The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-04-29
Correspondence Of the Commercial Advertiser.)
The Liquor Traffic in Lnhaina. No.

EDITOR OF THE ApvERTIsER-SIR Excuse a littl
rambling before entering upon the principal topic.
have just had the testimony of very trustworthy ant
competent witness. who made it a business whel
lately in Honolulu, to find out how much illicit sell
ing of liquor was carried on there. He found any
number of houses " selling on the sly , and in every
part of the town. The business prevailed to an enor.
nous extent. One of the hotel keepers remarked
about a man close to him, who drove a considerable
trade, 81 don't care how much liquor he sells, sc
long as he don't undersell me-" Why should ht
care. Every glass of liquor drank only whets the
appetite for another. Only start a man in drinking
a sailor especially, and he will stop only when his
money is gone, then his clothes, then all advances he
can get by shipping. The more places there are to
tempt the man to begin drinking, and to keep him
going, the more likely is the hotel keepers trade to
flourish. If he does not get the whole trade, he gets
more than he would but for the promotion Of drink
ing habits by the multiplicati on of bars. He enjoys
the benefit he paid for, security from the law. He
does not wish to help persecute a brother liquor seller
who is already exposed to the persecution Of the law.
Probably there is nearly or quite as much drinking
in Honolulu, as there would be with no law whatever
to regulate the traffic. If this is so where there are
so many licensed retailers, with a strong police force
to back them. what would be the effect in Lahaina,
of trusting to the licensed to suppress the rest Facts
outweigh theories. We have every reason to consider
this idea as we do, a most unmitigated h~umbug. The
writer was once cheated by it for a while, until he
used his eyes and ears to a better purpose.
am permitted to publish the postscript Of a letter
from a prominent merchant in Honolulu to a friend
here. 81 am glad to see that somebody in Laha;nn
has a word (and Il very sensible word it seems TO me)
on the license question. | have always been struck
with the f,ct that those who were most anxious that
the cause of temperance and morality should be adj
vanced in Lihaina by the granting ef retail licenses
were men engaged in the rum traffic, and those who
were friendly to that kind IF business"
In writing my last letter, Ibid not feel assured that
the government intended to be the movers of the OBJ
noxious measure, and was therefore careful not to
impuie such an intention to. them. 1t is then quite
ludicrous to see the editor of the Polynesian hasten
to discla;m that intention for himself and his col-
leagues, and TO witness the indignant zeal with which
he first gratuitously shoulders for them, and then
resents the charge of pecuniary motives which was
made in speaking of the liquor dealers. It suggests
queer ideas, and would make US fancy that somebody
really had a private interest somewhere. If We did not
know the gentleman and his associates in the govern
ment to be all honorable men hence We conclude
that they are only IS friendly to that kind Of bust
Now for the main point-the damage done to La
haina by this traffic. We deprecate . contemptuous
hearing The people Of the more dourishing metrop-
oils despise Lahaina, just as a town dilspidated aud
seedy by intemperance is always despised by its
neighbors. You have some growth, some
progress. But you come up and land on this shore
90 attractive a. seen from the ssa, and every year you
just the same street OF crazy ~shanties, the filthy
traps Of grog sellers for their victims. You turn up
POUR noses, and go home with supreme contempt Of
Lahaina. and the very editor Who il doing his utmost
to keep the place in this filthy condition has to sneer
1t our .. grog-blossoms. But we know that La
hains i IN Important plass. aplscs Of isrssboioss.