The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-07-02
THE PACIFIC
Commercial A0bentset.
JULY >, 1881
SATURDAY

\ zeaIons official thou /" not a member
Of the Board Of Health says we were more
" vicious than uspi, in last Saturdays
Issue. Lceauza We serted that our health
~oUtboritfes had -Ct met the first approach
Of the small-1@ epidemic by the exercise
nj the Lroycige expected at their hands;
this mart, stating that the meaning oGSur
article as, that ships laden with chinese
immtaants should have been tIScned away
f,or our Port; and that no course short of
tbs could have been eDectual" and asks
what knowledge h9d any living man, a
J resident here, in Me Government or ont
Of il previous 70 the 18th January when the
Ouinta saue1away from our Port, that she
had hadIhe smallpox on board" And
thee insists that the ADVERTISER speak out
I'D suggest what reasonable measure the
Government could have adopted in ordert to
prevent the coming in Of this disease by
the Quinta - Or d" for ever after hold our
peace"
Well, if we aid hold our peace, the bones
Of the SAND pits Of Kahakaaulana would cry
out. Or a voice of the living like that of
Hon. :. X. Kaai, standing up before the
NEDDACA III EAAA cA AL7A @tN AGdA =
Day, would say; "you, the health author
tiles, allowed a steamer, the Australia,
coming from a port infected with smallpox
to land, on the 2Sth December last, passen-
gers without quarantine, and when a case
broke out in town; orders were issued con-
trary to right and justice hat steerage pas
sengers be placed under quarantine, while
cabin passengers were allowedto go at large,
because perhaps the hannel shirts Of the
Storage, were more liable to infection that
the broadcloth Of the cabin And would
not some voice speak OF all the warning
given by he coming Of the C~assandra; or
10y the coming OF any ship from the great
and pOpuIous Empire of hundreds of mill
Iions Of people known to every medical
man, and reader Of the history of human
diseases to nave been the original habitant,
and constant nursing ground of smallpox,
where IL is met by constant incubation
20 that when the Quinta came into port
with over 200 Cinnamon on board, there had
been sufficient warning, and all sufficient
acknowledgement to have driven the ship
out OF pOrt:-nO, nothing of the kind, insin-
uated by IL, but to nave caused q thorough
individual medical examination of this
crowd Of people; and not merely glancing
at them in groups as was the case; and then
we need not TO have waited for the sailing
away of the Quinta, nor to ave got by
our information from runaway sail
oTs, about the existence, n virulence of
smallpox on board. But we had to take
the Captains word forsoOth, it is said, as an
assurance of the state of health on board!
And does the President of the Board of
Health in his business relations, or public
duties, usually content himself with peO-
pies words. Does he not, n ought he
not to require an investigation aid insist
upon a voucher? And what was the inves-
tigatfon on board the Australia; or the
scrutiny exercised by our health authOri
ties on board the Quinta ? Our authorities
knew what to do; but let things slide ut
that time and afterwards did impose a
rigid quarantine, and we may say exercised
a vigiIant watch over the stable door, after
the horse had been stolen.