Speeches of His Majesty Kamehameha IV. To the Hawaiian Legislature Part 4

n.o.bLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:--I have convoked you to meet this day under the provision of our Const.i.tution now in force, which provides for an Annual Session of the Legislative Body; and with humble thankfulness to the Ruler of Nations, I felicitate you upon the prosperity which has attended us, as a people, during the past year.

I am happy to inform you that since your last meeting I have received from the Heads of nearly all the first cla.s.s Powers of the present century, a.s.surances of friendship, accompanied, in some instances, with promises of a.s.sistance should occasion require it. Never did I consider our hope of stability as a nation so well founded as they are at this moment.

One of the most important features in my Foreign Relations during the past year, is that of the Mission upon which my Special Envoy, the Honorable William L. Lee, proceeded to Washington, where he was most cordially received, and whose exertions have been attended with the happiest results. They have opened, in the minds of our agriculturists and those who study the progress of our people as producers, hopes, which only need the confirmation of the Senate of the United States to become permanently realized, and greatly conducive to our prosperity.

Negotiations have, for some time past, been in progress between my Ministers of Foreign Relations and Finance, and the Commissioner of the Emperor of France, for a new Treaty between that Sovereign and myself. For farther particulars regarding my Relations abroad, I refer you to the Report of my Minister of that Department.

My Minister of War will furnish you a Report showing the appropriation, necessary to be made for the support of the Military during the ensuing year.

The administration of Justice, during the past year, especially in the higher Courts of Judicature, has been such as to give general satisfaction.

Respecting the business of the Judiciary Department, I would refer you to the Report of my Chancellor. The measures he proposes are worthy of being seriously deliberated upon, and I earnestly recommend to your early consideration that for the suppression of intoxication. It is painful to notice the increase of this evil in Honolulu, arising princ.i.p.ally from the sale of cheap and noxious compounds. In connection with this subject, I would call your attention to the evil arising from the sale of opium to Chinese Coolies, which, unless speedily checked, I fear may spread among our own race.

In the Report of my Minister of the Interior you will not fail to observe a valuable suggestion proposing a fundamental change in the appointment of the officers intrusted with the making and preserving of our public roads. It is to the effect that persons chosen for their ability be appointed by the executive, in lieu of the Superintendents elected at present by the tax payers of each district, a system the experience of several years has proved to be accompanied with many abuses.

I recommend to your notice the several other points contained in that Report, especially that asking for an authorization to grant t.i.tle Deeds to persons who have proved their claims before the Land Commission, but received no Patents, in consequence of surveys not having been made of the Kuleanas to which they were ent.i.tled, and to Konohikis whose lands are described in the Book of Division, but who have not received their Awards. Also, the continuation of the Inter-island Mail Carrier service, and, above all, an appropriation for the purchase of a proper steamer, to a.s.sist intercourse between the Islands of this group, and encourage industry.

You will perceive by the detailed Report of my Minister of Finance that the liabilities of my Treasury have been promptly discharged and the public credit fully sustained, notwithstanding the large expenditure made for important public improvements. The law for the more just and equal collection of Taxes, pa.s.sed at your last Session, has operated favorably on the national finances, although I am of opinion that some alterations in its provisions would still further improve it.

In addition to the ordinary expenses of the Government, you will see the necessity of appropriations sufficient to complete the public works already commenced, even though it should be necessary to resort to the loan authorized by the law of the last Session.

My Minister of Finance has also called your attention to the important subject of a Usury law, which I commend to your favorable consideration.

He has likewise alluded to a proposed mode of payment for the steamer before mentioned, which may, I trust, preclude all embarra.s.sment to my Treasury.

You cannot, at present, regard the law imposing duties on imports pa.s.sed at your last Session, as a basis for appropriations, because it is uncertain whether it will go into effect.

The state and progress of Education among my people during the past year, you will learn from the Report of the President of the Board of Education. The change in that Department, by an Act of the last Legislature, has proved, thus far, to be beneficial. It is particularly gratifying to know that instruction in the English language is prosecuted with so much success among my native subjects. I recommend you to make as liberal a provision for the support of this cla.s.s of schools as the state of my Treasury will admit.

