The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-10-13
WEDNESDAY
THE LEGISLATURE.

The Legislative Assembly yesterday
finished the second reading of the Opium
License bill, the enacting clause being
carried by majority of nineteen to six
teen. The bill was amended in way
to greatly change its original character,
but it still remains Objectionable in
many of its details. In short, it is
piece of patchwork legislation which
cannot be put into operation. 1t is,
therefore, waste of space to discuss it;
but there are certain features of the
measure which may be referred to with
some chance of doing good.
First of all, we object to the provision
that license to import and sell opium
for the entire Kingdom, even for two
years, should be granted to 8" some one
applying therefor" no matter what
amount of money may go into The Treas
ury for such license. 1t is a power which
the King in Cabinet Council should not
exercise, and which the Legislature
should not impose upon the Government.
The opium license, if there is to be one,
should be open to competition. 1t should
not be granted in secret to some person
applying therefor Everything about
such licenses should be open and above
board. The bill, as it passed its second
reading, imposes this duty upon the
King in Cabinet Council, and thus en-
tails upon the Government a suspicion
of favoritism and jobbery, however dis
interested and pure their action in the
premises may be.
Several new clauses were added to the
bill, also amendments giving greater
stringency to the measure. In the mat
ter of granting medical certificates an
improvement in the way of response
bility has been made, this privilege
being now confined to medical practi-
TONERS licensed by the Board of Health
There is a prospective harvest of fees
before the medical faculty under this
amendment The substitute bill was
not so generous, as it divided the certifi-
cate business with kahunas licensed by
the Hawaiian Board of Health. OF
course we do not suppose for an instant
that any regular practitioner would
abuse this provision of the law, but ii
is clearly open to gross abuse, which in
itself is a glaring defect of the bill.
We need not pursue this analysis
further, as all the material points are
brought out in our report of the proceed
ings in the Legislature. In this connec-
ton, however, we refer our readers to a
letter by the Right Rev. DIR. Willis,
Bishop of Honolulu, on the subject of
the Opium bill, which appears in another
column, and is well worth perusal and
reflection, more especially by native
Hawaiians.
After the Opium bill had been disposed
of, the regular order of the day was
called, and the amending Loan Act came
up for final passage. 1t was read third
time, when His Excellency the Attorney
General moved the addition of proviso
limiting borrowing on the faith of the
public credit to 100000, unless pro-
vison were first made to redeem the bonds
to be issued under the Act This was in
the line of conservative finance, and would
be an efectual bar to reckless borrowing
by any Ministry, at the instigation OF
financial exploiters or otherwise.
Strange to say, it was opposed by Mr..
Cecil Brown and others of the Opposi-
ton, who preached against borrowing
all through the session. A native mem
Der of the Opposition party moved the
indefinite postponement of the amend
ment, but a motion by the Attorney
General to call the names on the divi-
sion resulted in his complete discom-
future, and motion by Mr.. Aholo to de-
fer its further consideration until
Wednesday was agreed TO. The House
then adjourned, about 3 o'clock, thus
wasting couple OF hours which might
have been proftably spent in passing
several bills on the Secretary's file.
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