The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-05-26
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
A &c.

HE CIVIL CODE makes a few changes In tn
rates of licenses, which it may be of public in
terest to note. The price of a wholesale mer
chants license, for one year, has been raised from
seyenty-fye to one hundred dollars that of a re
tail, from forty to fifty dollars and a plantation
store license, from ten to twenty-five dollars. Thu
price of the latter has been increased more il
proportion, on account of the suppression q
hawkers and peddlers. 1t was represented tina
these gentry, instead of being a public convent
ence, had become a great nuisance to the people
for they prevented the establishment of country
stores, and by persuading the natives to incuI
large debts, afterwards distressed them by prose
~cutions, or induced them to steal.
All auctioneers Will pay at the end of each
quarter a per centage, not to exceed one per cent.
on the amount of sales made, in lieu of a thou
sand dollars paid in advance as heretofore. The
number of licenses is limited to three for Oahu.
1t is ID doubtful whether the government will realize
any material increase from this per centage, at
least 50 long as the auction business remains as
limited as it has during the pdt twelve months.
To sell opium and other poisonous drugs, a
license is required, and it is forbidden to sell them
10 any Chinaman or coolie, except upon prescrip-
ii IN of a physician or surgeon.
In the sale of ava, the old practice of making
the government a partner in this trade is ADAM
doned. Licenses will be issued at the price of
fifty dollars but it can be sold at retail only to
persons who have certificates from physicians that
they require it. Whether it is wise to prohibit
physicians and druggists from selling or dealing
in this medicinal root, under their general license,
is questionable. Ava has great potency, and
perhaps great virtues, if they were understood,
but they require to be accurately ascertained by
practice of the medical faculty. 1t may be that
there will be found in it as great a remedy for
human ills as any now known, and it prove a
source of wealth TO the country equal to our
sugqa or coffee. Who knows, or can know, while
the use of il is so straightly tied up by special
licenses and penalties? Peruvian bark was once
of no greater reputation tEan our ava. So far
as the prohibition of the traffic for the purposes
of distillation is concerned, it is all very we'll.
The Hawaiian hula has obtained a recognized
place among our theaters, circuses and other pub
lie shows. 1t may be licensed, at Honolulu only,
upon payment of ten dollars for each perform
ance. 1t was with reluctance that the Represen-
tetiyes consented to sanction in any degree a Gus
tom which can o1s yieSsea as a relic of hea-
thenism and promoter of RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1T will
be recollected that the amendment inserting the
hula among public exhibitions was made at the
instance of the Ministers in the House of Mobiles
it was never desired by the Representatives of the
people, who, by adopting a committee report
condemning it in strongest terms, plainly ex-
pressed their sentiments in respect to this
abettor of idleness and vice, and only yielded to
the law licensing it in Honolulu as a compromise
measure. rather than still permit its blighting in
Huence over all parts of the Kingdom, as must
have been the result, had no law been agreed
upon.
Yet it remains TO be seen if the prohibition
shall be e~ffectual, even 50 far as WAS intended.
The statute applies only to exhibitions" to which
admission is obtainableb by the payment of money"
And it is questionable if there be any provision in
the new law prohibiting hula dances where the
admission is gratuitous, or the profit is derived
from free will offerings at the pleasure of the
spectator, as is often the case at present with
hula exhibitions.
But even should the law be found to limit
hulas to Honolulu, it is more than probable that
the profits, at least during the shipping season,
will be SO great, that the payment of ten dollars
only for each performance will be insufficient to
check this intolerable nuisance, which seems
to have for the native such a mysterious fascina-
ton. But as ten dollars is fixed as the minimum
limit of price of license, without any maximum,
it is to be hoped that the Minister of the Interior,
in whose discretion it is vested, win set the price
high enough to execute the intention of the legis-
tors, which was virtually to suppress the hula.
We append the rates of the principal licenses
under the old law and the same as established
under the new Code. Besides the amounts given,
there is a change of 81 for stamps and 81 more