Inclosed herewith is the published proclamation of King Kalakaua, dated the
26th September, extracted from the Hawaiian Gazette of the 27th, declaring
the said reciprocity convention to have taken effect in this kingdom on the
9th September, 1876, corresponding to the time fixed by the President’s
proclamation for its going into operation in the ports of the United
States.
[Inclosure.]
[From the Hawaiian Gazette, September 27, 1876.]
The proclamation of King Kalakaua, corresponding in its tenor to that of
President Grant, announcing the ratification of the treaty of commercial
reciprocity, and fixing the date when it became operative here,
September 9, 1876, will be found in its appropriate column.
Under this proclamation the cargo of the bark Cyane, which arrived on the
18th instant from San Francisco, was the first to obtain free entry, and
that of the mail-steamer
[Page 296]
City
of New York was the second. At the above-named port the bark Lunalilo,
which arrived on the 11th, was the first free entry, followed soon after
by the D. C. Murray and Mary Belle Roberts.
By authority,
[Coat of arms of Hawaii.]
proclamation.
Whereas, by our proclamation dated the 17th-day of June last, the
convention with the United States of America, ratified by ourselves on
the 17th day of April, 1875, and by His Excellency the President of the
United States of America on the 31st day of May, 1875, was made public
by us, to the end that it and every clause and article thereof may be
observed and fulfilled with good faith by every person within our
kingdom; and
Whereas we did therein proclaim that the “said convention shall go into
effect as soon as intelligence is received that the Government of the
United States has made the necessary provisions for carrying it into
operation”; and
Whereas, by a proclamation of His Excellency the President of the United
States of America, dated the 9th day of September, in the year of our
Lord 1876, it appears that the Government of the United States has made
the necessary provisions for carrying the said convention into
operation, and that the Acting Secretary of State of the United States
and His Majesty’s envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at
Washington have recorded a protocol in a conference had by them at
Washington on the 9th day of September, 1876, in the following
language:
“Whereas it is provided in article V of the convention between the United
States of America and His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands,
concerning commercial reciprocity, signed at Washington on the 30th day
of January, 1875, as follows:
Article V. The present convention shall take
effect as soon as it shall have been approved and proclaimed by His
Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, and shall have been ratified
and duly proclaimed on the part of the Government of the United States,
but not until a law to carry it into operation shall have been passed by
the Congress of the United States of America. Such assent having been
given, and the ratifications of the convention having been exchanged, as
provided in article six, the convention shall remain in force for seven
years from the date at which it may come into operation; and, further,
until the expiration of twelve months after either of the high
contracting parties shall give notice to the other of its wishes to
terminate the same, each of the high contracting parties being at
liberty to give such notice to the other at the end of said term of
seven years, or at any time thereafter;” and
Whereas the said convention having been approved and proclaimed by His
Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, and having been ratified and
duly proclaimed on the part of the Government of the United States;
and
Whereas an act was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, entitled “An act to
carry into effect a convention between the United States of America and
His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands,” signed on the 30th day of
January, 1875, which was approved on the 15th day of August in the year
1876; and
Whereas an act was passed by the legislative assembly of the Hawaiian
Islands, entitled “An act to carry into effect a convention by His
Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands and the United States of
America,” signed at Washington on the 30th day of January, 1875, which
was duly approved on the 18th day of July, in the year 1876; and
Whereas ratifications of the convention having been exchanged, as
provided in article VI, the undersigned, William Hunter, Acting
Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the Hon. Elisha
H. Allen, chief justice of the supreme court, and the chancellor of the
kingdom, and member of the privy council of Hawaii; and His Majesty’s
envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States of
America, duly authorized for this purpose by their respective
governments, have met together at Washington, and having found that the
said convention has been approved and proclaimed by His Majesty the King
of the Hawaiian Islands, and has been ratified and duly proclaimed on
the part of the Government of the United States, and that the laws to
carry the said treaty into operation have been passed by said Congress
of the United States of America on the one part, and by the legislative
assembly of the Hawaiian Islands on the other, hereby declare that the
convention aforesaid, concluded between the United States of America and
His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands on the 30th day of January,
1875, will take effect on the day aforesaid:
Therefore, in pursuance of the premises, we do hereby declare the said
convention to have taken effect from the 9th day of the present month of
September.
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our
hands and caused the seal of our kingdom to be affixed this 26th day of
September, A. D. 1876.
[
seal.]
KALAKAUA,
R.
By the King:
W. L. Green,
Minister of Foreign Affairs.