The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-12-08
ABOUT NUISANCES.

Some time ago the ADVERTISER men,
toned, as a typical nuisance, the cess
pool in Fort street, under the floor of the
premises occupied as a Photographic
gallery below the Keystone saloon. We
were then informed that We were in
error, that the cesspool in question had
been pumped out by the odorless exca-
vator two months before, and that ever
thing was serene and lovely. At that
very time the stencil from the cesspool
might have been warranted to kill at
thirty PAGES, and was then, and is now, a
menace not only to the health of the
neighborhood, but by reason of its pesti-
lencc-breeding qualities, a menace
also to the entire community, whose
average power of resistance to disease
germs has been sensibly lowered by the
almost general existence of just such
pools of death throughout the city,
of this pestilent nuisance, the existence
of which has been known to the health
authorities for many years past through
repeated complaints by helpless suffer
ers, and says:
The cesspool in question, which up to the
present moment, in its uncovered state,
cannot be operated on by the excavatOr
but by the cOmplaisance of the Occupier of
the little Photographic room adjoining land
who in all human probability has had a
narrow escape of imparting the worst
type of typhoid fever, as an epidemic, to
his family and fellow citizens) was essayed
two or three nights ago, when all that was
liquid was removed, leaving at the bottom
mass of sediment several feet deep-the
very stuff which ought to be removed,
so that for the future the contents
may have some chance of filtering
away through the coral. The odor-
less excavator is employed to thorough
ly empty ceSspools by softening the
sediment with water till it is sufficient
ly liquid for pumping. In the case in point
the cost of the late operation is said to be
$10-a mOnstrous charge for doing no good
whatever. Try agian, excavator; or else
to get rid of the nuisance and the men
acing danger to public health, let the Board
of Health order the old well to be closed
up, then let the water used be drained
into the gutter, and an earth closet sub
stituted for the present one. This arrange
ment would be satisfactory to the proprie-
tor, and would save endless expense, and
complaint we'll merited for public nui-
sance.
There is great deal of point in this
remark. In no. other civilized commu-
nifty would the drainage of a public
house and other buildings be permitted
to be stored in a cesspool or well, under
the floor Of a building occupied as a
store and in time past also as dwell
ing, without any outlet whatever This
cesspoOl is a venerable type of the con-
trivances in vogue during the golden
age of Honolulu sanitation. Itremains for
the present practical Board of Health to
order it to be thoroughly cleaned out
and then filed in, leaving the owners of
property to provide, rs they may easily
do, modern appliances for the drainage
of their houses and the convenience of
inmates. And the rule that applies in
this case should be made absolute by the
Board of Health in the case of all cess
pools sanitarily situated