SANDWICH ISLANDS. [From the Sydney Morning, Herald.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 744, 18 September 1852, Page 3

SANDWICH ISLANDS. [From the Sydney Morning, Herald.]

" We hawy?eceivad,a file "of fife Polynesian to the 19th'Jrfne inclusively. " '* The Hawaiian Parliament was stjlfsitting at that date. The new constitution, to which we .^ftnnerly alluded! had been revised by both houses, and assented to by the King. It is an extraordinary compound ot-monarchical and ul-fra-deraocratic principles; an equally singular 1 to work out a barbaric form of social organization according to the rules of modern political science. How long it will last remains to be seen. • The treaty between Hawaii and Great Britain, which was formerly published by us in extenso, was rendered complete by an exchange of ratifications on the 6th of May last. $ The Stores of a Captain Snow, at Honolulu? bad 'been destroyed by 6re, and s a loss of from' '40,000. to 50,000 dollars had been thereby occasioned, which would, it is said, almost exclusively fall upon the consignors of the goods destroyed. The fire was supposed to have originated from the reckless casting aside of a lighted cigar or a lucifer match during a sale at auction. The Codies, who had been imported by the planters, were apparently becoming troublesome- One of these having recently swallowed a pin, and being thereby afflicted with a severe pain in the throat, had applied a razor or knife to the part, as the most effectual remedy, putting an end at one to the pain and to his own existence. An Act had been passed and assented to, prohibiting the carrying of deadly weapons, uuder a penalty of from 10 •to 30 dollars fine, or from fifteen days to two months' imprisonment, with hard labour, for each offence. This, we presume, was intended as a gentle hint to theTevolve^jand bpwie- knife patriots of jaan Francisco, who hav,e so long 'regarded this archipelago as a fitting arena ,for their exertions. The Hawa : ian Minister of Finance had managed to involve himself in a most unseemly squabble with the House of Representatives. A committee of the latter it would appear, had subjected his accounts to a rigid examination, the result of which was to show that they had been most unsatisfactorily kept. To avenge this unpleasant expose*, the Minister refused, upon various, shallow pretexts, to give the members of the Legislature the pay which, it seems, they are entitled to by law, until he was in a measure forced to give way. From this and other indications it would appear that some " split" in the Hawaiian Government must take place before matters can go on smoothly. The obvious conclusion is, that the almost exclusive management of affairs having heretofore been possessed by" a few individuals, these individuals and their friends are prepared to withstand innovation at all hazard, and resent as an unwarrantable impertinence any attempt to interfere with them, even on the part of those to whom, by the popular voice, has been been delegated the substantial powers of legislation. Among other singularities resulting from this state of things, there is the spectacle of the Polynesian itself, — ostensibly the organ of the Hawaiian government and people as a whole, and supported from the publip revenue in this character — supporting through thick and thin the actings and the policy of the party thus complained of, and violently abusing the complaining representatives. - ■ - Trade is dull, and likely, it would appear, to remain so. . The narrow and mistaken policy which has hitherto prevented the operations of sugar planting from being carried on with any change of .success; is still adhered to. Some cigars/ said to .be of very fine quality, had however'been recently manufactured, and it is asserted that they can be produced sufficiently good and cheap to compete with Manilla. , Some idea may be formed of the difficulties — almost absurdities — which arise in the practical working of such a government and legislature as those of the Sandwich Islands as at present constituted by the mention of one fact. The lower house passed a Bill to prevent the chiefs from tabooing (prohibiting the capture of) fish in the sea ! But this, when it came before the Upper Chamber, where the chiefs themselves were represented, was indignantly rejected.