The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-01-22

ganic Act has been amended nun.
Der of times already. 1t is best not
to tinker with it too much, ] think,
and to include at the present time as
much as we think is clearly necessary.
1t is no easy thing to draft bill, es-
peeially one on a complicated OF diff
cult subject. ] must plead guilty to
having drafted the greater part of this
! bill. On the steamer, / consulted Mr..
Newell and Judge Ballou upon the pre-
liminary draft, and in Washington
went over it at great length with our
Delegate to Congress and Mr.. McClel-
Ian, and in some measure with Mr..
Hatch. though l did not have the op'
portunity to go over the entire bill
with him. / went over it also in de.
tail with Secretary Garfield. If there
is any censure to be attached, / wish
to bear it all; if there is any credit,
/ wish to share it with these other
gentlemen to whom / am indebted for
valuable suggestions. My general pur-
pose or aim was to put in the things
which seemed to be of immediate press.
! ing importance or might at any time
prove to be of pressing Importance, and
to omit such matters are were not of
sufficient importance to Justify amend
! ing the act, although there were n
number of such that | thought it would
| be very well to have; also, as far as
possible, to eliminate such matters as
might be the subject of decided diff
ference of opinion either at this end
or ut the other end of the line, so as
not to endanger the whole act and so
as to make it as far as possible repre-
sentative of public sentiment.
| Now, in accordance with the sugges'
| ton made by the President, l will take
up the act section by section. | might
| say, however, that the act suppose it
has been printed here, but | do not
know whether il has been printed in
full or not--is not at the present time in
quite its final condition so far as l have
had to do with it. ! filed brief after
my oral argument before the Senate
and House committees suggesting sew,
eral changes in the printed form and
since then / have left other changes
with the Delegate to be presented in
case it should seem best.
/ Section No. /.
| The first section, as you know, is of
rather a blind nature. 1t amends sec
ton D of the Organic Act, which is the
| section which extends to Hawaii the
constitution and laws of the United
States but only so far as applicable and
which expressly excerpts two sections of
the Revised Statutes of the United
States. Now, it was thought desirable
that other portions of the laws of the
United States should also be excepted
for the purpose of removing uncertainty
as to whether they apply to Hawaii OF
not. A commission was appointed in
pursuance of an Act of Congress some
years ago to codify and revise the laws
of the United States. This commission
has made a final report and 1t has recon.
mended that, among other things, Con.
gress should provide that all of these
laws should be deemed not to apply to
Hawaii, This section was framed in
this general way partly for brevity
because the list of these laws is a long
one, and partly for convenience, because
they are all collected in this one place
in the report of the code commission
and it can readily be seen just wha'
they are and partly because it calls n
tention to the fact that n disinterestcd
body was of the opinion that these laws
should not apply to Hawaii. But there
is this objection to that form, namely
that that report is not as widely distrib
uted ms might be desired and some peo
pie might find little difficulty in get
ting at it. And so, especially at the
suggestion of the House committee.
prepared more definite form, stating
expressly what laws of the United
States should he excepted. These laws
are, in general. sections 1871 to 1896
of the Revised Statutes, which relate
to the organization and powers of the
three branches of governmcnt-eXecu
tive, legislative and judicial. 1t in
cludcs also certain other statutes re
lating to bonded indebtedness. loca
government, special laws, and the hold
ing of land by aliens. These parts o
the laws of the United States. | think
would probably be held not to apply t
Hawaii but there is great uncertaint
ms to whether that would be the case,
DR.. Cofer's Case.
To illustrate: you remember that i
july question was raised as to tn
validity of DR.. Cofer's appointment q
president of the Board of Health
was claimed that these general provi
ions in the laws purporting to appl
TO all territories, but passed with specii
reference to Arizona and New Mexic
prohibited Federal officer from holt
ing commission under the Territori
government. Our own Organic Act ha
provisions upon the same subject as
what officers should hold other Office
My own opinion was that the specii
provisions of the Organic Act were e
elusive upon that subject and that Il
general provisions did not apply.
wrote for an opinion on that in Was
ington and was sustained in it, But
the same time there is room for d
ference of opinion upon that and the
is no telling whether, if DIR, Golfer, +
instance, should be reappointed pre-
dent of the Board of Health, some la
yer might not raise the question a
bring il into court and the court mig
decide adversely. The same situati
applies to number of other officials
this Territory. DIR. Norgaard, for
stance, who is serving under both GO
ernments. That is just one instance.
Territorial Bonds.