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labor taxes. Native Hawaiians who had already left their land were given the opportunity to return by applying for any uncultivated lands. The Constitution of 1840 also provided that the king could lose no land -ithouc his consent—an effort to deal with the fear of alienation of land to foreigners. However, the constitution provided that property already held by foreigners would not be reclaimed by the crown—an effort to avoid conflict with foreigners. 18/ The Constitution of 1840 did not totally put to rest land disputes— problems and episodes continued. In 1B41, the king announced a plan to allow island qovernors to enter into 50~year leases with foreigners. 19/ AK chac.jssed below, a large number of a^tetj were conveyed to foreigners. In 1843, in part because of a lease dispute, the British warship Carysfort entered Honolulu, and its captain took over the government for five months. 20/ Although Britain repudiated the captain's action, the episode was a clear nark of problems t; come. The Great Mahele Because of the increasing pressure for :hange j.n the land tenure system, in i845 the l e g i s l a t u r e provided for, and the king established, a Board of Land Commissioners. 21/ The Commission was charged to conduct "the investigation and final ascertainment o. rejection of all claims of private individuals, whether natives or foreigners, to any landed property a ij red anterior to the passage of t h i s tet..." 22/ Existing land law was to be the basis for i ts conclusions, including "native usages in regard to landed tenures." 23/ The C ir.mission had five members, of whom two were native Hawaiians, one half- Hawaiian, and two westerners. 24/ The Commission f i r s t examined 1/ : . i : . .q lots in Honolulu and Lahaina, since this land was already outside the t r a d i t i o n a l feudal scheme. 25/ In determining who was e n t i t l e d to land in conveying p l o t s , the Commission s t a t e d that it found "no native rights of occupancy in this p l o t . " Based on those awards, the Minister of the I n t e r i o r was authorized to issue fee p a t e n t s . A number of land disputes within the foreign community were thus resolved. 26/ The next step was the adoption by the Commission in 1846 of " P r i n c i p l e s , " r a t i f i e d by the l e g i s l a t u r e . The Commission's goal was "total defeudalization and p a r t i t i o n of undivided i n t e r e s t s . " 27/ The Principles stated: If the King be disposed voluntarily to yield to the tenant a portion of what p r a c t i c e has given himself, he most assuredly has a right to do i t ; and should the King allow to the landlord one-third, to the tenant one-third and retain one-third himself, he, according to the uniform opinion of the witnesses, would injure no one unless himself;...According to t h i s principle, a tract of land now in the hands of landlord and occupied by tenants, if all parts of it were equally valuable, might be divided into three equal p a r t s . . . 28/ In fact, no action was taken on t h i s recommendation, and it was not adopted as a way to implement the d i v i s i o n . 29/ The king and chiefs did not intend to divide the land in • t h i r d s with the tenants. 30/ The statement that the land was divided i n t o three parts—one part to the king, one part to the chiefs, and one part to the common people--is wholly erroneous. 31/ Therefore, how to f u l f i l l the Principles was debated at lenqth. On December 18, 1847, a formulation drafted by westerner J u s t i c e William Lee was adopted by the king and chiefs 255