The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1869-01-27
CoRnREsPoNDENCE.

Editor Of the HaiOGiian GGzette-DeGr Sir:
If you will permit an observer-thongh
not an uninterested oue-of the recent dis
cussion on the measures taken by the Board
of Health in regard TO the protection CT the
public against the smallpox, to review,
briefly, few points bearing on the question,
am in hopes that it may have some effect
to allay the fears in the minds of some poo
pie, caused, undoubtedly, by such discus
sion. 1t seems that those, who took the
occasion to create discussion against the
members of the Board of Health are, becom-
Ing satisfied with their efforts in that direc-
tion and, as they are ardent searchers after
the public good, they are no doubt now en-
gagged in searching for other delinquencies
on the part Of Government officials, which
demand their attention. They will be sue
cessful, no doubt, in their efforts, because it
is quite impossible for them to exist without
some cause of complaint. Therefore, the
dear public may look for some new horror,
and as such things generally increase in mag
nitude, some horror worse than the small
pox may be expected. You know, Mr.. Ed
itor, we are constantly passing through
crisis, which, were it not for the constant
and watchful care of an Independent and
Fearless Public Press, would overwhelm and
crush us. We are, at one time, about to be
ground into the dust by an INSCRIPTIONS
Ministry; at another, plunged into hopeless
ignorance by an incompetent Board of Edu-
cation; at still another, by the criminal neg
ligence and vacilation of the Board of Health,
the land is about to be desolated BY a fright
full disease, when the Independent and Fear
less Public Press calamity ranges itself on
the side of wronged, oppressed, and be-
trayed people, aud wards off the calamity
The gauntlet we have just run through, the
smallpox, is a signal example OF the watch
ful care our great Conservation has over u.s.
We all know that several months ago, when
it became known here that the smallpox
was raging in San Francisco, in a virulent
form, that the Board Of Health did not quar-
antne vessels arriving here from that port,
but, on the contrary, eontented itself with
simply distributing vaccine matter, and ac-
the physicians 10 the country to vaccinate
the whole of the people, so far as was pos
sible and that they actually had vaccinated
over 5000 of the oppressed people in Homo
II. Ii
arrived here in the Idaho. Since then, in
stead of enforcing the most rigid quarantine
regulations-which the Board has the I'M
doubted power to dO,-it has been satisfied
with taking care that cases of smallpox shall
be isolated, and that anything, liable to be
infected with the disease, shall not be landed
until it is properly fumigated; at the same
time, it has redoubled its efforts to make the
vaccination more general 1t is also proba-
Bile that planters and Others, who have num-
bers of laborers upon whom they depend for
cultivating the soil, and gathering their
crops, are also jealous in the work, if for no
other reason than for their own protection
All those, whose fortune it was to witness
the fearful ravages of the disease in question
during the summer of 1853, know then that
vaccination proved a certain guarantee
against it. But you must know that times
have changed. The idea of vaccination is
exploded; and the Independent and Fearless
Public Press seems to have forgotten that
there ever was such thing, for we have
seen that during all the danger, through
which we have passed, it has not said one
word TO encourage the outraged people to
take the proposed precaution, but has rather
thought it It's high duty to attempt to excite
and frighten the public, which, thanks to the
general and blind want of confidence on the
part of the public for its great protector, has
not been so demoralizing as it might have
been. 1t is not the province of the indie
pendent and Fearless Public Press to instruct
the people how to guard and protect them
selves against disease. 1t is the province of
an Independent and Fearless Public Press to
stand as bulwark between the people and
the encroachments of Power The hide
pendent and Fearless Public Press does not
fight against the smallpox or anything else
except Power. What protection do you, or
l, or any one else, want against anything ex-
cept Power And would like to ask you,
Mr. Editor, and through you, the people, in
the name of the Independent and Fearless
Public Press, Why is it that sus should pro
tect ourselves against the smallpox by vac
cination, when Power viii be responsible to
us If we get the disease, and if we die Of it,
Power win be responsible to outraged hu-