The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-03-19
DOESN'T WANT OFFICE.
But Bishop Willis Likes Our Sug-
gestiOn.
Opium Detective General Recommends
ed to Pray Upon Contraband
Goods - Heavier Penalties.

MIR. EDITOR-With ore exception,
viz, the suggesting beforthand the in
cumbent of an Office not yet created,
it occurs to me that your article this
morning has pointed out the true and
only way for effectually breaking up
the opium ring
Let the Legislature create for the
next two years an opium detective gen
eraI, with the fullest powers of entry
here, there and everywhere; let the in
cumbent of the office be a man who will
do his duty, like the Auditor General,
without fear or favor; let the penalties
for smuggling or conniving at Snug
CLING be largely increased. Such dras-
tic measures as those by which Japan
got rid of the evil cannot be enforced
here; for there, if 1 am rightly inform
ed, no one was given a chance of yield
ing to the temptation a second time; but
if twelve months of hard labor were
melted out to all, without respect of
persons, and not allowed to be COM
muted for fine, and if all contraband
opium, instead of being stored in the
custom house, were dumped into mid
ocean under the supervision of the de-
tective-general, then, it strikes me,
some result would follow.
But, further, the practice of giving
a large share of the spoils to the de-
tective officer should be discontinued.
There is no reason in equity why an
officer should have special rewards for
doing his duty in one direction which
he does not have for performing it in
another. To show that the result of this
system may be the reverse of what is in
tended, 1 will refer to well-intention-
ed attempt to apply it in another matter
In which 1t proved signal failure.
On the outskirts of the north of Lon
don a benevolent lady, the owner of a
large estate, was much distressed at the
frequent raids made in the spring by
the boys of the neighboring parishes
into the woods, undeterred by warnings
to trespassers, to rob the birds of their
nests and eggs. After long and deep
cogitation her ladyship hit upon plan
by which to create among the boys
themselves a special police for enforc-
ing the prohibitory law. Going the
rOunQ OF the SCHOOLS, the IdQy mar
angued the boys on the naughtiness of
robbing the poor little birds of their
nests, and, to encourage the sympathy
that her words inspired, offered six
pence reward to any and every boy
who could catch any other boy red
handed with nest or eggs in his hand
1t seemed to her ladyship that the
scheme was working admirably. Two
boys would arrive, one wearing a tri-
umphant air, the other looking down
cast and detected, with a nest in his
hand.
please ma'am," said the triumphant
sprig, 81 found this boy coming home
with this nest from wood"
"Good boy" here's sixpence for you"
And as soon as that sixpence was
changed the good boy gave the bad boy
half. Then another couple would ar
rive. And so it went on, day after day.
1t was not long before it became well
known in the neighborhood that slim
ulous had been given to bird-nesting,
such as there had never been before.
But it was some time before this be-
nevolent person was convinced that she
had been paying two boys three pence
apiece for every nest they could find.
ALFRED WILLIS.
March 10, 1896.