The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-07-19
Letter from KohaIa.


Mr.. EDITOR: Is it not time that the
police authorities turned their attention
to the enforcement of the laws that pro-
hibit fishing with giant powder? Case
after case occurs of men losing their
hands in this business, like the one that
happened last week, and they continue
to ply their trade with the remaining
hand, thus showing that the loss of one
no arrest of these cases has ever been
made, and there are now not less than
six or eight such in this district
1t would seem sometimes that the
more open and bold violation of the
law, the less liable it is to be noticed by
those whose province it is to see that
the laws are executed. For instance,
during the 4th of July races, tent was
erected to the rear of the track, where
twas said that liquors were dispensed,
which showed some of its effects in the
latter part of the day, and that the out
fit belonged to the saloon. Now, no one
likes to introduce an element of discord
on day of jolliticatiOn, and it is posi-
BILE, although not probable, all things
considered, that the foregoing informa-
ton was incorrect. But laW-abiding
citizens do not like to see the law
trampled under foot, and if law is not
made to be enforced, to what purpose
was it made, and why does it exist?
The majority of the better class of
residents in these Islands are committed
to the great movement for reform, but
that reform will be only failure in the
end if its supporters allow fragrant viO-
latiOns of the law to pass unheeded, be-
cause to do otherwise would be disagree
able; and do not show that they "mean
business" right straight through.
Your correspondent agrees with those
who think the new election bill better
be passed and tried. Good government
has nothing to fear from a strictly honest
vote, uninhuenced by anything but
moral forces. And if on trial it should
prove to be not in all points adapted to
the needs OF this country and its pecu-
iiarly mixed population, it had better be
amended after trial, than only to be tried
after being shorn of all it's best points.
l apprehend that the greatest difficulty
to be encountered, in the attempt to
elect by the proposed law, will not arise
from any unfitness of the law itself, but
from the ignorance of a great number of
the voters, who will not know how to
use the ballots so as to have them indi-
cate their choice of the several names
that may be printed thereon.
think that Hon. III. S. Townsend
struck the right chord, in his 4th of July
grafton, when he alluded to the origin
of the revolutionary war, and pointed
out that those engaged in the revolt
were Englishmen, standing up for an
Englishman's boosted ideas of sound
principles and personal rights.
Englishmen are apt to lose sight of
this fact when they harbor their linger-
ing resentment of "Americans'' for get
ting the better of them in that war, and
forget that the victors were only other
fighting for principles that
they (the vanquished) themselves were
proud to boast of as being peculiarly
English. Is this not so?
On the other hand, what American,
while delighting to crow over the sue
cess of his forefathers in that struggle
for independence, is not glad to claim
an English origin? **%
KOhala, July II, 1888.