The Hawaiian Gazette

BLUNDERBUSS EXPLODES.

The paper which discovered that George Carter was defeated by a "heavy vote" in the late election, despite the contrary showing of the returns, now lets its genius for knowing things that are not so apply to the land issue. Hence this diverting series of blunders:

The giant stroke which shall do all of these things is a question of state, a thing of beauty and a joy forever if it happens to work, and that is the inaugural address of Sanford B. Dole as Governor of the Territory. It is away and above the treaty of annexation and the public land laws of the United States of America, all of which are of about the value of so much white paper. The point is that when Congress passed a very explicitly worded resolution that the lands of Hawaii should be a part of the American public domain those insignificant and ill-informed male servants of the American people did not know what Mr. Dole's inaugural address was going to be. He could have told them but he probably did not want to say much at the time or to let them know that he was going to have Mr. McKinley appoint him Governor.

But that does not make any difference, for as long as the inaugural address has been delivered, the treaty and the land laws will have to stand aside.

It happens that the "treaty of annexation" which our blunderbuss contemporary imagines to be identical with the joint resolution of annexation and the Territorial Act came to nothing.

Every Island school boy in the upper grades ought to know so much of the recent local history of our times and to be aware, furthermore, that the "public land laws of America" do not apply here. Sec. 73 of the organic law says:

That the laws of Hawaii relating to public lands, the settlement of boundaries and the issuance of patents on land commission awards, except as changed by this Act, shall continue in force until Congress shall otherwise provide.

The changes made are partly in phraseology, partly in regard to the time limit of leases, the exclusion of land reserved by executive order for Government purposes, etc. In no respect has the administration of our public lands been turned over to the United States Land Commissioner, and the income from sales and leases is set apart for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Territory. If the "treaty" and the American land law were set aside, as they certainly were, Congress is the guilty party and should have the reproof of our scattering contemporary rather than Governor Dole.