The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-11-21
LEPROSY IN HAWAII
Extracts From Bishop Willis Address
to the Al6licaa Synod.
DeIiveranoe of the Synod = Mr.
Barnes Remarks.

In view of the ravages that leprosy
is making on the Islands, is there
nothing that we can or ought TO do
as a Church? Perhaps some may
think that as Church we have no
concern in it. That it is matter
entirely for the Government and the
Board of Health. Surely it is not so.
As members of the Church of Christ,
who, when on earth, went about
healing the bodies as well as the
souls of men, we shall be unworthy
of that membership if we have no
thought or care for the sufferers from
this scourge, and, because they are
removed out of sight, keep them
out of our minds also. 1t was to the
nursing care of the Church, furnish
ed in hundreds of leper homes by
devoted men and women six centu-
ries ago, that Europe owes its free
dom to-day from the malady. A
faith which will bear such fruit as
that is the need of our own time. For
years it has been a source of regret
to me, whilst watching with sym
patty and admiration the devoted
labors of the Priests and Sisters of
another branch of the Catholic
Church, whose lives are being spent
amongst the lepers on Molokai, that
the Anglican Church has taken no
direct part in supplying personal
ministrations to these afflicted MEM
bers of ChrlsJ's Body. But if there
is now no room for our illustrations
at the Settlement, what is there that
we can do in discharge of Christian
duty?
There Is much indirectly that may
be done on behalf OF the sufferers.
Those who have been torn from their
homes and exiled to Molokai not for
any faults that they have committed,
but because they are afflicted with a
sore disease, have right to the ten
derest care and consideration of the
nation for the safety of which they
have been removed from society
Has all been done that can be done
or ought to be done, when they are
regularly supplied with the bare
necessaries of life? When it is well
known that there are systems of
treatment capable of mitigating the
severity of the disease, and so rem
dering the patients less burdensome
and offensive to themselves and
others, is this country doing its duty
to the 1900 people who are now on
Molokai, so long as no system is
pursued with view to grapple with
and mitigate the disease? TO inhu-
ence publiI opinion in this matter
until remedial measures are system
atically carried out, appears to me a
simple Christian duty.
2-Next "a great deal may be done
to alleviate the lepers' lot Especially
in the case of Anglo Saxons and half
whites) by moderating that unrea-
sonable dread of the disease which
prevails in these Islands more than
in any other country in the world
Notwithstanding the very wide con-
sensus of opinion that it is chiefly
through heredity and incubation that
the disease is spread, it is enough to
be rumored among the white people
that any man, woman or child is a
leper, and his own friends will for
sake him. But as if it were not hard
enough for q man to be arrested, and
sent to end his days on Molokai, in
order that his cup may be filled to
overlooking the Pharisees of this
generation asperse his character,
and proclaim that the disease is the
fruit of the yiclousness of his life.
Hence it becomes plain Christian
duty to defend those who cannot
defend themselves from attacks
wholly unwarranted by the nature of
the disease.
There is one other point on which
cannot be altogether silent. The
moral condition of the Settlement is
disgrace to Christian country.
If the Board of Health is unable
TO check the fragrant immortality of
the Settlement some other place
should be found for those who are
removed from their homes during
their minority. 1t cannot be ex-
pected that parents will willingly
give up their daughters, when they
know that the moment they leave the
Bishop Home they will have no pro-
lection from a life of prostitution.
They are the wards of the Hawaiian
Government. The Board of Health
is their appointed guardian. The
country has a right to demand that
the guardians of its leper wards shall
protect them from vice and demora-
lisation.
1t was moved by Rev. w. Fl.
Barnes and seconded by Mr.. H..
Smith:
That the Diocesan Synod of the
Anglican Church in Hawaii views
with deepest sympathy the sad afilic-
ton of their brethren suffering from
the scourge of leprosy, and takes this
opportunity of expressing solemn
conviction that Notwithstanding much
that has been accomplished by the
Hawaiian Government in the past,
the devoted endeavors of members