1040-1041
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own personal efforts or something that grew out of some investment he made, could exercise the right of suffrage or could vote for a member of the house of nobles.
The Chairman. Did you find when you got to Honolulu that the question of returning to the old regime-the old method of appointing nobles-was one of the subjects under discussion by the people?
Mr. Reeder. Yes, sir; that was it.
The Chairman. Who was contending for that?
Mr. Reeder. The Queen and native party.
The Chairman. You speak of the native party. Do you mean all the natives?
Mr. Reeder. Let me explain that. The heads of the departments were Americans or the descendants of Americans, and their employes, as a rule, were natives.
The Chairman. You are speaking of the Queen's cabinet?
Mr. Reeder. No; I am speaking of the heads of the departments.
The Chairman. These were appointed by the Queen's administration?
Mr. Reeder. The heads of the departments?
The Chairman. Yes.
Mr. Reeder. I do not know how they got their appointments.
The Chairman. They were not elected by the people?
Mr. Reeder. No.
The Chairman. Therefore they must have been appointed by the Crown or the Legislature. I suppose they were appointed by the Crown.
Mr. Reeder. I do not know about that-how they received their appointments. The men who were in the employ were, as a rule, favorable to the Government; that is, the government which had found its authority in the constitution of 1887. Then you will find a good many Americans who were doing business in the city, and who, if they had clerks, as a rule those clerks would talk for the Government. That was the native part that was talking for the Government and that part of the natives. That is my experience.
The Chairman. I suppose you do not know, not being acquainted with any of the people, what was the sentiment among the common, ordinary Kanakas on that question?
Mr. Reeder. Yes; I do.
The Chairman. State how you found it.
Mr. Reeder. The larger body of the native people talked for native rule, and felt aggrieved because it had passed into the hands of the Americans. I had two sources of information: There was one place situated on the corner of Nuuanu avenue and Beretania street, which had been in the early years a place of resort for the Crown or Government. It was called Emma House or Emma Square. It is now occupied particularly as the headquarters of the common Kanakas. That is one of the places where I daily went. They keep a sort of reading room, and the natives would gather to discuss their affairs, and I could hear the sentiment there of a good deal of the middle or lower classes of Kanakas.
The Chairman. Did a good many of them assemble there?
Mr. Reeder. Yes; a good many.
The Chairman. Who spoke English?
Mr. Reeder. Yes; a good many who did. Then I made it a subject of inquiry; if any man was a prominent man, I asked what he said.
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The Chairman. What purpose had you in studying these problems of politics in Hawaii?
Mr. Reeder. That is one of the things I like, to find out what is going on.
The Chairman. Was that the purpose for which you were there?
Mr. Reeder. I write sometimes for the newspapers.
The Chairman. Are you a correspondent for a newspaper?
Mr. Reeder. I could not say that I was a hired correspondent; I wrote some articles and sent them home.
The Chairman. What paper did you send them to?
Mr. Reeder. I sent them to our papers. I am quite well acquainted with the people of the Cedar Rapids Republican and the Cedar Rapids Times.
The Chairman. Then you were gaining information for the purpose of being able to write those letters to the newspapers?
Mr. Reeder. Yes; I do not want to say that, but it was one of the things looked to.
The Chairman. But you had no connection politically with any thing in Hawaii?
Mr. Reeder. No.
The Chairman. No business connection with anybody?
Mr. Reeder. No; not a thing above ground.
The Chairman. Simply a tourist looking over the country?
Mr. Reeder. Yes.
The Chairman. Do you think from the people you heard speaking at this meeting room which you have mentioned, and your imperfect knowledge of the Hawaiian tongue, you could gather the real sentiment of the Kanaka population on the subject of this lottery?
Mr. Reeder. I do not know whether I could say that much or not. I do not understand that the lottery business was extensively discussed amongst them-that is, the middle and lower classes.
The Chairman. Those you heard speak of it, were they in favor of or against the lottery?
Mr. Reeder. Some of them-they were divided; I think a good many of them were opposed to it.
The Chairman. I suppose it was really a question between public morality and governmental revenue?
Mr. Reeder. Yes; those were the points.
The Chairman. The white people, men of business and men of property, were opposed to using that scheme for the purpose of raising revenue?
Mr. Reeder. I think so; I think that was true.
The Chairman. On moral grounds?
Mr. Reeder. Yes.
The Chairman. Did you detect any other movement, or anything in what they did or said to indicate that they had any purpose of trying to deprive the Hawaiian people of any just right that they might wish to enjoy, and from which they might derive a profit; or were they really in good earnest in trying to preserve proper morality in the administration of Government?
Mr. Reeder. I had no reason to suspect that they were dishonest. I had no reason to suppose that they opposed the scheme of lottery on any other grounds than that. It might have been to the Government a source of revenue; but they opposed it somehow or other.
The Chairman. There was an opium bill pending before that Legislature while you were there?
S. Doc. 231, pt 6----66
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