I feel so keenly the necessity of some new stimulus to agriculture, in all its branches, that I very seriously call your attention to that point, and shall be happy if in your wisdom you can devise any measures to promote so important an object. The Native Hawaiian Agricultural Society, lately inst.i.tuted, needs your fostering care in the form in which you have manifested it towards the sister a.s.sociation. The decrease of our population, and the means of staying it, occupy many of my thoughts; and a subject so important cannot fail to receive your serious consideration. Intimately connected with the subject last alluded to, is the still unaccomplished wish of all the true friends of the nation to see a Hospital established, and I sincerely hope that those who have foretold difficulties opposed to the success of such an inst.i.tution, will at last allow the experiment to be made.

Fearful, as we all must be, of the introduction of any new diseases to decimate us again, I beg of you to consider by what means, under Providence, such a calamity may be averted.

I sincerely trust that the Ruler of all will guide your deliberations to a result beneficial to the nation.

MAY 24, 1856.

_Reply by His Majesty to the Congratulations offered by the House of Representatives upon His approaching Marriage._

It is with much pleasure that I receive the congratulations of the Representatives of my People, upon the contemplated event of my marriage. Your voice is that of the Nation speaking through its Representatives, and it is a great satisfaction to me to have your approval of the important step I am about to take.

You express the hope that the union may be the means of perpetuating our Sovereignty and promoting the welfare of the nation, and I sincerely unite with you in that hope.

In conclusion, I thank you, Representatives, for the kind, prompt and unanimous manner in which you have responded to my Message.

JUNE 11, 1856.

_His Majesty's Speech upon Proroguing the Session of the Legislature of 1856._

n.o.bLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:--At the close of a Session which has been marked by so much unanimity as that about to terminate, and during which so much that displays the wisdom essential to success in legislation has been observable, I cannot but feel a gratification in meeting you.

The appropriations you have made for the expenses of my Government during the next two years, and the zeal you have displayed to render especially efficient the Bureau of Public Works, meet with my sincere approval.

In the matter of one appropriation only, do I entertain any doubts; but if by any possibility the military establishment can be maintained upon such a scale as to ensure a promise of security, no exertions will be wanting on the part of my Government to do so, without overstepping the amount by you provided.

To the members of the House of Representatives I would express my sincere acknowledgments for the readiness with which they have interpreted the public feeling, and provided for my establishment under the new relations which I am about to a.s.sume.

I have no expectations that any necessity will arise for calling you together before the stated session of 1858, and I trust that the interim will be full of prosperity to you and the nation, the blessing of G.o.d making fruitful those exertions from which I now release you by proroguing the session.

NOVEMBER 3, 1856.

THANKSGIVING.

PROCLAMATION BY THE KING.

We, Kamehameha, King of the Hawaiian Islands, hereby issue our Proclamation agreeably to former custom, that:

Whereas, during the year now drawing to a close, we have enjoyed, as a people, numerous and great blessings; peace and tranquility have prevailed throughout our islands; we have been not only free from dangers from abroad, but have continued to enjoy the most friendly a.s.surances of protection in our independence from the most powerful governments in the world; although the times have been hard through the scarcity of money, and our people have suffered from a drought almost unparalleled, neither our agriculture nor commerce has entirely failed; both begin to revive; the crops in most places have been good; perhaps we have never enjoyed a year of more general health; our laws have been sustained; religion and education have been free and prosperous: For all of which numerous and invaluable blessings we owe, as a nation, a formal, general and heartfelt tribute of thanksgiving to the Almighty, on whose favor all prosperity, whether individual or national, depends.

We do, therefore, with the advice and consent of our Privy Council of State, designate and recommend Thursday, the 25th day of December next, as a day of general and public Thanksgiving to G.o.d, our Heavenly Father, throughout our islands; and we earnestly invite all good people to a sincere and prayerful observance of the same.

Done at our Palace this 3d day of November, A. D., 1856.

KAMEHAMEHA.

DECEMBER 9, 1856.

_His Majesty's Address at the Stone Church, before the Meeting of the Native Agricultural Society, from the_ =Polynesian= _of Dec. 13._

Our reporter caught only some of the more prominent ideas embodied in the King's address, which was delivered in the pure idiom of the elder chiefs, by which device he connected, as it were, modern science with ancient feeling. His train of discourse was nearly as follows:

It were useless, his Majesty said, to make further suggestions, for to hear is not always to obey. If only a tenth part of all the practical hints that had been given from time to time, by persons standing where he then stood, had been systematically pursued, the usefulness of the Society would have been more apparent. Not but that the Society had done much good, and awakened an interest, in the minds of many besides its members, which might be considered as the dawn of a brighter day. His intention was briefly to examine the actual condition of agriculture science and practice; to show, not what we might be, but what we are.