The Hawaiian gazette., 1873-04-23
VOL. IX,---NO. 49,



foreboding. To be sure, this is for US, by no
means new sensation. For long years past,
these periodical spasms have, at brief intervals.
been sweeping over the community ike huge
tidal waves Of the ocean till at length there has
come general conviction that the case is hope
less and so the nation is given over to an early
and dishonOrable grave.
We have discussed this question Of national
extinction 10 Its moral bearings as well as in its
economic relations, perhaps sufficiently. And
POSSIBLY it would be quite as well to let the mat
ter rest where it is. But somehow it is not
pleasant, nor is it iu any sense easy, thus con-
teniedly to face the idea of the nations doom.
Is there no way Of escaped Has the Almighty
fat fixed irrevocably, the cruel destinyl Must
We stand lstlessly by and see whole people dis
appear beneath the sod and, without tear. write
Finis upon its eveutful history? These are
some Of the inquiries which involuntariy thrust
themselves upon US. Who can bring US TO a sat
isfactory solution Of the problem?
Meantime. the nation is sinking and our cap
italsts, keenly feeling every fresh turn OF the
screw which threatens disaster to their financial
interests, cry out, in an ever-sharpening key,
Labor r. More laborl7 And then comes up
for fresh thought and re-discussion, those two
everrecurring and never satisfied inquiries
Whence shall fresh labor be obtained ?" and
"Ho,o shall il be obtained ?" Shall we look to
Japan, China, the Southern Archipelagos of the
Pacific, to India or Northern Europe? And
shall private enterprise introduce the desired i'm
migrants or shall Government undertake the
costly enterprise?
For the solution Of these grave problems,
have no fresh thoughts to bring, neither any skill
to offer in pushing them forward to their prac-
tical results. There is however, still one remain
ing inquiry involved in this scheme to introduce
foreign labor to Hawaii nei, upon which, in com
mon with many of my fellow citizens, 1 have
some thoughts, viz, this To ,rhH is our i'm
ported labor to be introduced? As none who
know anything of Hawaiian social life, can doubt,
it is, and for years past has been increasingly
horrible in its state Of disease and rottenness.
And it is to this alarming condition of things, |
that desire for momeut to call the attention,
not solely of the moralist, but especially of the
political economist who is thoroughly awake to
the planting interests Of the Islands.
1t is scarcely wise to spend ones strength in
the futile effort to fll sieve with water. But
what Of the attempt to bring in healthy element
Of labor into our diseased population, as a re- |
ance for future necessities? Is this any wiser ?
Isit not here, for our own social condition, that
our first thoughts and our best skill should be
called into exercise?
You speak possibly, in reply, Of the Board of
Health and its widespread sanitary provisions
throughout the group. And this is all true But
Of what avail are the wisest and most liberal |
efforts of any Board of Health, so long as the
administration of the laws continues what it has
been for the last decade Of years? The great
public ulcer is not to be cured by the wpng
away from its surface, of the corrupt humors
which it engenders. A fig for all your superficial
practice. The disease is radical, and involving,
too, the national life. We need and must have
a practice corresponding thereto! For as things
now are, for every specific case of rescue from
the power of any disease, we have hundred new
cases Of tainted life spriDgng up to curse the
land and its people.
The administration of justice, in the infe-
sior courts, during the past ten years, will ever
be known in Hawaiian history as The Reign
Of LicenaousHess. Not, indeed, that licentious-
ness was an unknown evil in Hawaii nei, previ-
ously, but it was never before so openly pro-
tected by those in authority throughout the
Islands In previous reigns there had been
honest endeavors made by the Government
to keep the evil in check and whatever
may be said of the prevalence Of vice, this Ger.
tany is true, that it did not install itself unbush
iugy in public places all over the land, of late
years it has everywhere done with impunity.
Ii is, indeed, admitted that the " Ldto 10 Nit
qate" had prepared the way for just such state
of things as has since existed by debauching the
nations conscience And this, allow me to say,
in passing, is the heaviest and most deadly charge
to be laid at the door Of that Infamous law.
Public prostitution came thereby to be an honor
able calling, as far as the Government could
make it such. The public funds were freely ex-
pended upon it; public officers devoted them
selves to its interest, whilst under its ags the
hydra-headed licentiousness of the Islands found
ample shelter, rs the Courts and the quarterly
returns of Sherifs gave ample testimony. Nat
urally therefore, this simple people came speedily
to regard illicit intercourse of the sexes as not
at all illicit and from this corrupt fountain broad
streams of vice poured themselves over the land.
In a population Of nearly 1000 souls, an en-
ployee of the Government assured me less than !
two years since, that be could count up SEVENTY
COUPLES openly living as man and wife, in adllts-
~. And this statement subsequently verified
by detailed inquiry. And the same ratio, SO
far as my inquiries have extended is found in all
parts Of the Islands.
To this fearful condition of social life the na-
Iion has been brought, repeat, by the policy of
The recent Administration. Police and other just
ICES did not dare to issue warrants for the appre
hension of persons thus living in open violation
Of all human as well as Divine Law. l read l
letter three or four years since from high Gov
arnmeut official warning a police officer not to
NEEDLE TOO much with parties living thus in 5
,dnltarv nm main nf dismissal from the service. q