GENTLEMEN OF THE HONOLULU RIFLES:—For the loyal and generous expressions your Captain has offered in your behalf I thank you in the name of the Prince of Hawaii, who doubtless will one day hear in what manner your good wishes were made known on this occasion. For in families it is not uncommon for certain incidents and expressions to become traditional, and I know that neither I nor the Queen can ever cease to cherish the remembrance of the many tokens of good will and sympathy this day manifested, or fail to tell our Son in time to come how the anniversary of his first birth-day was welcomed by the "Honolulu Rifles."



OCTOBER 3D, 1859.

Speech of His Majesty at the Extraordinary Session of the House of Nobles held at the Palace October 3d, 1859.

GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF NOBLES:—I have thought proper to convene you in special session in order to consult on a matter, which in my judgment relates to the highest welfare of the nation. In contemplation of a vacancy in the chief executive office, at all times liable to occur, it is important that the succession to the crown should be definitely established in a constitutional manner. To this subject I invite your attention, in the full confidence that the recommendation I am about to make will receive at your hands a hearty concurrence.

The Constitution points out the mode of procedure to be adopted, and I avail myself of the authority thus vested in me to designate my infant son, the Prince of Hawaii, as my heir and successor to the Throne. Your assent and co-operation in the measure are required, but I do not doubt your ready and loyal support, not only on grounds relating to the stability of the existing dynasty, but from motives intimately connected with the public good.

PROCLAMATION.

KAMEHAMEHA IV., of the Hawaiian Islands, King, to all Our loving subjects, and others to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting:—

Be it known that We, in concurrence with Our House of Nobles, hereby appoint and proclaim Our Son, His Royal Highness the Prince of Hawaii, to be Our Successor and Heir to the Hawaiian Throne.

Done at Our Palace, at Honolulu, this third day of October, in the year of Our Lord 1859, and the fifth year of Our Reign.

(Signed,) KAMEHAMEHA.

(Signed) KAAHUMANU.

By the King and Kuhina Nui. (Signed,) L. KAMEHAMEHA.



MAY 23D, 1860.

The King's Speech to the Legislature of 1860.

NOBLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:—In accordance with the Constitution, I have called you together in Legislative assembly.

It is with pleasure that I make known to you that my relations with Foreign Powers are in an amicable and satisfactory position, and to the Report of my Minister of Foreign Affairs I direct your attention for information in relation to the Department under his care.

The Chief Justice in his Report has given a general view of the administration of the department of law. There are some portions of the report to which I desire to call your special attention. By reference to the comparative view of convictions contained therein, you will observe that two classes of offences against the laws constitute nearly two-thirds of the whole number of convictions. The inevitable effect of these offences is to demoralize and destroy the people, and I would designate as well worthy of your careful consideration and adoption, the recommendations of the Chief Justice in relation to such amendments or alterations of the existing laws as will tend to eradicate or diminish these evils.

The Report of the Minister of the Interior will furnish you with full information in relation to the affairs of his department for the last two years. The financial prospects of the country, as exhibited in the Report of the Minister of Finance, are satisfactory, and I would particularly direct to your favorable consideration his suggestion that provision be made for paying off outstanding liabilities as they become due. I would also call to your attention for careful consideration, his suggestions in relation to the assessments and collection of taxes, and in relation to the transit duties; also to the proposed alteration in the mode of remunerating District Justices.

The all-important subject of Education now occupies the public mind with more than usual interest, and I particularly recommend to your favorable notice the suggestions of the President of the Board of Education, with reference to substituting English for Hawaiian schools, in so far as may be practicable, and also in relation to the granting of Government aid towards independent schools for the education and moral training of females.

Through the laudable efforts of a number of private individuals—whom I take this first public opportunity of thanking—several establishments of this latter description have been instituted during the past year; and although thus far little more than a commencement in the good work has been made, their progress has been satisfactory. I dwell on this subject, Nobles and Representatives, because our very existence as a people depends on the youthful training of the future mothers of our land, and that must not be jeopardized through lack of effort on our part.

To your careful consideration I recommend the proposed amendments to the Constitution, as passed by the last Legislature.

The "Queen's Hospital," at Honolulu, instituted for the relief of the sick and indigent, has now been in operation for nine months, and to this praiseworthy institution I direct your attention, that suitable provision in aid thereof may be made in the biennial estimates, with a view also that branch Dispensaries may be established at other places in the Kingdom.

