THE ^HAWAIIAN 



F0RE6TER ^ AGRICULTURIST 



Vol. IV. FEBRUARY, 1907 No. 2 



In the face of the general advancement which has taken 

 place of late years in the development of the Territory, it Is 

 at once extraordinary and unfortunate that the legislation of 

 Hawaii leaves so much to be desired in the way of affording 

 adequate protection to the family homestead. In this par- 

 ticular we are far behind our simple Einglish ancestors, for 

 by the early common law of England real property could not 

 be taken upon execution for the satisfaction of creditors, but 

 the latter could only have recourse to the debtor's goods and 

 chattels and to the profits of his land. As time advanced, 

 however, the demands of a developing civilization, in an age 

 more crude and elementary in its conception of natural jus- 

 tice and equity than our own, permitted the real estate of a 

 debtor to be attached, and eventually it even became cus- 

 tomary to incarcerate his body until the claims of his creditors 

 were fully paid. A more enlightened age has abated the 

 excessive rigors of these laws, and not only in the United 

 States but in England the debtor's prison is unknown. It 

 is in the former country, however, that the solicitude of the 

 state has been most paternally extended to the assistance of 

 the unfortunate debtor, and in most, if not all of the States^ 

 satutes are in force which may to an extent be said to rein- 

 state the debtor to the position he occupied under the early 

 common law. 



The statutes to which reference is made are known as Home- 

 stead statutes, and their object is to afford protection to the 

 home and to the liberty of unfortunate debtors, and to safe- 

 guard their interests against the exacting claims of creditors. 

 At the same time they aft'ord an industrious and honest man 

 upon whom financial misfortune has fallen, an opportunity to rein- 

 state himself as a useful member of society. Their benefit is thus 

 not for the debtor alone, but in protecting the individual the 

 interests of the whole community are advanced. The Home- 

 stead laws are so interpreted as to carefully guard against 

 their provisions being used as a shield against the payment 

 of just debts by a fraudulent and unscrupulous debtor, and 

 certain debts are specially excluded from the homestead ex- 

 emption. Of these the claims of labor and material-men may 

 be mentioned and the debts secured by mortgage on the home- 

 stead signed by both husband and wife. 



Two classes of homesteads are known, one based on an 

 area which differs for "rural" and "urban" lands. The latter. 



