The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-08-24

financially a. well az morally inter
esUed IN the seizure, in excluding them
from any participation in the opening
Of the chests, and from any but the
most meager and general information
as to their contents.
The G. O. did not open any Of the
tin containers, F" neither did he place
any mark upon any Of them. He was
confident Of their contents-that they
each contained twenty One-haf pound
tins of opium. These tin containers
were very familiar TO all the customs
officers, and were recognized by them
all as genuine, no less so than the
small half-pound tins which they con-
tanned. Therefore, without opening
or marking any Of the twenty-three
containers taken from the chests in
the Custom House, but knowing that
some Of those found in the box opened
on the wharf had been opened and
found to contain opium, the c. O. took
no further heed as TO their contents,
but told Turrill there were $40 tins Of
opium in all, which number was at
once entered in the Port Surveyors
journal as above stated.
No question as 10 the contents of
the containers arose until some weeks
later 1t having been discovered that
the opium had disappeared from GER
tain boxes which, about the same
date, had been sent from the Police
Station to the Custom House, the
officers of the latter bureau made an
examination Of the containers then
remaining in the c. G's office, sup
posed to be the same that were taken
from the F. 7. chests. They were
found TO contain no opium, but only
soil, shells and coral. These contents
were analysed by two chemists, at the
request of the so-called Opium Com
mittee of the Legislature of 1890, and
by them found to be Hawaiian soil,
shells and coral.
The report remarks upon the utter
lack of certainty that the containers
so found to contain earth, ETC., were
the same that had been taken from
the +. I. tea chests, and condemned
the carelessness and negligence of the
G. @. in having placed upon those
containers no marks by which they
could be identified. 1t further holds,
as a fact, and one which the c. G.
admitted in his report to Turrill, that
the chests, when delivered to the
&. e., contained opium of the same
grade as that found in the chest first
opened, and which had been opened
at haphaZard, among many bearing
the same mark, without anything to
distinguish it from the rest. The CO.
incidence is remarked, that where
thirty chests of the same kind, mark
and invoice are found to contain tin
packages of the same shape, size and
appearance, only those packages pub
licly taken from the chests by the
Port Surveyors subordinates, on the
wharf, were found absolutely to con-
tain opium, while those said 10 have
been taken from the chests by, and
kept in the custody Of the c. g., are
found to contain only Hawaiian soil,
shells and coral.
The facilities for the larceny of the
opium from the Custom House,
though the window of the opium
room, opening upon landing of n
stairway leading down into an alley,
and thence to Fort street through n
gate, and TO the open rear of the Gus
tom House, are discussed and Illus
trated, and the conclusion is reached
that the f. T. opium except the sixty
tins sampled upon the wharf, has
been stolen from the Custom House
by some of its employees, and that no
fault being shown to attach to TurriIl
in the premises, he should not suffer
for either the negligence or the dis
honesty of those whose actions he
could not control. The recommended
ton of the report is that Mr.. Turrill
be paid the amount claimed by him.
The report was ordered translated.
Notices of a large number of differ
ent committee meetings were given.
The House adjourned at 2:55 p. NJ.