In conclusion, Nobles and Representatives, I trust that in your deliberations on the necessary business that may come before you, that you will combine care with dispatch, and I will join with you in supplicating the Ruler of all nations for that wisdom which will best direct your efforts.



MAY 30, 1860.

His Majesty's Reply to Rev. W. P. Alexander, on behalf of the "Hawaiian Evangelical Association."

I assure you, gentlemen, that no expression of good will towards myself or my people is necessary on your part; that is well known. Nor need I say that the same confidence and friendly regard which was ever cherished towards you by my predecessors is entertained by myself. The feeling with me is not only personal but hereditary.

In regard to those portions of my speech to the Legislature to which you are pleased to refer, I shall certainly rely upon the co-operation of the clergy in carrying into effect any measures that may be adopted for the suppression of those great evils referred to, and I am confident that I shall have it not only in this but in every other good work.

Gentlemen and ladies, I am always happy to see you, while on these yearly visits to the metropolis.



AUGUST 14, 1860.

His Majesty's Special Message to the House of Nobles and Representatives, delivered by the Royal Commissioners.

KAMEHAMEHA IV., by the Grace of God King of the Hawaiian Islands:

To His Excellency M. KEKUANAOA, Our Governor of Oahu, and the Honorable ELISHA H. ALLEN, Our Chancellor:

GREETING:—We hereby commission you in Our place and stead, to deliver to the Nobles and Representatives, Our Message, touching certain alterations proposed to be made in the Constitution of Our Kingdom: And for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. Given at Our Palace in Honolulu, this Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord 1860, and in the sixth year of Our reign. KAMEHAMEHA.

KAAHUMANU.

At the request of the President, Mr. R. Armstrong read the Royal Message in Hawaiian, after which the Chancellor read the same in English. The following is the English version:

NOBLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:—I called the attention of the last Legislature to the amendments of the Constitution. Experience of the practical operation of that instrument has impressed me with their importance, and in this view that body coincided. But from some omission the publication was not made in conformity to the provision of the Constitution, and hence you have very properly expressed your constitutional inability to pass finally upon the amendments as adopted by them.

Therefore, it has become my duty to call your attention to some of those amendments, as well as others, which a more mature reflection has suggested.

I regard favorably the eligibility of the Ministers to the House of Representatives. The experience of monarchical governments has illustrated the importance of their services to the popular branch. It is a power of selection which may be wisely entrusted to the people to exercise. A property qualification of a limited amount will tend to make the selection from the more substantial men of the Kingdom, and the payment by a salary for their services, I regard as more just than a per diem allowance as now provided. A limited number of appointments to the House of Nobles for a term of years may afford that body valuable aid.

When the Constitution was adopted, its provisions in reference to a successor to the throne, were made with especial reference to my Predecessor, who had no lineal heirs. Additional provisions now seem to be necessary as a protection to the Heir Apparent to the Throne, and so secure beyond reasonable contingencies the stable administration of the sovereignty.

I regard a regency by the Queen, in cases of temporary vacancy of the Throne, or during a minority of the Heir Apparent, as the best means to secure a wise and safe exercise of regal authority, with proper regard to the rights of all persons. It would be a safe depository of power, for no one can feel a more sincere interest for the honor and prosperity of the Kingdom than the Queen Consort, and the mother of the Heir Apparent. Amendments which will secure these objects, you will regard as the part of wisdom to adopt.

There are some minor amendments which will be submitted, to which I do not regard it as essential more particularly to advert. Of their wisdom and propriety I am fully impressed.

Relying upon your wisdom and your devotion to the integrity and prosperity of my Kingdom, I have the most entire confidence that the amendments proposed will receive your most careful consideration.



AUGUST 28, 1860.

His Majesty's Speech at the Prorogation of the Legislature of 1860.

NOBLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:—In meeting you to-day at the close of your session, I have first to ask you to join with me in returning thanks to the Ruler of all nations for His beneficent providence in restoring to health one of your number from that dangerous illness with which he has been afflicted, whose loss would have been a grievous calamity to the welfare of my Kingdom.[B]

I beg to congratulate you on the termination of your labors, and trust that the new enactments passed by your joint wisdom may prove to be for the advantage and welfare of my people.

I have to thank you, Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, for the provisions you have made for the expenses of the State during the current biennial period.

