Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 157, 7 July 1894 — HAWAII’S “BLUE” LAWS [ARTICLE]

HAWAII’S “BLUE” LAWS

CONSTITUTION and LAWS Framed by the Missionaries. LAWS of the HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 18. RESPECTING Landlords. Reflect well, all ye landlords of the kingdom, on all the regulations of this law, lest you be dispossessed, according to the principles of the eleventh section. Search for your wealth on your own labor days, search out such kinds of business as will enrich the country, and those tenants who live upon the lands under you, that the high and the low may be under the like subjection to the same laws enacted by the chiefs for the protection of the kingdom. On the second year after the promnlgation of this law. whieh isthe | year on whieh a full jx>ll tax is paid, those landlords who do not belong to tho uational eonneil shall pay to the King one tenth part of all the avails of their labor days. On the I vear whieh pays but a half tax on the poll, the landlords shall pay to the King one fifth of their ineome, and this shall be a perpetual tax of the kingdom on the land!ords. ' having an anuual change in the proportiou. % 19. Respecting Officeks to be Appoixted Axew. This explanatory section is foi nll thoso ollicers that are newly appointed to enforco these laws of the kiugdoro, and also for all thoso who are called officors. You are appointed as persons to assign labors in porfect accordance with the requireraents of tbis law. If yon see tbe chiofs, Iandlords, or any other people doing that whieh is forbidden in tbis law, you are to give them correct inforraation of the crime they are committing—tho enmo of seizing thoso ar ticles whieh are said to belong to the eommon people. You are to give notice of those acts whieh not being well uuderj stood, aml lia’ole to invo!ve tho actors in difficultv, that the id!er is to be punished with hunger and poverty—that it is the duty of the people to labor for that property whieh is appropriate to the several farms all round the island—to snperintend the numbering of tbo people, including ehildren and feeble persons, also the deatbs and births in eaeh vear—to search ont a course by whieh those parents who . have a mnltitnde of children, may retain thera without having them separated from eaeh other, and by whieh an individual baving the charge of several feeble persons may be able to support them—to consult with the landlords as to what kind of production is most appropriate to their several lands, according to the suggestions of this law—to reflect well on the meaua by whieh the amounl of property may be increased eaeh year above that of the preceding, that it may be ascertained also whether there really i» an inoreaso of property on the islands or not. 20. Tabooed Akticles ox the Mouxtaixs. Of all the things whieh grow spontaneously on the mountams, the landlord ean taboo nothing for himsolf, except one kind of timber; tbis however does not apply to timber prepared by tbe band of man; tbat is his. If any ol the eommon people take tbe timber whieh the landlord had tabooed for himself, be shall pay one of every two sticks to the land!ord, however many he may bave taken. His Majesty the King taboos the saudal wood for himself. The visitors of the mountains shall not tonch tbat timber, until sucb time as the King shall say, when ali the people may i cut it by paying two thirds to the King, reserving one tbird to themselves. He aiso taboos all large trees such as one man cannot clasp. That tree shall not be felled for nothing. It may be cut for eanoee, paddles, and such great works as small timber will not answer for. The landiord or tax officer must be previously notified, but no other person. Whoever violates tbe taboo on those trees, and fells withont reason a large tree, or breaks down tbe small shoots of sandal wood in the monntains, ahall be fined one bnndred j rafters eaeh five yards long. But if tbe mau. be furnisbed I with a wbip-saw, tbey are tbe third class of persons who may cut Iarge trees of the forest, but not sandal wood. Bnt there is one tbing tbat is taboo on all tbe monntains of tbe land. that is, to kindle fire« and burn up all the verdnro uf tbe monntains. Wboever does tbis shali be punished aecording to the aggravation of tne oflence. If tbe crime be small the fine abal! be Iess, if large tben he shall be fined by bemg pnt to hard labor for two years and a half. Sach is the pnniahmeni of all who kindle fires on the monntains.

(To Bi Continxud. %