Stanley Forman Reed

“ Nothing appears as to any former or subsequent exercise by Hawaii of a power to lease Palmyra. [21] No taxes were collected from those who claimed to be owners prior to 1885 when the Pacific Navigation Company paid taxes to Hawaii on Palmyra for three years. Assessments have been made annually since 1911 and taxes have been paid regularly since then by the claimants to the property. At the time of annexation by the United States, provision was made for commissioners to recommend to Congress legislation concerning the Hawaiian Islands. ”

“ It is clear that both the King and the Minister of the Interior with the authority of the King in the Cabinet Council had power to convey the lands to private citizens. Civil Code, 1859, §§ 39-48; Act of January 3, 1865, Rev.Laws, Hawaii, 1905, p. 1226, § 3. We assume further that the formal claim to Palmyra for the Hawaiian Kingdom made by Bent, pursuant to his commission, gave Hawaii not only sovereignty over Palmyra but also the power to grant the lands of the newly annexed islets as part of its public lands to private ownes. ”

“ Respondents' claim of title exists in a consistent series of transactions beginning in 1862 with a deed to Wilkinson from Bent. The deed was recorded in the Registry of Conveyances of Hawaii in 1885. It conveyed all Bent's 'right title and interest in and to all the property of whatever description now lying or situated on Palmyra Island in the Pacific Ocean which island by a proclamation of His Majesty Kamehameha IV at present belongs to the Hawaiian Kingdom. ”

“ On the same day that the commission was issued, a contract was made with Edward P. Adams for him to take guano for five years from any islands acquired for Hawaii by Allen in the schooner, 'Kalama.' Adams' request for the grant of a fee to a 7/8 interest in any island discovered, so far as shown by the record, was not acted upon by the Hawaiian legislative body. ”

“ This system of tenures created dissatisfaction among the chiefs and people because of the burdens of service and produce that the inferior owed to the superior. Consequently by a series of royal and legislative steps, the King and the House of Nobles and Representatives, provided for a land system which finally resulted in a separation of the lands into lands of the Government, the Crown and the People. ”