Hawaii Holomua, Volume II, Number 49, 28 February 1894 Edition 02 — Something Rotten. [ARTICLE]

Something Rotten.

During former regimes the Advertiser and the Reform party were profuse in condemning and "showing up" the police and custom authorities and in a most reckless manner accusing them of corruption. Why is the morn ing organette so silent now? Why is it that the lynx eyed editor of that paper no longer quotes the price of opium, the amount of it in town, the sales of it, the drawings of Che fa and pakapio, and the misdeeds and criminal neglects of the officials supposed to prevent crimes and misdemean ors in the community? The reform party is now in power and a a consequence the missionaries will claim that all corruption has eased and that the government is absolutely immaculate. But we ask how is it that opium today is more plentiful and much cheaper than has ever yet been the case? How is it that the new custom house officials have not

yet made one single seizure although the price of the stuff and the few raids made by the police prove that the contraband article passes through the gates and under the very noses of the Collector General and his employees? While the guards display great activity in opening the hand-bags and trunks of passengers by the steamers, and while they with owllike wisdom unpack and scrutinize every apple, peach or pear imported—and then eat most of them—, they never happen to

come across the packages containing opium. We do not know if this is due to corruption or to the inability and ignorance of the present guards, but the fact remains that the town is simply flooded with the drug and that, since the P. G. got into power, there has been imported enough opium to supply the Chinese here for more than three

years to come at a very moderate price. The police force is no better that the custom officials. An occasional raid is of course make, and one or two tins of opium seized or a few Japanese hauled up for gambling, but the big games are running with more impunity than ever, the opium joints are in full blast, and every

conceivable kind of vagabonds, and vagrants are infesting the town. Marshal Hitchcock who is about the poorest official which we ever have had devotes his time in listening to the dilapidated spies who stuff his ears with the most impossible yarns and make the poor gullible man see conspiracies and smell treason in every corner and in every house. If the government ever expects to gain the respect leave alone the confidence of the community they should begin to eliminate politics from the administration and look forward to an efficient and honorable execution of the old law.