Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1901-02-15
THEO. RICHARDS ON
TEMPERANCE ISSUES

Theo. Richards. who has been doing
missionary work on the island of Maui,
is home for a few days. He has been
working in the country distric.s Of Ha-
ma and was accompanied by Mr.. Lead
ingham and native quartet. He car
r!ed a stereoptiCon and give lecture
on the life Of Christ. illustrating It
with screen pictures. He states that
the natives In the country. many Of
whom have never seen an entertain.
ment Of any sort. are greatly In
ilucnced by his presentations and he
feels that he is doing effective Chris
tian worr
Mr.. Richards reports that church
work on Maui owes very much to the
muniiicence OF Henry p. Baldwin. who
does not GLOW his left hand to know
what his right is doing. He does his
charitable work under the cover OF
the Maui Aid Society. Miss Annie J..
Malone acts as his agent and makes
visitations to all parts Of the island on
horseback.
Mr.. Richards gave an interesting
story Of the ravages Of the storm on
Maui. He said all public schools were
suspended at Kahului and wailuku for
one week
Work on the Kahului railroad was
suspended and communication with
Paia. broken. Mr.. Richards will return
to Maui next week TO do further church
work under the auspices of the Hawa-
iian Board Of Missions.
Mr. Richards Is especially interested
in the temperance work that has been
going on and believes that public SEN
timcrt Is at a point where positive
legislation upon the subject will be
popular. He said: MY own impression
is that the Independent party will
make a very important move in this
matter at the coming session Of the
Legislature?
Mr.. Emmeluth has bill which he
submitted to me. approve of It I'M
reservediy and | consider 1t an excel
lent law for these Islands. I think the
people should give the Independents a
first class chance to do the best they
can In temperance legislation. believe
the party is united for better liquor
laws and | also believe the big major
ity in the best class of society will
back the party up.
The most COrruptlng thing in the
world 1t seems to me, is the present
law, which allows the request of one
man for liquor license 10 determine
the existence of saloon in CON-
munity.
Il pronounce the license system a
failure IN the Islands. License has not
reduced the Illicit sale OF liquor one
bit. In some localities, I observe that
Illicit liquor selling has run out the
legal dealers. In many instances these
licenses are obtained by men who we're
Illicit dealers in light wine and beer,
merely to make It possible for them Ia
deal illicitly in stronger liquor. They
had broken the law before: they will
break It again. This has been proved
over and over again In many places.
notably in Kona.
ITO reduce the saloon TO dispen-
sary is the wisest plan that can be pro-
posed, as 1t appears to me. Under the
plan, all can get liquor who want It;
treating will he thing of the past
and the revenues of the government
viii be increased. do not see how
anybody except the saloon keeper can
object to the dispensary plan.
THE most important part Of the
bill, in by judgment, is the local option
feature. Now, at the request of one
man, n saloon can be foIsted upon the
community. Under the local option
feature the people themselves will de-
eide whether dispensary is wanted or
not"