The heavy licence imposed on
the liquor dealers, and the prohibition against selling to the
natives are an infringement of our civil rights, binding not only
the purchaser but the dealer against acquiring and possessing
property. Then, Mr. President, I ask, where lies virtue, where lies
justice? Not in those that bind the liberty of this people, by
refusing them the privilege that they now crave, of drinking
spirituous liquors without restriction. Will you by persisting that
this law remain in force make us a nation of hypocrites? or will you
repeal it, that honour and virtue may for once be yours, O Hawaii."
A committee of the Assembly, in reporting on the question of the
prohibition of the sale of intoxicants to anybody, through its
chairman, Mr. Carter, stated, "Experience teaches that such
prohibition could not be enforced without a strong public sentiment
to indorse it, and such a sentiment does not prevail in this
community, as is evidenced by the fact that the sale of intoxicating
drinks to natives is largely practised in defiance of law and the
executive, and that the manufacture of intoxicating drinks, though
prohibited, is carried on in every district of the kingdom." So the
question which is rising in every country ruled or colonised by
Anglo-Saxons, is also agitated here with very strong feeling on both
sides.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350