V. REPORT ON "MISSIONARY LANDS," AND COMPARATIVE TABLE Certain applications having been made to the Hawaiian government for land, by several members of the Missionary Board residing on the Islands, the subject was laid before the Hawaiian Legislature, at its session of 24th June, 1851. In view of these applications, the King's Privy Council Resolved, "That the committee to whom were referred the applications of missionaries for lands be requested to take into consideration the whole subject of granting lands to missionaries, and report to this Council the course that in their view should be pursued hereafter in regard to them." The undersigned present the following statement, which they have carefully prepared from the best data that they have been able to collect. The undersigned, under the resolution above quoted, are most conscientious in declaring to your majesty, that the respectable and well-deserving individuals and families above named, who neither hold nor have applied for land, would have great reason to complain were your majesty to pursue toward them a different course from that which has been pursued in relation to their brethren who have obtained and applied for land. It becomes, therefore, a matter of some importance what that course has been. The missionaries who have received and applied for lands have neither received nor applied for them without offering what they conceived to be a fair consideration for them. So far as their applications have been granted, your majesty's government have dealt with them precisely as they have dealt with other applicants for land—that is, they have accepted the price where they considered it fair, and they have raised it where they considered it unfair. It will not be contended that missionaries, because they are missionaries, have not the same right to buy land in the same quantities and at the same prices as those who are not missionaries. The question occurs, Have greater rights been allowed to the missionary applicants than to non-missionary applicants? To solve this question satisfactorily requires that the undersigned should give some statistics. But, besides what is strictly due to them, in justice and in grati tude for large benefits conferred by them on your people, every consideration of sound policy, under the rapid decrease of the native population, is in favor of holding out inducements for them not to withdraw their children from these islands. One of the undersigned strongly urged that consideration upon your majesty in Privy Council so far back as the 28th of May, 1847, recommending that a formal resolution should be passed, declaring the gratitude of the nation to the missionaries for the services they had performed, and making some provision for their children. Your majesty's late greatly lamented Minister of Public Instruction, Mr. Richards, with that disinterestedness which characterized him personally in all his worldly interests, was fearful that to moot such a question would throw obloquy upon the reverend body to which he had belonged, and hence, to the day of his death, he abstained from moving it. Neither has any missionary, or any one who had been connected with the mission, ever taken it up to this day; but the undersigned, who are neither missionaries, nor have ever been connected with them, hesitate not to declare to your majesty that it will remain, in all future history, a stain upon this Christian nation if the important services of the missionaries be not acknowledged in some unequivocal and substantial manner. This acknowledgment should not be a thing implied or secretly understood, but openly and publicly declared. The undersigned would recommend that the following, or some similar resolutions, should be submitted to the Legislature. 1. Resolved, That all Christian missionaries who have labored in the cause of religion and education in these islands, are eminently benefactors of the Hawaiian nation. 2. Resolved, That, as a bare acknowledgment of these services, every individual missionary who may have served eight years on the Islands, whether Protestant or Catholic, who does not already hold five hundred and sixty acres of land, shall be allowed to purchase land to that extent at a deduction of fifty cents on every acre from the price that could be obtained from lay purchasers; but that for all land beyond that quantity, he must pay the same price as the latter would pay; and that those who have served less than eight years be allowed to purchase land on the same terms as laymen, until the completion of the eight years, after which they are to be allowed the same favor as the others. 