The Hawaiian gazette., 1882-11-15

Our article on Leprosy last week called
forth an attempt at defense from those
whose duty 1t is to defend the position OF
the present government. On being in
dicted for having failed in their duty in
tins matter all that could be said in de-
tense was, that the Board of Health had
not sufficient funds to carry on the ben
eiicent work. AT present the public has
no exact means of knowing how the funds.
at the disposal of that Board. have been
spent, but a shrewd guess can be made
that considerable portion of it has gone
in salaries
The present Board of Health must be
regarded as greater failure than any of
! It's predecessors. If there was one thing
that the Premier used to plume himself
upon more than another, it was the health
OF the dear people" Speech upon speech
mas been delivered, article upon article has
Deen written to prove how excellent man
he would be if he once could have the CON
troll OF that Board. Doctors. bless youI
we mad had enough Of them, an intelligent
lay board was the thing, men who under
stood nothing Of hygiene except what they
had picked up in a perfunctory manner,
men whose little learning " might endan
ger the health Of the community, were the
proper persons to make up Board of
Health
The noble and honorable Premier car
RED his point long ago, the scientific por-
ton of the Board has been eliminated. we
have the intelligent lay board. We have
more too, we have Mr.. Gibson as President
of that Board Surely a medical miIlen-
lum must have dawned upon Hawaii.
Some time ago we were told that if the
Board Of Health had only done their duty
our valleys would be full of smiling chill
dren. that childish prattle and laughter
would be ringing from many now silent
homes What have the present Board of
Health done since they got into office Echo
answers Nothingln The sanitary CON
dition of the town is no better than il was
a year ago, it is rather worse: no steps
have been initiated to make it better.
Leprosy Is more rampant than ever. it now
perYades almost every walk of life. The |
law in regard to IT, is being fagTantly and |
even ostentatiously set aside. Since the |
present Cabinet came in. there has. as far |
as we can learn, and we have enuuired
carefully, been only one shipment of iepers
for Aolokai. On that occasion a bac Of |
dollars had to be carried down. $50 # Is
said, and we merely give the story for
what It is worth, basing our statement on
the account of one who professed TO have
1t IRON an eye witness,) and the people
were paid so much head to go: one man
threw the money in the face of him who
ordered and absolutely refused to 60: that
night he escaped, and whether he has
since been arrested or not remains a pro
found mystery to those who are outside
official circles.
The Board Of Health management is a
ilsgrace to the present administration. it
IS specially disgrace in that the present
head of the government assisted his climb
. power by the promises he made with
'egard to his management Of this branch |
q the public service. He has not only {
lone nothing, but he has prevented others j
who were really DESTROYS of doing their ]
Jest for the preanHn rhlgas,r Of this
latlon from doing what they might have i