The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-05-08

LETTERS IRON Hawaii and Maui continue TO re-
port the prevalence Of Illicit distillation and the
brewing Of intoxicating substances among the
people, and q corresponding constant increase Of
immortality and crime. The calendar Of the Cir
cult Court for the May term to be holden at RiIo,
shows a list Of some sixteen criminal causes, two
Of which are for murder or manslaughtcr. and the
melting cause Il presumably drink in both in
stances. 50 far, there has been no deed Of vio-
lence reported from Maui as q result Of liquor
drinking, but distillation Is represented as being
rife, especially in the district of Makawao. and
like causes will be apt ere long to produce like
effects on that island as well as on Hawaii.
Is there no remedy for this alarming state of
things? There are laws enough, and officials ap-
pointed and charged TO execute those laws; why
have not these done their duty? Such are some
of the questions that are propounded to Us from
every point Of the compass.
The conclusion will be inevitable even after
allowing due weight to other considerations,
which We propose to particularize before leaving
this subject,-that both the Police and the Mag
istrates on the islands named have been and still
are, manifestly if not wilfully, derelIct in duty.
The people living on the island Of Kauai are the
fellows, the counterparts in every particular in
habits, disposition and passions with those of Ha-
waii or Maui; but we hear Of no okOlehdO or fer
mented potato debauches on the former island,
and crime is rare, while the industry of all classes
is proyerbial. So also may it be said of this isl
and, where beer-making and sly distillatiOn are
now rarely known. This good report from Kauai
and Oahu, in so marked a contrast with that from
the windward islands is due, we are firmly per-
suaded, to the fact of the presence among the peo-
pie on the former of an efficient constabulary,
supported by District Justices who faithfully and
impartially execute the law. In the country dis
tricts particularly, in order to ensure the admins
tration Of justice the Police and the Magistrate
must cooperate; for it will be worse than useless
for the former to bring the law-breaker to Court,
if the latter is Predetermined to acquit. Cases
have been reported to us from Hawaii as occur
ring on that island, in which this course has been
the rule, in all liquor prosecutions; and govern
ment officials are aware of these scandalous do
ings. Then why, it will be asked, are such Mag
i~strates continued in Office? Surely, the Govern
ors of the islands and the Justices of the Supreme
Court, with whom rests the power to right these
wrongs, will not be Indifferent to their c~ontinu-
ance when brought to their attention And this
is now distinctly and emphatically dOne,-not
through any roundabout system of red-tape, but
by the PRESS, which, in the discharge of its
bounden duty to the nation whose existence is in
peril through the Aood-tide of intemperance that
is coming upon it, hereby calls upon Governors
Kapena and Kipi of Maui and Hawaii, and their
HonOrs Justices Harris and Judd of the Supreme
Court, to see to it that incompetent and unworthy
men are no longer retained in the Office of the ad-
ministration of the law.
The other considerations to which We referred
just now as having some influence in producing a
laxity Of Observance amounting to a contempt for
law, are those resulting from the force of example.
Example is moro potent than precept everywhere {;
and among no people is this truer than the Ha-
waiians, who are imitators to a peculiar degree of
the practices, good or bad, as well as the manners
of those whom they regard as their superiors.
Thus it follows that a grave responsibility, as to
the example set before the people, will rest upon
those who hold Office or high position in the Gov
eminent Of the country, and, in a less degree,
upon the foreigners who are domiciled here.
Happy the man whose conscience is void of ofFense
in this particular.