The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-06-08
r e p Q r T
SPECIAL SANITARY COMMITTEE
cT,TF OF THE LEPER SETTLEMENT
AT a WA O.
To + HONORABLE G. RHODES,
President Of tie Legislature assembly :

Board of Health, and for the prevention of spread of leprosy,
beg to submit a Report of their visit to the Leper Settlement
at KaIawaO.
Your Committee chartered the steamer Kilauea-hou to
transport the Committee, along with invited physicians, to
the landing at Kalaupapa,-to include a stay of two or three
days, and return to this port,-for the sum of five hundred
dollars.
Nine of your Committee, in company with Doctors Hut
Crimson, Whitney, Kittredge and Tisdale, left port on board
the Kilauea-hou May 9th, at 5 p. m, and were landed at
Kalaupapa the following morning.
The Iepers of the Kalawao Settlement were assembled at
this point in large numbers, and greeted the Committee III a
kindly and impressive manner. The Chairman and mem
bers of the Committee addressed the unfortunate people
stating the object of the visit, to obtain fuller and more pre-
else information for the Legislative Assembly and for the
nation in regard to their condition, with a view to measures
of ameioration if needed.
a gift of one hundred dollars from Her Majesty the Queen
Dowager was placed by the Chairman in the hands of Rev.
Father Damien to be distributed according to his judgment
among the most needy of the lepers.
After short enquiry it was deemed best to carry on the
investigation at the Kalawao Hospital; and your Committee
and physicians in company, being provided with horses, rode
to the hospital, distant about three miles from the Kalaupapa
landing.
At the hospital there were assembled several hundred
Iepers, and they were distinctly and repeatedly invited, as
had been done at Kalaupapa, to make complaint of any
grievances they suffered understand it was announced by
the Committee, that if any one felt that he or she was wrong
fully detained in the settlement as a leper; such person was
invited to come forward and be examined by the accompany
ing physicians,-being assured Of the protection and kindly
DISPOSITION of the Committee.
Your Committee listened patiently to the complaints and
statements of over thirty lepers, and append herewith a YER
baim report of their several wants and grievances. They
visited the wards of the hospital. They examined the dwell
ings and manner of living of lepers residing outside the hos
pital. They visited and made enquiries at the settlement
store. They were present during the b%utchering of animals
in the slaughterhouse. They witnessed the digging of Il
grave by lepers, and the burial of a leper. They noticed
the animals of the settlement, and in fine observed during a
stay of nearly two days, as far as it was possible, every par
ticnar relating to the condition of the lepers, and the admin
istration of the Board of Health at KaIawao, and the Com
mittee present as the result of their observations the follow
inc statements and recommendations.
The situation of the Kaawao settlement seems very desir-
able. a table land or bench, with an area of about s square
miles, and an average elevation OF 100 feet, Is bounded on
one side by the ocean, and landward by a stupendous and
almost insurmountable wall of bold bluffs, rising at the pass
to the height OF 1000 feet above the sea. This lofty back.
ground of the settlement arrests the trade wind clouds, and
causes a frequency of showers, and a luxuriance of verdure,
at any other points along the coasts of the Islands. There
fore kaIawao presents scenery of great natural beauty,
and would be regarded anywhere as an attractive place Of
residence.
beauty and verdure is associated with a great deal of moist
atmosphere, and makes it only the more important that hab-
itatOns, especially for invaGds, should afford a complete
shelter against any inclemency of weather. Of the houses
visited by your Committee, many were ~commodious and
well built of lumber, and equal to the average tenement con-
structed by Hawaiians on their own lands; but a large num-
Der are too small and of too slight a construction to afford a
proper shelter. In a hut loft. by ST., visited by your Com
miuee, four lepers made their home. This hut was con-
structed of haa OF pandanus stems, leaned to against one
another, and merely forming a roof without walls aISlE wbcb
was covered with a thatch OF partly ferns and sugar cane
the winds and rains,-and it is the opinion of the Committee
that patients who cannot, or will not provide a better shelter
for themselves, should be provided with LODGING in HosnitaI
grounds under the Immediate supervision of the Superintend-
ent of the Settlement.
1t is proper to state here, that Of 800 patients now residino
on KalawaO lands, not more than sixty are cared for within
Hospital grounds, and the main body of go Iepers live in
cabins or huts, chiefly built by themselves, of material which
they have purchased and shipped to the Settlement : and if
is to be observed that the lepers have only consulted their
own fancies or tastes in the selection of situations or co6struc-
ton of dwellings so that, whilst some are well situated and
and in unfavorable situations. Furthermore, in many bus
not a suficency of mating was found. Not more than two,
and in some cases only one mat, separated the invalid from
the hardness of a board floor, or from the dampness of a dirt
floor.
AS much complaint was made by lepers in respect to insult
fciency of food, your Committee gave especial attention to
this matter. They understood from the Assistant Superin-
tendent, Rev. Damien, that the regulation supply of food, is
one bundle of taro, to weigh twenty-one pounds, along with
six pounds of beef. for one week. The Committee saw some
bundles of taro which weighed fully twenty-one pounds =
but it must be observed that this was in the wrapping of HI
leaves and as the bundle of tarO prepared and sold by
Hawaiians, varies, as is we'll known, in weight 1t may be,
as stated by Keoni Kaahaihanu, (see appendlX) one OF the
lepers. that sometimes the bundle of tarO only weighed about
sixteen pounds, and when Invested of three or four pounds OF
Xxi leaves, will leave only twelve or thirteen pounds OF taro,
which would not be sufficient food for a Hawaiian with an
ordinary appetite. J. III. Napela, once acting Superlnten-
dent, said that bundles often fell short of weight. And your
Committee are of opinion that six pounds of beef, as cut by
the butcher, with a certain proportion of bone, is rather a
scant supply of animal food for one individual for one week.
The supplementary articles of food, rice and bread, which
examined and found to be of good quality. The Assistant
T0oroinn fnfnH fbat aIfhap T1nnn nnnnS al Jnp