The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-11
ATKINSON
GOES AWAY
Leaves in S. S. China
on Two Months
Leave.

The Territory of Hawaii will be be-
reft of its Secretary for gthe space of
two months. There is no provision of
law either, for a substitute, or an
acting-Secretary, as Governor Carter
pointed out yesterday when asked
about it.
This is goodby for a while Secre-
tary Atkinson said to the Advertisers
Capitol reporter yesterday afternoon
as. coming down stairs, he shook hands
with the newsgatherer.
II cave by the China tomorrow
morning for a visit to the mainland.
"No, l am not going to the Azores
to find StasEable or his labor immigra-
ton recruits. This is matter of
private business. / am not in the public
eye for the time being, so it does not
matter.
Il may be away three weeks per-
haps longer. From San Francisco pos
sibly 1 may go TO yancouver-pos-
sibly L may go East
Governor Carter, when Mr.. Atkin-
sons intended departure was mem
toned to him later. stated that Secre-
tary Atkinson had two-month leave
kof absence.
There will be no acting Secretary"
the Governor said in reply to a ques-
ton. The law does not provide for
one"
So, in the abstract even, the absence
of the Secretary from duty causes
gap of some gravity in the executive
family. More SO than the absence Of
the Governor, abstractly speaking, for
the Organic Act provides (Sec. 70):
'That in case of the death, removal,
resignation or disability of the COVER
nor, or his absence from the Territory,
the secretary shall exercise all the
powers and perform all the duties Of
governor during such vacancy. dis
ability, or absence, or until another
governor is appointed and qualified"
Respecting his own particular duties
the Secretary may better be spared
just now, probably, than at other
junctures in the territorial biennial
period. His duties take just a dozen
lines in the Organic Act to specify. He
has to r'record and preserve all the
laws and proceedings of the legislature
and all acts and proceedings of the
governor. and promulgate proclama-
tions of the governor" Part of the
functions just mentioned is to trans
nit the laws and journals of the leg1s-
lature to the President and other high
Federal officials in Washington. Then,
semi-annually. he has to transmit to-
the President copy of the executive
proceedings Finally, he shall per-
form such other duties as are prescrib-
ed in the Organic Act ''or as may be
required of him by the legislature OF
Hawaii"
All that the Legislature has required
of him cannot in an instant be recalled
For one thing he is ex-officio president
of the Board of immigration, but that
body can hold meetings without his
visible presidency.
Probably there will be no 'proclama-
tions of the governor which cannot
be deferred over Secretary Atkinson s
two months leave. and he may easily
catch up with the recording of the
proceedings of the governor" after
his return. with a rubber stamp o. K.
on the records that, undoubtedly, will
have been sedulously and faithfully
kept in the meantime by Private Sec
retary Creedon and Chief Clerk Buck
land.
Anyway he has been away before
on various occasions doing big public
business, and. now that he is going to
have a weIl-earned sixty days off, the
community can easily cheerily wish
him godspeed and safe return. Secre-
tary Atkinson abroad will be whole
urornotion committee in himself.