Letters

Snail Mail Is Right

I read with some amusement the letter in your August issue from Christopher Grosser taking you to task for using the term "snail mail." He's entitled to his opinion, but the reason for my amusement is that I received your August issue, as well as your June and July issues together, only today - three days shy of October. I also received a Spring sale catalog from a mail-order company and a 1st Quarter 2005 report from a mutual fund. If that doesn't define "snail mail" I don't know what does.

For several years I have been corresponding with the U.S. Postal Service about the unreasonable delays in their delivering anything except first class mail. I've sent the postmaster copies of magazines and catalogs which took up to six months to arrive in Palau. Two representatives of the Postal Service even came to Palau and discussed the problem in my office. They assured me that they recognized it and were committed to solving it.

I pointed out to them that the mail must be just sitting in warehouses somewhere between the mainland and the Pacific Islands, and that it shouldn't be too difficult to find it and to determine why it sits there for months instead of being put on the next boat. They agreed that could be done and said they would do so.

That was in 2002, and the problem not only persists but from my experience has gotten worse. Obviously nobody in the USPS really cares about solving it or it would have been solved.

It would be interesting for one of your reporters to track the shipment of mail from the west coast through Hawaii to the islands and to find out what actually happens to it. I'd love to see a photo of a huge pile of mail bags gathering dust in a corner of some forgotten building somewhere.

Cliff Terry, TRB Architects
Koror, Palau

Court Ruling Clarification

In the September, 2005, article "Thousands March to Protest Kamehameha Schools Ruling by U.S. Federal Court," Floyd Takeuchi states: "The princess' (Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop) will stipulates that the school should benefit students of Hawaiian ancestry." According to the August 2, 2005, published opinion in Doe v Kamehameha Schools, this statement is incorrect. The court specifically found that while Pauahi's will instructed that a portion of the charitable testamentary trust which she set up should be devoted "to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood," the "will is notably devoid of any mention of race as…a criterion for admission into the Kamehameha Schools."

The court further noted that: As the Schools' 1885 Prospectus observed: "The noble minded Hawaiian chiefess who endowed the Kamehameha Schools, put no limitations of race or condition on her general bequest. Instruction will be given only in English language, but The Schools will be opened to all nationalities."

The court then stated that it was the original trustees who determined that Pauahi's intent was to prefer students of native Hawaiian ancestry. But, her will did not state such a preference in regard to the school.

David M. Strauss, Esq.
Majuro, Marshall Islands

Then And Now Memories

I just received my September Pacific Magazine in my current home in Poland and was very pleasantly surprised to see your Then and Now supplement. It looks great and it is very educational! I am glad that you and MicSem are doing it. I was a photography teacher at CCM in 1978 (almost 30 years ago) and so if I can find some of my old photos from that era I will send them in.

Adam Pool
Poland

We welcome your letters. They can be sent by email to pmeditor@pacificbasin.net or by regular mail to Pacific Magazine, 1000 Bishop Street, Suite 405, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, U.S.A.