The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-08-21
FRIDAY, AUG. 81, 1885.
L "A MORE LIGHT.

haps the most obvious one to any
visitor who sees it by night in
dark season for the first time
is the paucity and luminous
poverty of street lamps. There are
few defects in our metropolitan ap-
pointments which will stand out
more prominently as evidences that
the city is behind the age than this
one. Neither is there any deficiency
of equipment as an urban commu-
nifty which can be much more fruit
full of Inconvenience and even dis
comfort, if not worse evils, than the
miserably mean light bestowed upon
our streets. This deficiency merits
a bad name for the community in
point of public spirit. Outside OBJ
servers can see palatial residences
along all our principal avenues, ex-
hibiting q most lavish expenditure
for private comfort in every respect
of modern refinement. Then, turn
ing to the beggarly array of street
lamps, and to the inefliciency, or the
dilapidation and decay, resting upon
many other of the most necessary
public conveniences, what must be
the inevitable conclusion? Is is not
that Honolulu has government not
whit ahead of the happy go-lncky
management of the rawest village on
, the confines of civilization? That
conclusion, moreover, involves the
deduction that those of the people
so governed who have the means of
evading the discomforts of the stu
alton for themselves, and from cir
cumstances possess the greatest in
tiuence, are selfish enough to take
no interest in the welfare of their
less fortunate neighbors, who have
to plod their long and weary ways
over the crazy footpaths, full of
deadfalls and mantraps--bad enough
by day but infinitely worse when no
moon is up to fill up the measure Of
the community's niggardliness of
illumination. At the last session of
the Legislature provision was made
for additional street lamps. Some
of these, at least, have been erected,
and serve to make the darkness in
their localities a little more visible
than before. Yet on even the best
lighted thoroughfares there are still
many long and gloomy breaks in the
chain of light that should be con-
tinuous. There is no large city in
latltudes away from the tropics
where ample light upon the streets
is more desirable than in this city.
Our summer nights are considerably
longer than those of the temperate
zones. Darkness comes on here an
hour or two farther from respect
able bedtime than in those regions.
AS in their summer, so all round
our year, the evening hours consti-
tute the pleasantest part of the day.
Then is the time for busy toilers OF
the sunlit hours to take needed re-
taxation and refreshing air. Moder-
ate exercise, such as is gained by
walking, in our delightful evening
breezes is one of the best possible
antidotes to the lassitude of the
tropics. Yet who that ever come
off their verandahs or out of theil
mosquito-proof rooms, to witness o'
study the city's night life, can say
that the general body of Honolulu''
inhabitants avail themselves of the
evening delights of the climate az
their physical and mental well-beint
demands? The reasons for thu
neglect of rational enjoyment ant
, recreation may be various, but ont
of them, there can be no doubt, il
y