large check book was found.
This proved to be filled with checks
all signed by John NJ. Kapena, Min
lister of Finance, in blank. All that the
clerks had to do was to fill out a check
for whatever amount was necessary
and 1t became like ready cash.