The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-10-12
The Board of Health and the Lepers.

Mr.. EDITOR The manner in which the Board
of Health had lepers removed from this Island last
week, demands public comment.
About thirty-four persons, supposed to have the
leprosy, we're taken summarily from their houses
in the District of Waikiki and vicinity, on Friday,
by the Police authorities, and the next morning
were taken TO Maslaea Bay, rs they were informed
and believed, to be examined by DIR. McKibbin.
The Minister of the Interior and DIR. McKibbin
landed from the steamer " Likelike,'' and after a
brief examination, thirty of the thirty-four were
ordered into the boats, and taken on board the
" LikeEike,'' and were taken directly to the Leper
settlement at Molokai that day.
OF these thirty persons, some were mothers taken
from their families Of little children, some were
husbands and fathers, and some were children.
None of them had been previously examined, and
owing TO the want of time for preparation, and the
deception used, some of them were utterly UMPIRE
pared to go, not even having their necessary cloth
ing. And not one of them had time to arrange
his affairs.
And now, on the few minutes examination of
one physician, those people are practically doomed
to death.
Mr.. Editor, L denounce the action of the Board
of Health in that case as outrageous, cruel, and
most impolitic. And from the feeling which has
been openly manifested by natives and foreigners,
l am led to believe that a repetition of such action
would be met with violent resistance. 1 feel indig-
nant, for the Minister of the Interior knows as
well as / do, or ought to know, the gradual and
growing opposition which has been manifested
among the Hawaiians, during the past year or two,
against sending lepers to the settlement at Molokai
and he knows that the feeling was shared by many
of the Hawaiian Representatives at the opening of
the late session of the Legislature, and that numer-
GUS petitions were addressed to the Legislature
from various parts of the group. praying that no
more lepers be sent away, but that Hospitals be
established on each Island for them.
Every member of the Legislature who was present
at the session knows that Hon. W. NJ. Gibson, the
member from Lahaina. did the country valuable
service in endeavoring to overcome the opposition
thus manifested.
He was no more impressed with the Importance
of the subject than some other members, but he
was very instrumental in overcoming the opposition,
and securing a larger appropriation than ever before
for the care of the lepers. 1t is well known that
it was repeatedly urged with all earnestness that
more pains should be taken than in the past that
the following principles should be adopted
There should be a system of registering the names
of all supposed to have the disease that they
should then be subjected to treatment, and finally
that no one should be sent to Molokai as incurable,
except on the decision of not less than three ply
sicians.
principles, and with the welfare of the country
in view, and | have no hesitation in asserting
that every intelligent person in the Kingdom who
is familiar with the subject will endorse these prin-
ciples.
But in the action of the Board of Health here
last week, every one of these principles have been
disregarded.
The Board Of Health may say that they had no
Government Physician on Maui to make the exam
~ination, and they could not afford to pay a physi-
clan to take time for it, and that had such an
examination been made, some of them would have
and concealed themselves.
In the first place the Board of Health should
have 8 physician on Maui and if they had none,
the expense Of paying for the special service would
have been money well expended, and had some of
the lepers escaped, for 9 time, the evil would
have been slight compared to the effect of the
course which has been adopted.
Not only my own judgement and sense of right
have prompted this expression, but some of the
residents Of Waikiki have urged me to 1t as repre-
sentative for the District. WILLIAM o. SMITH.
Wailuku, Maui, Oct. 5, 1873.