The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-04-01

who did not take away or reduce your
wages but, on the contrary, increased
wages by opening new lands, and enlarged
your means of living by creating new mar
kets for your stock and produce, so that we
all clearly see a notable advance of prices
within five or six years. In 1873, a good
horse would sell for SO, a bullock SIS. a
sheep 81, n turkey 90 cents, a fat fowl -
cents. and poi less than one cent a pound.
Now, in lSS2, the same kind of horse sells
for 500, the bullock $50, the sheen 81, the
turkey -, the fowl Sl25, and poi > TO 3
cents per pound. The HaWaiians, along
with the old resident foreigners, have got
the benefit of these advances in price, for
which the strangers have paid, and will
continue 10 pay more and more. There l.,
of course, a grievouS :ad feature i'm our
schemes OF immigration, thus far, in having
permitted such an excess of males over
females to come into the country. This
excess must be corrected, and guarded
against. Let industrial enterprises und r
Government regulations provide, as re-
Gently determined in a convention of
planters, the labOrers they need and Go
only look to the Introduction of
families, and to promote as much aS pos
sible the equalization of the sexes in this
Kingdom And l trust that the next Legis-
lature Will so guard any appropriations for
the immigration of women and children,
that money for such object will be spent in
accordance with Legislative instruction.
The third questionable regulation of onr
labor system-is not only of paramount inn
p%Ortance at home, but perhaps affects more
than any other our character abroad. Our
present laws in relation TO labor have been
largely dictated by a spirit to promote the
welfare of the working man. An enlightened
spirit of humanity, and regard for the rights
OF our fellow man, must dictate all enact
mentS to regulate the relations between
master and servant, employer and en-
plOyed. The greed of wealth must have no
opportunity to make unworthy gains out of
the ignorance and helplessness of fellow
hns.,n- . odd tINAnn Ax-s. e.. -nAl- - 1fr-fa -.
by the toll of their hands must have no
opportunity to shirk a fair and honest EN-
gagement of labor. Our Courts of Justice
must be equally accessible to employer and
employed and there should be especial
provision to aid immigrants from strange
lands, ignorant of our laws and language,
to obtain justice. Such strangers coming
here in bodies, through immigration enter
prise, should be provided under our laws
with duly appointed protectors. The So
called protector" being, in fact, a special
agent of the new people, approved by our
Board of Immigration, to receive the COM
plants of labOrers, to aid in bringing them
before our Courts of Justice, and thus avoid
all diplomatic resort and question, which
must be the case without some such special
agency or protection. Our labor system
and our labor laws will, | trust, receive very
careful consideration, and receive such
modification or addition as may be deemed
best for the welfare of the country, at the
hands of legislators during the next session
OF the Assembly.
The fourth question / now bring forward
-" the license or prohibition of alcoholic
beverages has assume a terrible pro-
minence i'll the affairs of the kingdom.
Recent Custom-house statistics show that
the great sum of $l77, 126 has been paid in
one year for duties on alcoholic beverages
imported into the kingdom. Now, when
w" estimate the first cost of liquors and
other imported drinks, the profit of i'm
porters and jobbers, and the final profit of
Il L --l A. - IL IL
/ think [ am not mistaken or eXagerating
when l say hat nearly a round million of
dollars is paid by consumers in one
year in Hawaii nei for imported drinks.
Do the prudent foreigners, who are accu-
mulating wealth in your Islands, think
you, consume any large proportion of these
imported drinks Do the plOdding Chinese
who are necessarily engaged in some work
or trade, take up much time in orgies of
drink and debauch You know they do
not. They drink moderately at occasional
~feasting times and there are some foreign
ers who drink to excess. But, considering
their small number, and the
ness of the Chinese, what people, we must
ask, are the chief consumers of imported
drinks in our islands costing a million dol
lars in a year? Who are they, my friends
Alas must we not say, will you not be
forced to say, that the Hawaiian people
are the chief consumers of the imported
drinks that cost so much money? And
this consumption is accomplished in
spite of a taboo, of the restrictions of
a prohibitory law. And what blessing is Sc
cured by so much Jealous endeavor to obtain
that which is forbidden ? You evidently care
more for imported drinks than all other imported
articles put together, in view OF the money that
is spent. But will not enquire further about
the blessing there may be in the qualification of
any inordinate appetite. Hawaiians have ac-
CURED an inordinate appetite for alcoholic
drinks, the active promoters of disease and I'M
timely death in these islands and tbUs are
cursed and not blessed.
Now, some say that the excess of use is pro-
NOTED by the restriction. The forbidden graft
tication becomes Il coveted delight. All if /
could believe that the Withdrawal of restriction
from free use of alcoholic drinks, in respect to
Hawaiilns would promote Indifference to these
drinks and q decline of ~nsumpti l would
feel happy in voting for the removal of all re-
s%trictions upon Their sale and consumption
among Hawaiians. Bnt ] fear the result know
it will be in vain to devise measures for the
sanitary welfare of Hawaiians if they continue
the present consumption of imported and home
manufactured alcoholic drinks. And it will APP
pear absurd, to vote for say, one hundred thou
sand dollars of public money for sanitary mea-
sures, especially intended for Hawaiians, when
it is understood that they pay out of their own
pockets and out of the sweat of their own brows,
several hundreds of thousands of dollars for an
injurious qualification.
Prohibition to all classes of people of the i'm
portation. Manufacture, and consumption of
alcoholic beverages, is said by many earnest
thinking men of the country, to be the only safe
guard, and the only way to promote the general
welfare of the country. And this has been re-
Gently declared by a body of earnest men. But
it is right and proper for the philanthro-
pist, and for all good men desiring a common
welfare, to advocate prohibitions and the total
avoidance of every kind of pernicious habit or
sin yet it is another matter for the responsible
man, the legislator or administrator of
aw, to try to enforce good conduct and the
of bad habits. I would to God, that
of this day, knew no more of alcohol
c drinks than Hawaiians did before the arrival
Il foreigners. But you have acquired the habit
If using imported drinks, and whilst praying,
rou, and trying to instruct you to care for your
selves, by avoiding the use of destructive
| would no longer have your
restrained by a discriminating taboo, any
more than l would take Il part in forcing an un-
beverage down your throats. / shall
,ejoice if total prohibition will be accepted by
he concurrence Of the people. l will contend
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