Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 189, 8 May 1891 — Was the Reform a Failure? [ARTICLE]

Was the Reform a Failure?

Any movement or attempt that fails to produce the expected effect cannot be considered a success. lf the "Reform" had any honest aim it never attained it, and it has not produced a single ripe reform. The avowed object was to give the people some of the powers that belongs to them by divine right, and to secure a responsible government. How completely the reform failed in this we have frequently pointed out. The King's power was abridged—but to what advantage? Before, he ruled the land; now, he appoints four rulers. The King could do no wrong; the cabinet can, but no one can call them to account for it. They are as far out of the reach of justice as the King's self. If they are corrupt, they are in a position not only to escape punishment but also to wreak vengeance on any one bold enough to say they are corrupt. The party carried with it many honest, intelligent men who formed the bone and sinew of the whole movement. If these had been duly considered and given some share the spoils of victory the party might have escaped defeat in the last election. But the leaders instated their kin and friends and left in office a number of dishonest and incompetent individuals whose position gave them a pull, though they had been opposed to any reform that might diminish the pleasures and profits of office holding.

The Reform did not give a popular form of government, did not make officers responsible, did not purify the public service, and was defeated at the first election according to the very provisions in its constitution that had been inserted to secure it in perpetual power. What a record of failure! Further its organ, the "P. C. Advertiser" is silenced by a small sop in way of "By Author-

ity" advertisements from the present scrub cabinet so that the defunct reform has not even a voice raised in its defense. Still a reform was and is a crying need. We did not favor the reform move ment of 1887 because a revolutionary resort to force a fraud, and because it was in no wise a sincere effort to improve the government. The reforms we need are hard to secure primarily because of a lack of a healthy moral tone. Opium, gin, slave dealing; bribery, jobs and corruption of justice are not vigorously condemned even by those christian people who do not directly profit by these nefarious practices—the guilty ones h are not ostracised. Speak evil of no one. Smooth it over, whitewash it, forget and forgive: reform has not yet been, and the tune thereof is not yet.