The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-04-18

managen% or against any Of the local officials
appointed BIZ the Beard. From no one could we
elicit any VOID Of dissatisfaction, but the expires
sion Of gratitude to the Government for Its watch
full and %paternal care over them was frequently
heard. The ratious Of food were good and ample.
Each leper receives twenty-one pounds Of hard
poi per week, or, If preferred (and if, as some
times happens, the poi is not obtainable) nine
pounds Of rice and one pound Of sugar and six
pounds of fresh beef. One ration of soap is
issued per month TO each individual. Ten bullOcks
on an average, are slaughtered each week for the
consumption of the lepers-the Board has q herd
of 462 head on the place The bullocks are
slaughtered by men who are not diseased. There
are ten lunas, styled constables, selected from
among the most active and intelligent of the
lepers, who wear badges and to whom Is assigned
the charge of the food and the serving It out,
and also the charge Of the property Of the Board.
Those Of the people WHO are able to work and
manifest a disposition TO do so, are at liberty to
choose a plot of ground wherever they like
without of course interfering with others or
6 jumping clains-and thus to q considerable
extent they raise fruits and vegetables. The
Board owns 1000 acres in Kalawao. Tobacco
grows we'll in this valley, and considerable money
is realized from is sale TO parties in Honolulu.
The schooner UUtrick runs regularly between
Kalaupapa and this city, carrying supplies for
the settlement.
Monsieur Ballieu, the French Commissioner,
(who, as we stated before, was one of our party
had brought with him on board the steamer a
number of packages of contributions for distri-
/ hinton an,ODO tho Iapars copsicffDr &C cIofbip,
cloth, oils, toys, necklaces. socks, knives, pipes,
etc, to be confdel to the care of Father Dami-
ems, the selfexilal Catholic priest. The other
persons besides NJ, Ballieu whose donations con-
tributed to swell the list of presents were Mar
shall Parke, Along 81 Achuck, and Messrs. G..
Rhodes, Chas. Long, and f. W. Dunno. The
assembled lepers On the beach warmly expressed
their gratitude TO he Commissioner for the gifts
he had brought, and when he embarked from the
beach they babe him farewell with hearty cheers.
The religious aspirations of the lepers are APP
parently well provided for, as they have no less
than three places of worship, a Catholic church
at Kalaupapa, and both a Catholic and a Protes-
tant church at Kalawao. The Rev. Mr.. Kaholo-
kahiki, a regularly ordained minister under the
Hawaiian Board, himself a leper, oficiates in the
Protestant church. There are also two school
houses at Kalawao, where the children, of whom
there are some twenty-five of both sexes in the
settlement, receive instruction in Hawaiian. We
saw groups of leper children at play, seeming to
enjoy themselves just like other children and it
seemed ~incongruOus enough to US. But after all,
we ourselves appeared to be the only ones par
ticularly sad in this valley of the shadow of
death on that day.
There is one Objectionable feature about this
leper settlement, for the existence of which how
ever the Board of Health are in no wise response
bic, and which they would be glad to get rid Of.
the original inhabitants, who are not lepers.
These are known as {" kokuas," or assistants,
but their principal occupation appears to consist
in assisting the lepers to consume their rations.
They do little or no work will not improve the
opportunity afforded to raise taro to sell to the
Board pasture their animals ad Hbitum on the
government land live on the lepers; are the au-
thors of evil reports, and are a bad lot generally.
They own kuleanas in the neighborhood, and so
cannot be forced to leave the district without a
special act of Parliament-whinh 1T ia to be
hoped will be passed for their benefit during the
coming Sassian
Having spent fully three hours in the examina-
ton Of the lepers and their surroundings. we
babe them farewell, and amid their cheerful aloha
mus re-embarked on the Kilauea and took our
departure for Honolulu. We had passed through
an experience that was painful and saddening
witnessed scenes of human misery that we shall
never forget and although nothing short Of ao-
k-nI I-k- r-,ll IA-,-E - - - l.