The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-01-31

MR. EDIroR al. is q matter u general belief
that for 4 pe0pIe 70 be happy they should be well
governed, bat they cannot Sc vel governed unless
the laws are wise, AMI are justly and impaytially
administered. When the laws press heavily On some
members Of the community leaving others to act as
they like, irresponsible 10 any legally constituted
power, they axe undoubtedly bad, and should be
repealed ~ the earliest opportunity. Il is for this
very purpose that PArliaments and Legislatures have
their stated periodical times Of meeting; they alter
or repeal the old laws if found insufficient 10 ensure
the well being Of the peoples, or make new ones to
suit the e~xigencies Of the times
But. no matter how good, how wise. how whole
some the laws may be, the country is not well gov
ernei if they are not impartially administered. If
one man IS held TO strict account, and made to
undergo the infection Of the most severe penalties
provided for the commission Of an ofense, while
another, guilty Of the same, or perhaps Of 4 more
heinous crime, is suffered to escape punishment, the
condition Of the community IN which such q perYer-
sion Of justice is knowingly and deliberately perpe-
tratei is deplorable indeed, and those rulers, who
act the part Of the unjust judge" cannot too soon
be replaced by others at once more upright and more
undiscriminating in their pursuit Of offenders against
good morals.
Article 18Th Of the Constitution reads as follows
The King conducts his Government for the COM
mon good: and not for the profit, honor. or private
interest Of any one man, family, or class of men,
among his subjects"
We may fairly reason from this article that no one
man, family, or class of men may violate the laws
with IMMUNITY, all others being held strictly account
able and severely punished for any violation of the
same laws.
We find it recorded in the Hawaiian Ga=ele of
December 9th last, that one man forfeited his bail
Of 500 for selling ava without q license; in the
same paper of December Sd, another man was fined
$500 with So costs, for vending intoxicating liquor;
on January 10Th, still another fined $500 and costs
for the same ofense; with numerous fines of from
two to fifty dollars, even for fast riding, drunken
ness, fornication, and the like. These results to the
commission Of unlawful acts prove the determination
Of the Ministry to be the conseryators of the public
morals, with one class Of offenders at least, while the
detection of the wrong doors equally proves the
devotion and energy of the police force; but how is
it, that while punishment for these offenses, the COM
mission of which except for the Intervention of the
Government through its agents might not have been
known to one out of a hundred of the community,
has been so heavily visited upon the unfortunate
delinquents, how is it, that the agent Of the Govern
ment, its own exponent, the subsidized publisher Of
the Mission Board, has been openly accused in the
columns of another paper of this city of unrestrained
traffic in the vilest obscenities and no official notice
taken of the alleged offence? Nor himself had the
grace, or the good taste, to come forward and apollo
gize for his wrong doing or deny or attempt to ex-
plain it away? What is the unlawful selling Of q
bunch of ava or of a glass of spirits compared to the
systematic and continued poisoning of the minds of
the young, and the pandering to the vices of the
mature2 Why should the small offender be so heav-
lily stricken and the great one be suffered to go
scathlessH The subject is too unpleasant to be further
pursued, but this one case could not be suffered to
pass unnoticed, of inequality in the execution of the
laws by the liberation of an obstruction and antago-
mist of civilization and good morals. Hawaii.