The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-18
HEALTH BOARD RESPONSIBILITY.

: We are informed by a member of the
. Board of Health that that body dis
claims responsibility for the hideous
state OF things in Chinatown and LAYS
it TO the Legislature which refused TO
| give the Board enough money for its
work. Let Us see about that,
Chapter 90 of the Penal laws of Ha-
wall contains the following eye-open-
ing sections. To begin with we quote
Section ST..
The Board of Health and it's agents
shall examine into all nuisances.
| sources of filth and causes of sickness,
on shore or in any vessel. and shall
cause the same 10 be destroyed re-
moved. or prevented, as the case may
require.
There have been nuisances of the
most appalling kind maintained in the
Oriental quarter of Honolulu ever since
the cholera scare subsidized. The Inspect
ors of the Board of Health now re-
port that they find cesspools over
flowing with filth and swarming with
maggots directly under the floors of
rooms slept in by crowded humanity.
One Inspector speaks of boards and
walls Oozy and dank with slime: an
other of alleyways where the board
walks sink as one traverses them into
indescribable slush; and all the In
spectors tell of things which are un-
reportable in print. Such ghastiy
places as are now depicted must have
been gradually forming for months and
years. Anybody with eyes could have
seen them; anybody with a nose could
have smelled them. 1t was the lawful
duty of the Board OF Health 10 see
that these nuisances were abated. Why
did that body let them remain TO be- |
come breeding ground of microbes. a
lair of the deadliest bacilli?
Was it a question OF Legislative APP
preparation? We do not understand it
so. The Board has all along employed |
agents and its own members are en- |
powered to act in an emergency and |
they can do so without any other ex-
pense than is provided for by law.
Witness Section SIS:
Whenever any such nuisance. source
Of filth or cause of sickness shall be
found on private property the Board of
Health or any health agent shall order
the owner or occupant thereof at his
own expense to remove the same with
N forty-eight hours; and if the owner
Or occupant shall neglect so to do, he
shall be fined in a sum not exceeding
me hundred dollars.
How many complaints about the
state of things in Chinatown has the
Board of Health or any health agent
made since the abatement of the chol-
IRA scare? How many cesspools has it
caused TO be regularly emptied? We
10 not say there are none, but the con-
iition of the Asiatic quarter shows
that there has been very much left I'M
done The question could not have
been one of cost. The Board was not
obliged TO pay the bills for removing
filth That was a charge against the
owner of the property where the filth
accumulated. We should be 10th in
Iced to think that any fear of incur
ring the enmity of the owners of big
estates kept the Board from obeying
he law that created it.
Even when the Board itself IS com
PEELED TO remove filth the cost does not
come out OF the appropriation. See
Section S79;
III the owner or occupant shall not
comply with such order of the Board
If Health, the Board or any of its
agents may cause such nuisance, source
If filth or cause of sickness to be re-
moved: and all expenses incurred
hereby shall be paid by the said own
II or occupant. or by such other per-
ons as shall have caused or permitted
he same.
At every turn we find ample machin-
sry of law at the disposal of the Board
Of Health independent of its own APP
For example the Board
nay complain of any person, the owner
If a pest hole for maintaining a COM
non nuisance. When it does so the
Attorney General has the power to
axe the matter up and the Supreme
Court. the Circuit Court or the District