letter xx.] THE HAWAIIAN LIQUOR LAWS. 193 



and very cheap, and the natives of both sexes are most expert 

 riders. Among their feats, are picking up small coins from the 

 ground while going at full gallop, or while riding at the same 

 speed wringing off the heads of unfortunate fowls, whose bodies 

 are buried in the earth. 



There are very few foreigners, and they appear on the whole 

 a good set, and very friendly among each other. Many of 

 them are actively interested in promoting the improvement of 

 the natives, but it is uphill work, and ill-rewarded, at least on 

 earth. The four sugar plantations employ a good deal of 

 Chinese labour, and I fear that the Chinamen are stealthily 

 tempting the Hawaiians to smoke opium. 



All the world over, however far behind aborigines are in the 

 useful arts, they exercise a singular ingenuity in devising means 

 for intoxicating and stupefying themselves. On these islands 

 distillation is illegal, and a foreigner is liable to conviction 

 and punishment for giving spirits to a native Hawaiian, yet 

 the natives contrive to distil very intoxicating drinks, spe- 

 cially from the root of the ti tree, and as the spirit is unrecti- 

 fied it is both fiery and unwholesome. Licences to sell spirits 

 are confined to the capital. In spite of the notoriously bad 

 effect of alcohol in the tropics, people drink hard, and the 

 number of deaths which can be distinctly traced to spirit 

 drinking is startling. 



The prohibition on selling liquor to natives is the subject of 

 incessant discussions and " interpellations " in the national 

 legislature. Probably all the natives agree in regarding it as a 

 badge of the "inferiority of colour ; " but I have been told 

 generally that the most intelligent and thoughtful among them 

 are in favour of its continuance, on the ground that if addi- 

 tional facilities for drinking were afforded, the decrease in the 

 population would be accelerated. In the printed " Parliamen- 

 tary Proceedings," I see that petitions are constantly pre- 

 sented praying that the distillation of spirits may be declared 

 free, while a few are in favour of " total prohibition." 

 Another prayer is " that Hawaiians may have the same privi- 

 leges as white people in buying and drinking spirituous liquors." 



A bill to repeal the invidious distinction was brought into 

 the legislature not long since ; but the influence of the descen- 

 dants of the missionaries and of an influential part of the white 

 community is so strongly against spirit drinking, as well as 

 against the sale of drink to the natives, that the law remains on 

 the Statute-book. 



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