The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-12-01

To the Editor Of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (:
SIR: The impartial administration of the law
is the best test of a good government, and no
greater stigma can attach itself to any govern
ment than the charge of a one-sided justice. In
this country, there are some very good laws, for
the prevention of drunkenness, profanity Of Ian
guage, and immortality. 1t is highly desirable
that those laws should be administered both rigid
ly and impartially. 1t would be a crying injustice
to take up the natives of this country for offences
against any or all OF those laws. if the whites are
allowed to commit crimes OF intemperance, bias
phemy and fornication with impunity. To come
to the point-a gentleman in this city had unfor-
tunately occasion to be an ear-witness, in the very
house where he lodged, one night lately, to a bac-
chanalian riot, in which three whites were the
actors, where had drunkenness and blasphemy
were rampant, and he even reason to suspect that
immortality was also on the scene. Now, the very
next day, the same gentleman saw a native Ha
waiian kanaka dragged off to the station-house, in
a state of intoxication by three or four policemen.
1t at once occurred to him as to whether he was
justified in not denouncing to the police, the three
white violators of the law in his own lodgings Of
the previous night. A man who witnesses a
robbery or a murder is bound to denounce the
thief or assassin, and by not doing so he becomes
an %accomplice in their evil deeds. Now, why
should not the same principle be applied to every
case OF violation of>the laws of the land? Why
should not a conscientious, law-abiding subject feel
bound to denounce a drunkard or blasphemer or
fornicator, inst as much as a rObber or a murder
err! This is a delicate question OF conscience. 1t
is horrible to think that white scoundrels, calling
themselves christians, can commit with impunity
crimes of drunkenness and blasphemy, and per-
haps fornication, in the lodging houses of natives,
while some poor ignorant Ednakd, only nominally
a christian, who becomes intoxicated with the
liquor which some unprincipled christian publican
or heather pdke sells him illegally, is made to suf-
fer the penalty of the law for his misfortune in
meeting with some demoralized and law-breaking
dram-sellers. All decent whites in this community
should firmly resolve to tolerate no white black
guardism in their midst. They should consider it
a conscientious duty to jealousy guard that the
laws Furnishing drunkenness, blasphemy and i'm
morality, be rigidly and impartially enforced.
Even the most enlightened countries Of the world
can not boast of such good laws as we have the
happiness to possess. In England and the United
States, immoral vices stalk abroad in the open
day with impunity in France, and other coun-
tries. brothels are regularly licensed by the police.
Thank God, we are better off in our little Hawa-
iian Kingdom in this respect. than the most boast.
ed centres of civilization. To shield the u~nsopbis-
ticated natives of these Islands from the degrading
vices Of the civilized whiteman in his corruption,
is a truly good work, which all good whites
should consider a noble duty. and this can only be
done by cOnscientiously denouncing all white vio-
lators of the laws against drunkenness, blasphemy,
and immortality, without mercy and impartially,
to the officers of justice. Where wickedness riots
unpublished. the doom OF sin is mysteriously mani
tested in ways which an inscrutable Providence
alone designs and comprehends.