and to sell spirits are confined to the capital in spite of the bad effect of in the people drink hard and the number of deaths which can be distinctly traced to spirit drinking is quite startling the on selling liquor to natives is the � subject of incessant and in the national probably all the natives agree in regarding it as a of the inferiority of colour but i have been told generally that the most intelligent and thoughtful among them are in favour of its continuance on the ground that if additional for drinking were afforded the in the population would be in the printed proceedings i see that are constantly presented praying that the of spirits may be declared free while a few are in favour of total another prayer is that may have the same privileges as white people in buying and drinking a bill to the distinction was brought into the not long since but the influence of the descendants of the and of an influential part of the white community is so strongly against spirit l the laws drinking as well as against the sale of drink to the natives that the law remains on the book the tone in which it was discussed is well indicated by the language of the present king s rival the imposed by this law do the people no good but rather harm for instead of the principles of honour they teach them to steal behind the bar the stable and the closet where they may be sheltered from the eyes of the law the heavy imposed on the liquor and the against selling to the natives are an of our civil rights binding not only the but the dealer against acquiring and possessing property then mr president i ask where lies virtue where lies justice not in those that bind the liberty of this people by refusing them the privilege that they now of drinking without will you by that this law remain in force make us a nation of or will you it that honour and virtue may for once be yours o a committee of the assembly in on the question of the of the sale of to anybody through its mr stated experience teaches that such could not be enforced without a strong public sentiment to it and such a sentiment does not prevail in this community as is by the fact that the sale of drinks to natives is largely practised in defiance of law and the and that the ture of drinks though is carried on in every district of the kingdom so the question u � is rising in ever country ruled or by is also agitated here with strong feeling on both sides i was led to this by seeing for the first time some very fine plants of the this is truly a plant of renown throughout strange tales are told of it it is said to produce profound sleep with visions more than those of or and that its repetition instead of being is harmless and even wholesome its sale is except on the production of evidence that it has been prescribed as a nevertheless no law on the islands is so it is easy to give it and easy to it or dig it up in the woods so that in spite of the legal it is to an enormous extent it was proposed absolutely to the sale of it though the sum paid for the is no item in the of a kingdom which like many others is the difficulty of making both ends meet bat the committee which sat npon the subject reported that such is not practicable unless its growth and cultivation are prevented so long rs public sentiment the open of the existing laws its sale without rebuke so long will it be of little use to attempt one cannot be a day on the islands without hearing wonderful stones about and its use is defended by some who are strongly opposed to the use as well as abuse of people who like the earl and the doctor delight themselves in the strongly element a p which life delight too in contemplating the preparation and results of the but both are to me extremely disgusting and i cannot believe that a drink which the senses and a human being of the power to exercise reason and will ia anything but to the moral nature while the group one of my who had been for some time in described the preparation of the root being by the teeth of dusky clad maidens but i was an accidental witness of a drinking on and saw nothing but very plain prose i feel as if i must approach the subject mysteriously i had no time to tell you of the circumstance when it occurred when also i was completely ignorant that it was an affair and now with a sort of guilty knowledge i tremble to relate what i saw and to that though i could not touch the i tasted the root which has an taste something like horse with an in addition and i can imagine that the acquired taste for it must like other acquired tastes be perfectly irresistible even without the additional gratification of the results which follow its exercise in the particular instance which i saw two girls who were not beautiful and an old man who would have been hideous but for a set of sound regular teeth were sitting on the ground the root the process being contemplated with extreme interest by a number of � when by careful they had reduced the root to a they tossed it into a large and relieved their mouths of before preparing a fresh this went on till a considerable quantity was provided and then water was added and the mass was and stirred with the hands till it looked like soap 