The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-07-24

hold servants in a speech OF which the following
is a translation, and which We need hardly say
will be read with interest and earnest approval
by every true friend Of the Hawaiian people.
. SOLDIERS, AND ATTENDANTS or IoLASI PALACE
81 have called you together on this good day
with a view to commencing a good work. Tbers
are not a few in our land who devote this day to
drinking and reveIry. You soldiers, are by your
position and occupation the guardians of the
Throne and the government, and at the same
time a part of my own household and | have
therefore deemed it proper here. in our own
home, to inaugurate a work Of reform, the exam
pie of which may haply extend beyond these
walls.
d" 1t is my desire that we should here for our
selves into q Reform League, the chief object and
ain Of which shall be to abandon and discourage
the use of strong drink.
4" The use of intoxicating drinks is one of the
great causes of misery to our nation. There is n
great prevalence of intemperance, and consequent
sickness among our people, drink ~infaming the
blood, disordering the system, and producing dis
ease and death.
The reports come to us of evils from
every direction-of disturbances and violence and
murder, resulting from the use of intoxicating
drinks. One day, it is a woman who has fallen
a victim, and lost her life as a result of the use
of drink, and the next a man is killed through
the same cause. 1t is time that a strong effort
was made to check the evil.
4" In other countries, the labors of temperance
reformers have for many years been directed to
the suppression of intemperance, and often with
excellent results. You have perhaps heard quite
recently of the doings of the women in some
parts of America, in their crusade against the
liquor traffic. The church, and the various
secret societies discourage intemperance much
good is done by Temperance Societies our laws
are strict but the evil still continues and grows.
Therefore let us, here within these Palace walls,
combine and agree together to give our example
and cur influence against this great evil, the use
Of strong drink.
LET me say to you, that | feel that a heavy
responsibility-a labor deyolyes upon me to find
the means of graduating this great evil from our
nation and | want you to feel that it is upon
yourselves as we'll. If you meet with ridicule,
regard 1t not you will be engaged in a noble
cause,-an earnest endeayor to free yourselves
and your country from a terrible curse a worthy
effort for mental and physical reform.
81 invite you, therefore, to join in an associa-
ton for the suppression of the use of strong
drink. If you take hold of the work with a
true determination, you will succeed, and from
your small beginning there may be great results.
You know that the appetite for strong drink does
not come at once, but by gradual approaches,
until the man becomes enslaved. Thus also it
may be with this work of national reform, here
begun like a grain of mustard-seed, but which
we may have the happiness Of seeing spread all
over the land
1t is satisfactory to know that a majority of
the soldiers have voluntarily signed a pledge OF
total abstinence. for terms varying from six
months to ten years. Let us hope that the
movement thus inaugurated by His Majesty in
his own household will spread all over the islands
and amongst all classes, from government officials
and employees who use the imported article,
down to the common people, who manufacture
and drink tea-root and banana beer and sour
potato.
I The example and influence of the King on the
fight side is unquestionably Il great gain, and we
are duly thankful for it; but the evil of drum
kenness will not be cured thereby-the snake will
be scotched, not killed-so long as men in gov
eminent positions are incorporate and the police
fail to do their duty As long as the laws
remain a dead letter ahd a by-word, whereby the
natives can buy cheap gin in Honolulu or manu-
facture 0kOleha0 and fermented liquors in the
outer districts without interference by the police,
SO long the work of destruction will 60 on. Shall
it be stoppedf