3. Resolved, That all Christian missionaries serving on these islands shall be exempt from the payment of duties on goods imported for their use in the proportion following, for every year, viz.: on goods to the invoice value of one hundred dollars for every active member of the mission, excluding servants. On goods to the value of thirty dollars for every child above two years of age. (Signed), Privy Council Chamber, August 19th, 1850. R. C. WYLLIE, [The following is a list of the quantities of land, and the price per acre, to ten non-missionary individuals; and of the quantities of land, and the price per acre, to ten individuals belonging to the clergy of the American Protestant Mission:] -From the "Polynesian" of 7th May, 1852. [With all due deference to the statistics of the Hon. R. C. WYLLIE, Minister of Foreign Relations, and to KEONI ANA, the then Minister of the Interior, it remains for me to say that the above table is extremely limited. It might have been extended to a much greater length, and then it would have shown to what extent the missionaries are owners of real estate.] TREATIES AND MANIFESTOES RELATING TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. Visit of the French Frigate l'Artemise. The French frigate l'Artemise, C. Laplace commander, arrived at Oahu, July 9th, commissioned to settle the difficulties existing between the government of France and the King of the Sandwich Islands. The purport of the visit is best set forth in the subjoined manifesto, as published in the Sandwich Island Gazette, July 13th, 1839, addressed by Captain Laplace, in the name of his government, to the King of the Sandwich Islands: Laplace's Manifesto. "His majesty, the King of the French, having commanded me to come to Honolulu in order to put an end, either by force or persuasion, to the ill treatment to which the French have been victims at the Sandwich Islands, I hasten, first, to employ the last means as the most conformable to the political, noble, and liberal system pursued by France against the powerless, hoping thereby that I shall make the principal chiefs of these islands understand how fatal the conduct which they pursue toward her will be to their interests, and perhaps cause disasters to them and to their country should they be obstinate in their perseverance. Misled by perfidious counselors, deceived by the excessive indulgence which the French government has extended toward them for several years, they are undoubtedly ignorant how potent it is, and that in the world there is not a power which is capable of preventing it from punishing its enemies, otherwise they would have endeavored to merit its favor, or not to incur its displeasure, as they have done in ill treating the French. They would have faithfully put into execution the treaties in place of violating them as soon as the fear disappeared, as well as the ships of war which had caused it, whereby bad intentions had been constrained. In fine, they will comprehend that to persecute the Catholic religion, to tarnish it with the name of idolatry, and to expel, under this absurd pretext, the French from this archipelago, was to offer an insult to France and to its sovereign. "It is, without doubt, the formal intention of France that the King of the Sandwich Islands be powerful, independent of every foreign power which he considers his ally, but she also demands that he conform to the usages of civilized nations. Now, among the latter, there is not even one which does not permit in its territory the free toleration of all religions; and yet, at the Sandwich Islands, the French are not allowed publicly the exercise of theirs, while Protestants enjoy therein the most extensive privileges; for these all favors, for those the most cruel persecutions. Such a state of affairs being contrary to the laws of nations, insulting to those of Catholics, can no longer continue, and I am sent to put an end to it. Consequently I demand, in the name of my govenment, "1st. That the Catholic worship be declared free throughout all the dominions subject to the King of the Sandwich Islands; that the members of this religious faith shall enjoy in them all the privileges granted to Protestants. "2d. That a site for a Catholic church be given by the government at Honolulu (a port frequented by the French); and that this church be ministered by priests of their nation. "3d. That all Catholics imprisoned on account of religion, since the last persecutions extended to the French missionaries, be immediately set at liberty. 66 4th. That the King of the Sandwich Islands deposit in the hands of the captain of l'Artemise the sum of twenty thousand dollars, as a guarantee of his future conduct toward France, which sum the government will restore to him when it shall consider that the accompanying treaty will be faithfully complied with. "5th. That the treaty signed by the King of the Sandwich Islands, as well as the sum above mentioned, be conveyed on board the frigate l'Artemise by one of the principal chiefs of the country; and also that the batteries of Honolulu do salute the French flag with twenty-one guns, which will be returned by the frigate. "These are the equitable conditions at the price of which, the King of the Sandwich Islands shall conserve friendship with France. I am induced to hope that, understanding better how necessary it is for the prosperity of his people and the preservation of his power, he will remain in peace with the whole world, and hasten to subscribe to them, and thus imitate the laudable example which the Queen of Tahiti has given in permitting the free toleration of the Catholic religion in her dominions; but if, contrary to my expectation, it should be otherwise, and the king and principal chiefs of the Sandwich Islands, led on by bad counselors, refuse to sign the treaty which I present, war will immediately commence, and all the devastations, all the calamities, which may be the unhappy but necessary results, will be imputed to themselves alone, and they must also pay the losses which the aggrieved foreigners, in these circumstances, shall have a right to claim. (Signed), 66 "C. LAPLACE, 'Captain of the French frigate l'Artemise. "The 10th July (9th according to date here), 1839." |