The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-02-06
SALE OF LIQUOR
IN THE ISLANDS

Rev. o. p. Emerson of the Hawaiian
Board writes as follows in the Friend:
There is coming to be among US most
urgent need for more serious legislation
on this whole subject-of the use of alco-
hol, opim, ava and tobacco
Take the single matter of the tobacco
habit. There should be law against its
use by minors. Such laws have been
formulated in the best centers of civil
lizatien. The French havesawakened to
the necessity of such action and are pro-
tecting their school children.
Not so here; it is common sight to
see native and Portuguese children of a
tender age smoking on the streets, and
II never yet heard of a policeman inter
fering with this pernicious practice.
There is the use of opium which is on
the increase among the Hawaiians-
something should be done to check the
spread among them of this ruinous habit.
The late strangely rapid increase of al
coholism among us has not yet startled
us into vigorous action. The phenom-
email multiplication of saloons during the
past year is a matter for which the gov,
eminent will be held accountable when
history is written. n
L am told that often on Mondays num-
bers of the school children of a certain
district are foundsto be incapacitated for
study because on Sundays they are piled
with liquor till stupid.
At present in the rural districts it is
not uncommon to see natives drunk at
all hours of the day, which years .ago
was an almost unheard-of thing. Travel
ling as / do through the group, having
during the last thirteen years visited
each of the larger islands more than
twenty-five times, 1 have the opportuni-
ty to watch the condition of the natives
and make yearly comparisons and L give
it my opinion that there never was so
MI har
is now.
For this state of things the newly es-
tablished saloons are chargeable and ul-
the responsibility rests with the
government.
Not only do the saloons ply their trade
most industriously, in certain districts
they are abetted in it by the habits of
the officers of the law. I am told that
one of the philanthropic men on the
island of Maui has been in the habit of
buying up the liquor licenses for certain
districts of that island and pocketing
them. This he did till the licenses be-
came so many he could not afford to buy
them up and longer fend off the govern
ment from it's ruinous action.
1t is said that it is the native vote
that is carrying these measures 1t is
really the pressure of the liquor business
which accomplishes the result. The Ha-
waiian legislator can be appealed to-he !
is amenabIe to influence of the right |
kind.
In 1854 during the reign of Kameha- |
meha Fifth, a strong effort was made to !
do away with an enactment of those !
days which prohibited the sale of liquor |
to HawaiianS 1t was urged that it was |
unfair to make such partial legislation, |
that if liquor was good for the white |
man 1t was also good for the native a |
bill was accordingly formulated which |
was intended to do away with the re- |
striction. 1t was presented to the House !
and was received with much favor by |
both the king and the Legislators and
was about to be passed, when the speech /
Of single native killed it.
That man was Nahaoleelua, represen-
-ative from the town of Lahaina. He
md said: II have observed when white
men visit the saloons they go by twos
and threes and over the liquor which
hey drink they clink their glasses.
What does that clink mean? 1t is the
link over the drink of death. Men do
lot do SO when they are thirsty for wa
er; each goes to help himself and there
s no clinking of glasses for that is the
rink of life" On the vote being taken
he bill was tabled by an overwhelming
majority
reused public sentiment will do much
oward setting aside the vicious legisla-
ion and enacting good laws that shall
elp to conserve the life and well-being
f the Hawaiian people.