Then came the necessary conclusion, which is very similar to the crux of Magna Charta:
“Protection is hereby secured to the persons of all the people, together with their lands, their building lots, and all their property while they conform to the laws of the kingdom, and nothing whatever shall be taken from any individual, except by express provision of the laws.”
In order to carry out this Declaration of Rights Ka-meha-meha III and his high chiefs were led [[194]]irresistibly to the promulgation of a Constitution which should differentiate the functions of the different branches of government and provide for a proper presentation of the needs of the people. As surely as the sunlight follows the morning star so certainly came the provision for a House of Nobles representing the chiefs and a House of Representatives representing the people.
The Constitution was promulgated October 8, 1840. After reiterating the Declaration of Rights the king defines the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government and establishes the legislature and bestows upon it the power of enacting laws. Previously he had enacted law with the advice of his council of high chiefs.
The laws which were passed after this Constitution was promulgated are both curious and instructive. There is a very large concession on the part of the king and the high chiefs who constituted his advisers, and a correspondingly large increase of privileges on the part of the common people. This is especially noticeable in the enactment of laws concerning taxation. Before the days of the Constitution and legislature the king held all power in his own hands, although the Aha-alii, or Council of Chiefs, was a factor with which he continually reckoned. The common people were not taken very much into account before the influence of Christianity was felt by both king and chiefs.
In the act of the Legislature and House of Nobles [[195]]signed by the king November 9, 1840, three forms of taxation are specified—the poll tax, the land tax, and the labour tax.
The poll tax could be paid in arrowroot, cotton, sugar or anything which had a specific money value. The most important exemption looked toward the preservation of large families. “If any parents have five, six, or more children, whom they support … then these parents shall by no means be required to pay any poll, land or labour tax until their children are old enough to work, which is at fourteen years of age.”
The land tax was to be paid in swine.
If lands were forfeited they were to go back into the hands of the king, “and he shall give them out again at his discretion, or lease them, or put them into the hands of those who have no lands, as he shall think best.”
The labour tax would be considered an exceedingly heavy burden by the public of the present time and yet that labour law was very much less oppressive than the semi-civilisation which preceded it. The native who sighs for the return of the days of the olden time would speedily try to get back out of the fire into what he considers a frying pan. Twelve days’ public labour out of every month would be considered exceedingly oppressive if exacted by the government of to-day. Yet thus reads a part of the enactment of 1840: