The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-11-26
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 26.

oi VI 4 y ~.
IS an item in our last issue, we referred to
an effort then being made in the Legislature
to repeal the prohibitory liquor law, which has
been in existence for fourteen years. The de-
bate on it took place on Saturday. The old
law Of 1850 is contained in Chapter AZ of the
Penal Code, and is as follows:
/ Whoever shall sell, give, purchase, or procure for, and in
81 ~ To ~ ~ . na atbs- o in ms c.igaond Tor GT OF r. MS ne, any sp ai a.
punished by = fine not exceeding two hundred dollars; and in
labor for a term not exceeding two years.
2 VIZ ii ,h1 ;h .nq Hi 9f g .Ssn sn 10 Gay 1gD iet s" sa "a SF nj
be Imprisoned a, hard labor not exceeding two years.
3. If any victuaIEng house keeper. shop keeper. or keeper of
= tipping house, not duly licensed to sell spirtlous liquors,
shall sell or furnish any other person than those described in
ne mrs section oi TINS chapier, with any spirituous liquor or
ether intoxicating drink or substance, he shah b. punished by q
inent q such foe, by imprisonment at hard labor for a term
not exceeding two years.
The bill TO repeal the 1st section of the above
law, which makes it a penal offence to sell liquor
TO Hawaiians, was introduced by Mr.. Kauwahi,
and sustained in the debate by Messrs. Rhodes
and WylIie of Honolulu, Kauwahi of Maui,
and Solomona Of Molokai and opposed by
Messrs. de Varigny, Harris, Gov. Nahaolelua of
Maui, and Kaapa of Hilo. The advocates of
the bill commended that the removal of the pro-
hibition would increase the revenue without in
creasing intemperance, which they deprecated
rs well as their opponents that the natives now
found the means of gratifying their desires for
drink in an illegal manner, which the repeal
Of this law would put stop to that prohibit
ton and high duties were always found to ag-
gravate instead of mitigating the evils against
which they We're aimed; that it was unjust to
native Hawaiians as placing them upon an I'M
equal footing with foreigners, giving to the lat
ter a right withheld from the former that
where prohibitory laws were enacted they should
be made to apply equally to all and that it
was oppressive TO restrain by law a natural right
which God had given to all.
The opponents of the bill centende6 that gov
ernments had a right to pass such laws in gen.
eral as the public good demanded, which vas
sustained by various illustrations that a Ha-
waiian Legislature enacted this law because it
deemed the public good to require it that it
had been sustained by every subsequent Legis-
lature to the present time; that the chiefs under
the old regime had enacted and enforced this
law, under Kaahumanu l. and H., Kalaimoku
and Kamehameha ILL.,, until the Legislature, in
the time of the latter, passed it in its present
form, to which every successive Legislature has
continued to adhere, and that the unrestricted
use of ardent spirits by the aborigines of the
United States had been the most effectual agent
in sweeping them away till but few Of that
numerous and brave race remained that al
though the Hawaiian race was diminishing, the
unrestricted use of spirits would add fuel to the
FIRE, and hasten that decrease with accelerated
speed that the plantations would feel its in
fuence at once that it would affect their labor
and industrial pursuits generally, and greatly
depreciate the value of property.
Mr.. de Varigny pointed to Tahiti as afording
an example, where a fair experiment has been
made of both systems. The French protectorate
for years allowed the unrestricted sale of liquors
to the natives but after witnessing the misery,
poverty, disease and death, which it entailed on
the people, it has now, for the past two or three
years, strictly forbidden its sale. And with the
prohibition, habits of industry and thrift, with
an increase of population, are the results chToni-
cled- What more forcible argument could be
brought forward to supper: our existing law,
than the fair and impartial trial made in Tahiti.
The Governor OF Maui said that if people only
drank temporarily, the law would not be needed
but the law WAS passed 70 restrain intenperarcs