The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-01-01
THE PACIFIC
Gomnrfre1alA0brrt
SATURDAY, JANUARY l, 1881.
Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands
October Term, 1880.
Rex Us. ToNG Lee.
Harris, C. j., Judd and McCuHy, J.J.
Opinion Of the Court By Judd, j.
At the last session of the Legislative Assembly,
the following Act was passed
An Act
SATURDAY, JANUARY l, 1881.
Opinion Of the Court By Judd, j.

At the last session of the Legislative Assembly.
the following Act was passed
An Act
Relating to Laundries and Wash-houses.
Whereas the increasing number of laundries
and wash houses within the limits of the city of
Honolulu, tends to the propagation and dis
semination of disease
And Whereas, it is advisable that all laundries
and wash houses should be placed under the con-
troll and inspection of the Board of Health, there
fore
Be it enacted by the King and the Legislative
Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands, in the Legis-
lature of the Kingdom assembled.
SECTION lit shall be lawful for, and the
Minister of the Interior is hereby authorized and
Empowered 10 cause to be built, and erected on
the banks of the stream known as the . Makaho
Stream, " on the land called " Kaliukai, " q sufi-
eient number of laundries, and wash houses and
to let the same to such persons applying there,
for at such rents and upon such terms as the said
Minister shall deem reasonable.
SECTION 2.-Such laundries and wash houses
when erected shall be under the supervision and
control of the Board of Health.
SECTION 2.-From and after the commence
ment of this Act, every person who shall
carry on the business of laundry keeping or
washing for hire, within the limits of the city of
Honolulu. except in such buildings as shall be
erected as provided by Section l of the Act, shall
be liable to a fine of fifty dollars for each and
every day, or part of a day, during which he
shall 50 carry on such business, and in default of
payment Of such fine shall be imprisoned at hard
labor until such fine is paid.
SECTION 4.-The city of Honolulu for the pur-
pose of this Act, shall be deemed to be included
within a circuit of three miles, from the junction
Of Nuuanu and King streets.
SECTION 5.-Nothing in this Act contained,
shall be deemed or construed to prevent persons
washing In, or on the banks of streams, in places
hitherto used for that purpose.
SECTION 6.-This Act shall take effect and be-
come a law on the first day of October next.
On the 9th of October the defendant Tong Lee
was charged in the Police Court with the viola
ton of this law. He plead guilty to the carry
ing on Of laundry and wash house within the
limits designated in the Act, and urged that the
Act was unconstitutional and void. The Police
Justice imposed the statutory penalty and the
defendant appealed to the Supreme Court in
Banco.
PER CURTAIN.
The Act has many peculiar features which
have attracted our attention.
1.-The preamble recites that the IS increas-
ing number of laundries and wash houses within
the limits of the city of Honolulu, tends to the
propagation and dissemination of disease" 1t
does not declare the washing of clothes and the
allowing of the contaminated water therefrom to
where it may propagate and dis
seminate disease, to be dangerous to the public
health and therefore q nuisance, but it enacts
that the increasing number of such houses tends
to the propagation of disease, suggesting that
the Legislature contemplated not so much the
past or present danger to the public health as
the liability that the increasing number of these
houses would produce disease.
2.-The second section of the Act places the
laundries and wash houses authorized to be
erected by Section 1 Of the Act, " under the
supervision and control Of the Board of Health
Ii the law means such q supervision and con-
troll of the business of washing as may be neces-
sary to protect the public health, then the grant
of such power would seem to be superfluous, as
Chapter SO of the Penal Code, confers the power
upon the Board, 4" to enter upon any land,
building or vessel for the purpose of examining
into, and destroying, emOvlng or preventing any
nuisance or source of filth" The Board Of
Health had, by the general law previous to the
passage of this Act, all the power over this bust
ness OF washing as well as over other enterprises,
necessary to enable it to carry out its functions
as guardians of the Public Health.
3.-Washlng clothes within the limits prescribed
by the law is not prohibited. This washing
must be made a business of, that is, it must be
pursued as an occupation for gain or hire to make
it punishable. 1t is urged before us that is I'M
reasonable and illogical to say that the business
Of washing is of itself harmless and innocuous
but when this occupation is pursued for hire as
a means of livelihood, it then becomes dangerous
to the public health. The health of the indivi-
dual demands cleanliness Of apparel, and it is
undoubtedly the right OF every individual to have
his apparel cleansed by washing. Why then
should this essential domestic function be con-
demned by the law when it is pursued for hire
1t is suggested in answer that a larger amount of
filth detrimental to the public heath will be like
ly to be accumulated in the water used in public
than in private laundries. This is not at all
clear. The laundrying of the Principal hotel in
this city, is probably greater than that of many
public laundries or wash houses. One is forbid
den, the other is not.
If it be a question OF degree alone which makes
this business dangerous or not to the public
health, the Legislature could have prescribed the
number of persons whose washing could be done
in any one locality beyond which it was to be
considered dangerous; but the extent to which
this occupation can be pursued and yet be harm
is not defined by the statute. The only limit
in the law is that washing for hire is considered
%noxious; all other washing is not be, the same
more or less.
Laundries are necessary in every country, and
the greater the population the greater their num-
Der. They are not maniiestly and palpably
With proper drainage or sewerage
to dispose of the contaminated. water
and soap suds, a laundry is far from being I'M
or capable of affecting the public
health. The want of sewerage in this town of
was undoubtedly the ground for the
OF this law.
The proper disposition OF the contaminated
water from either public or private laundries is a
matter for the regulation of the Board
Of Health.
4.-The city OF Honolulu has no limits pre-
scribed by law. The district of Honolulu extends
from Maunalua to Moanalua. But the Act un-
der contemplation establishes the limits of the
city for the purposes of this Act to be a circuit
Of three miles from the junction of Nuuanu and
King streets. The well populated portions of the
own of Honolulu do not extend beyond one mile
rom this point in any direction. Within one
mile from this point are slaughter houses, and
factories, occupations presumably offensive
md deleterious to the public health.
All these points have been urged before the
Court with great earnestness and would appear
% us to be powerful arguments. if used on the
of the Legislature against the passage of
a law.
But the Legislature deemed that the existing
did not give the Board of Health author
sufficiently ample to protect the public health
nd found it necessary in its wisdom, to prohibit
his business within the limits described in the
aw, and though it may be difficult to discover
That could have moved the Legislature to con-
Iemn washing for hire in an area of territory
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