The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-12-04

against Nobrigga, the millSman, and
deservedly, but have not had any COM
plant laid in the court with regard
to adulterated coffee, aduterated tea,
adulterated pepper, adulterated drugs,
and adulterated drink. Yet when the
question was under discussion in the
Legislature of 1898 there was much to
be said about adulterated drugs, and
evidence was adduced by chemists as
to the fact, together with the aduter-
alton of all the other articles men
toned above.
From the report form which the
Board of Health has now adopted it is
evident that it has no intention of go
ing into the drug question. All the
Commissioner is expected to report on
is Samples of Milk tested" Samples
of Food tested" The very first section
of the Act "a of the Session Laws of
1898 is most explicit on this point, mo
person shall manufacture, offer for
sale, or sell any drug which is adul-
terated within the meaning of this
act" Why should the Board of Health
ostentatiously avoid the matter of
drugs in the form of it's report. Why
should it make a special report upon
Milk" which according to the act is
classed under food, and should be one
of seven subdivisions under that head,
while there are four subdivisions UNI
der the head of drugs.
One does not like to come to the logi-
cal conclusion that these circumstances
tend to. But undoubtedly there are
many who will put an evil construc-
ton upon this lack of action on the
part of the Board. They will be apt to
say that grocery firms have large cap
ital involved and therefore the Board
does not allow or urge it's Food Com
missioner to prosecute. The same ar
gument may be brought with regard
to the liquor dealers. And as for the
drug business it had better be left
alone, as doctors sometimes get a per-
centage on purchases or business at
drug stores, and there are doctors on
the Board of Health.
That such charges may be utterly
untrue is nuite possible, but it will be
very hard to convince the very parties
that the Board wants to convince, that
they are untrue. The Star is quite
prepared to understand the eXplana-
tions that will be offered, though The
Star will remember certain passages
in the committee reports of last Leg
islature, some of which never saw
light. There undoubtedly have been
reason of expediency and policy which
have prevented the Board from car
rying out Act "a of the Session Laws
of 1898 to it's logical and expected
result But The Star wants it dis
tinctly understood that any fault in
such a result does not rest on the
Food Commissioner but upon the Board
the hand of that gentleman.
! 1t may be urged that in the few cases
! that have been brought the Commits
/ sioner has been turned down several
/ times by the District Court. But this
has been because the evidence has not
/ been properly martialed. The expert
chemist is not an expert lawyer, yet
the Board of Health has an expert law
yer among it's members. The cases of
this kind merit the careful consider
alton of the legal ability on the Board
of Health. AS an experiment let the
Board try some prosecutions upon a
few of the ten authorizations detect
ed in October, and see if legally
helped it could not obtain a conviction.