Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-01-12
JUDGE OUTLINES
SCOPE OF WORK
FOR GRAND JURY
Public Health. Pubic Morals.
Public Safety Matters For
Its Supervision.

After administering the oath OF OF
flee and appointing James Fiddes fore
man OF the new territorial grand jury
for the year lHlI, Circuit Judge {. w.
Ashford Yesterday delivered guam
ltity Of advice. together with some IN
teresting information on criminal
court work in Hawaii. In addition to
his comment as published in the star
Bulletin yesterday, he had the follow
ing to say TO the new inquisitors:
Il take occasion to repeat to you,
what / stated to your immediate pre-
| decessors. TO the effect that the grand
jury should be considered as the
grand inquest of the county or cir
cult in which it operates. This does
not mean that the grand jurors, either
individually or collectively, should
constitute themselves detectives for
the purpose of ferreting out crimes
or irregularities in the community,
either with respect to individuals CT
with the governmental administration.
But it may be taken to mean that your
body is authorized. and is expected to
inquire into, and report upon, any I'M
usual conditions to which your atten-
ton shall be called. either officially
or otherwise, and which appear suf
ticiently important to the Well-being
Of the community, to justify your at
tention.
Official Action Unnecessary.
Thus it is competent and desirable
that the grand jury should observe the
general trend of events in the COM
munity. both official and non-official.
and, if conditions shall occur which
appear to require investigation be-
cause CT their bearing upon the public
interests, from any direction, it is not
only the privilege, but the duty of
the grand jury to investigate, and, if
found Of sufficient importance, to re
port upon, or take other action in the
premises. Among the matters includ-
ed within this general scope of the
functions of your body may be men,
toned those which affect the, public
health, the public morals and the pub
lie safety, upon all Of which the grand
jury should keep an. attentive eye. 1t
is by no means necessary that you
wait for any infractfons of the law to
be brought to your attention through
the medium Of committals from the
district courts or of direct complaints
by the prosecuting officers You
should investigate the administration
of the laws providing for the public
health sufficiently to observe, whether
in your opinion they are being prop
erly and economically administered;
the same with regard to public morals
and the same concerning the public
safety as, chiefly represented by the
administration of the police, Any ap-
parent inefficiency, corruption or ex-
trcVagance in any of those directions
or departments should receive your
immediate attention and lead to inves-
tigation, and. should the facts war
rant, to indictments.
The well-being of the community
Is also largely involved in the honest
and efficient administration of the
laws concerning the furnishing of
pure foodstuffs and those concerning
weights and measures The commun.
1ty may be swindled by the use of
false weights and measures or it may
be poisoned by the use of impure or
adulterated foodstuffs and it is en-
phatfcally within the province of the
grand jury to keep these features of
the public welfare within it's protec
tive attention.
Nationality Statistics.
The extremely cosmopolitan char
acter of our local population has natur-
ally developed in our midst the short
comings of the different elements of
that population The native Hawaiian.
either of pure or mixed blood, now
hnds himself in a minority and out
numbered in his own country. En-.
perience has shown that there is
diversity in the degree
OF lawlessness prevailing among the
dlfterent elements Of our population, |
and the court has been at some pains
70 ascertain, as nearly as possible, to !
what extent the different races here |
resident are represented upon 1.-The ros-
ter OF convicted felons confined in our |
territorial prison en- the LIST dav Of
the present month and year. and Il, {
Iurther ascertain the proportion, Der ,
thousand, of such elements of pOpula-
ton, so represented upon the roll of !,
prisoners convicted CT felonles.
"On the LIST day of January, 1915. |
there were confined in territorial pris-
ons. under sentence for various falo-
1ies, 280 prisoners.
distributed among the different ma
.lonalltles they were as follows:
'Filipinos, IS; Hawaiians. so: Porto
tlcans, 43; Japanese, 10; Chinese. y: !
americans. 20; Portuguese. II; Ko-
'eans. 16: Russians, 2; Spanish, Nor :,
"egian and British, l each.
These figures, taken in connection !
With the total numbers of the different
aces represented upon the roll of
prisoners, shows that the Porto Ri
ans have set the record for lawless-
less Tin so far as such lawlessness
las resulted in conviction for felo-
lles), by very wide margin. The
nest reliable figures obtainable by me