The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1862-11-06

the brief course of a few generations? rum
had slain its thousands ere the rulers were fully
aware of its effects"
For a period of fifty years, (from 1880 to $500
intemperance held full sway OF this people, and
it is estimated that not less than 10000 died
from its effects. About the year 1880, through
the influence of the American missionaries, the
traffic in liquor with the native population was
greatly checked, aided by laws or regulations
made BY the chiefs. Yet, notwithstanding that
rum has slain so many of the aborigines of these
islands, we find persons here openly advocating
a return 10 the customs of 1900, when rum and
bacchanalian debauchery ruled the land. We
find some who would remove all restraints on
the manufacture of ardent spirits, and who advo-
cate the unrestricted sale of it to the native popu-
lation, under the hypocritical plea of Z" ~cons;itu-
tional liberty We have even seen men 80 lost
to all feelings Of humanity as to call on the Leg
islature TO enact such laws. We also SEE 4
newspaper, published under the shadow Of the
ministerial bureaux, speaking out and advocating
such death-dealing laws. While England makes
it a capital offense TO sell liquor to the aborgines
of New Zealand. and America attaches a hardly
less severe penalty for like offenses with her
aborigines here in Hawaii, where the native
population has already been reduced from AGO.
900 to 20 1000, partly through this same instru-
ment, we see the most strenuous efforts being
now made to abolish all restrictions, that the
small remaining remnant of this people may
likewise be swept from the face of the earth.
Shame on the man who can thus construe civil
lied philanthropy toward this race. Shame on
those who are striving to convince the native
people, through their even vernacular tongue,
that it is better for them to thus permit their
selEdestruction and extinction than to continue
the present restrictive laws.
3d.-The last principal cause, and one too
often overlooked, which has operated to decimate
this nation is, EPIDEmcs. With foreign immi-
grafton, came foreign diseases. Though possess
ing a climate of unrivaled salubrity, yet like
all other portions of the globe, this group is
exposed to-, and has had its pestilences. The
first of these, to which any reference is made in
history, occurred in 1903 and 1904, during the
reign of Kamehameha [. The old natives on
Hawaii still speak of it with a kind of horror
and dread, and describe it as the most terrible
scourge that ever visited the group, causing
wailing in every house. In some places SO great
was the sickness and so frequent the deaths that
the people were unable to bury their dead. In
others the dead bodies were pushed into the sea
to float off with the tide. From the descriptions
which have been given by those who witnessed it,
physicians believe it to have been the ASiatic
cholera. or some plague of as virulent n character.
In David Malo's History, as reviewed in the Ha-
waiian Spectator, occur several illusions to this
plague, and among Them these
g In the reign of Kamehameha, from the time I
was born until l was nine years old, the pestilence,
(mai ahulau,) visited the Hawaiian Islands. and the
majority (ka pau nui ana) of the people from Hawaii
to Niihau, died. From my knowledge and reflection
on the subject, the great mortality that prevailed
arose from the ignorance of the people at that time,
their manner of living, the want of care and nursing
when sick; and their Ignorance of the proper use of
medicine. Therefore multitudes died, who, neverthe-
less took medicine; many died with famine, many
with cold. and more still from the unavoidable evil
condition they were in. There have been no seasons
of universal sickness since; men have died, but not
in an uncommon degree, but from that time to this
it is clear that there has been a steady decrease of
the people"
"Another cause was pestilence. This occurred
while Kemehameha resided on Oahu, and the MAORI
ty of the inhabitants were cut down by it. No proper
care could be taken of the sick. Men perfectly well
in the morning were dead in the evening. Persons
who went to bury their n~eighbors were sliced before
this last office of friendship could be performed and
died themselves without even returning to their
homes. Hence many corpses rek-ained urburied.
This sickness called kduobuu greatly diminished the
population"
Little is recorded or known of this great
and one object we have in calling atten-
to it at this time, is that some inquiries may
be instituted by persons qualified to do 1t, while
the old people, who witnessed it and whose
IN alone can be held reliable, remain
us. The Legislature made provision for a
Sanitary Commission, which has since been
appointed ,-one physician on each island. If
Commission succeeds, among its other
abors, in determining what this plague was, its
nature, and the extent of the mortality caused
~ it, they will have done a good service.
The population of the group in 1900 must
nave been not less than $50 900. The most reli-
bile accounts and verbal traditions state that the
took off more than One-haB of the pOpu-
which is not incredible when we remem-
,er that within the last ten years, and with all
he Wanted skill of modern pharmacy, the
population of Oahu was reduced by the small
,ox in the course of q few months, one-sixth
its entire number. IF the stat.men of David
Ialo and others is true, then the population was
ednced in two years from $50 600 to Us, 900, a
.ecrease which greatly strengthens the correct
ess of Capt. Cooks estimate. Whatever the Q
Mortality was, it was unquestionably very great, !
nd until more reliable data are obtained, this
aust be taken as the most correct.
After the year 1904, there appears to have
cen no unusual mortality recorded until the
eriod of 1882 to 1886, when in four years,
he deaths exceeded the births 81 ,736. The
verage annual ercess of deaths during a period
E 81 wears from the date of the first census IN