Speech of an Anti-Maine- Liqim'- Law Orator, 213 



that every description of spirituous liquor should be prohib- 

 ited to be sold to tlie natives ; Ravaai, on the other hand, 

 spoke in favour of the enactment, and in the course of his 

 speech remarked : ''If the use of spirituous liquors were in 

 itself criminal, as some persons maintain, we should not see 

 it in every-day use by the Europeans living amongst us, our 

 pioneers in the path of civilization. It is only excess, abuse, 

 that are punishable. This we must expect to have to punish, 

 but do not rob us of an inherent right by a sumptuary and 

 unnatural prohibition. Your declarations concerning murder, 

 incendiarism, ruffianism, all which you adduce as the results 

 of the use of brandy, are but oratorical flourishes : spirituous 

 liquors, the misuse of which I equally with yourselves depre- 

 cate, have, no doubt, produced disorders, but these have 

 been suppressed, and if our island had no farther ills to 

 encounter we might rejoice this day over a future of such 

 prosperity and promise ! Such, unfortunately, is not the 

 case ! People tell us of murders and robberies ! Go the round 

 of the island ! go from Mahaena to Punaruu, from Papenoo 

 to Taapua, and a variety of other places — climb the moun- 

 tain to the very summit of Fautdua ; ask at these abodes of 

 sorrow, baptized with noble blood, and covered with honoured 

 graves ! Say what has filled the graves of Mahaena with 

 human bones ? Is it the unlimited use of S23irits, or is it not 

 rather the ignorance begotten of fanaticism run mad, whicli 

 disloyally put weapons into your hands ? But the graves are 

 dumb ; and certain persons present may at this moment 