While I regret with you, Nobles and Representatives, that, owing to the near approach to the termination of this session, you have been unable to take final action on the Amendments to the Constitution submitted to you with my late Message, I fully concur in the wisdom of your course—as made known to me by your Joint Committee—in deferring that important subject for that more mature consideration it requires.

Nobles and Representatives, in conformity with the Constitution, I now and hereby do declare this session of the Legislature to be prorogued.

[Footnote B: The King here refers to H. R. H. Prince Kamehameha, who had been dangerously ill.]



NOVEMBER 28, 1860.

Replies of His Majesty to the Addresses of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, on the occasion of the Anniversary of the Joint Declaration by Great Britain and France of the 28th of November, 1843, Recognizing this Kingdom as an Independent State.

His Majesty, in reply to Mr. Perrin, H. I. M.'s Commissioner, expressed himself deeply gratified with the repeated kind offices of the two Governments, whose congratulations had been so happily tendered by His Excellency, and his confidence in the continuation of the same friendly relations.

And to Mr. Green, who had addressed His Majesty on behalf of himself as H. B. M. Acting Commissioner and Consul General, and of the Consular Corps, His Majesty replied:

For the congratulations you have just offered in so genuine a form, that any doubt as to their sincerity would be impossible, I offer you my kind thanks. The Consular corps has always sympathized with me and my people in everything that regards the real and physical prosperity of these islands. Indeed it could not be otherwise, for commerce makes our interests identical. It is with great pleasure that I see on this occasion the officers of a ship of war of that nation which concurred in the initiation of the declaration of the independence of these islands, the anniversary of which gracious act we this day celebrate.



FEBRUARY 9, 1861.

His Majesty's Replies To the Addresses of the Diplomatic Corps, and to the Consuls of Foreign Nations, Congratulating Him on the Anniversary of His 27th Birth-day.

His Majesty replied to M. Perrin and the members of the Diplomatic Corps in the following gracious terms:

GENTLEMEN:—For the congratulations you have just offered me on the recurrence of the anniversary of my birthday, I thank you very kindly indeed. I do indeed hope that further experience may offer me new lights by which to be directed in my endeavors to secure prosperity to all who dwell within this Kingdom. But let me assure you that your felicitations on this occasion cannot fail to stimulate and encourage me, for they show that at least up to this very day the large and predominating powers you represent, are good enough to survey with satisfaction, and through you, Gentlemen, to express their satisfaction for the present, and their hopes for the future, in the conduct of my Government, and with God's help, I will not disappoint them. In justice to myself and your kind expressions connected with the names of the Queen and our son, I must express the peculiar pleasure with which that portion of your address has filled me.

To Mr. Reiners and all other Consuls of foreign nations, his Majesty made the following gracious answer:

GENTLEMEN:—To congratulations so warm and so flatteringly addressed, it is difficult to reply so as to be satisfied that I have done justice to your feelings as they have this moment been expressed. I and my house have, indeed, a great deal for which to be thankful to Divine Providence, and on this twenty-seventh anniversary of my birthday, I cannot but be sensible of the debt I owe to the King of Kings. Any occasion which is converted into an opportunity for the expression of satisfaction and cordiality on the part of those who represent great external interests, must be gratifying to one whose position is a difficult one, even when things are at the very best, if due allowance be made for the number of conflicting interests to be respected, and more than that, fostered.

At a time when our commerce is drooping from causes beyond the control of any Government, it is a source of high satisfaction to me to receive so many well wishes for the continuance of my rule from gentlemen so perfectly adapted as yourselves to judge of the benefits which my reign is likely to bestow. On the part of the Queen and the Prince of Hawaii, I thank you, most kindly and sincerely, for your prayers in their behalf.



Transcriber's note

Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. The following words were spelled in two different ways and were not changed:

birthday, birth-day

preeminently, pre-eminently

interisland, inter-island

A few obvious typographical errors have been corrected and are listed below.

Page 15: "to be regreted" changed to "to be regretted".

Page 16: "circumstances that will alway" changed to "circumstances that will always".

Page 19: "these island" changed to "these islands".

Page 19: "I forsee a high" changed to "I foresee a high".

Page 24: "an Hospital established" changed to "a Hospital established".

Page 34: "Prince may develope" changed to "Prince may develop".

Page 34: "child is your's" changed to "child is yours".

Page 36: "Prorogueing the Legislature" changed to "Proroguing the Legislature".

Page 36: "an Hospital in Honolulu" changed to "a Hospital in Honolulu".

THE END