The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-01-16
kEMnnRl. rnlNAlnMN.

Tho right of thc Board OF Health 90
80 ON and condemn and burn buildings
she condition Of which menages the
public health is conceded Tho thing
Is being done every day a. Tic rate
the fires are being So. to- coincide with
The spreading OF the plague. 10 viii not
be long before the greater part Jt the
AsiaIc quarter Is In ashes and the way
cleared for the building OF model
Chinatown whore opidemics can no
more get a footholl than Is the case
a. present IN the equatorial city Of
Singapore.
We have already printed the facts
about Singapore in the form OF a com
muncation That place was once a
plague-smitten city where thousands
died. The plague sometimes comes to
it now; 50 do cholera, smah pox and
other communicable maadiels. But
there are never any epidemics. The
reason is that the British thoroughly
cleansed and severed the city and gave
it supply of pure, filtered water. AT
the same time they passed building
laws by which ample air space was Sc
cured under every dwelling and the
Easements laid with concrete. The
natives are kept from herding and
cleanliness is insisted on Now Singa-
pore, despite its heat and humidity, is
not n menace as It used to be 20 the
health of travellers and to the Far East
but a place where people may live ds
safely as they do in other parts Of the
tropical zone.
II is becoming possible to make Chi
natown as creditable to Honolulu as
the native quarter of Singapore Is to
that Malaysian capital. All that is
needed is more fire, n thorough d.sin-
lection of the SOIL then a revision of
tie street and building laws. This
journal, as it has said before, would
like to see n model settlement built for
the Asiatics on new ground; but ii that
is not practicable it would be glad to
have the present Chinatown made
over. After a complete clearing away
oi every wooden structure and every
one of any kind that had been infected
the streets could be widened and alleys
cut through the blocks; the highways
could be paved and severed and the
fire limits made to cover the whole dis
trict Between the Oriental town and
ha ,,yht. ~ Inpnlpl,, cI no a
park covering the entire space between
Nuuanu and Smith streets planted with
grass and trees and so arranged that
it could be shut in at any hint of cpl
demic and used, in that way, as a bar
rier to ingress or egress. With plenty
H light and air, and pure water, sani-
tary homes and q police specially
charged with the enforcement of health
laws, this city could breathe freely,
content in the thought of security
from disease not exceeded by that of
any city OF the mainland.
Can we get along with measures less
sweeping? The Advertiser does not
think so. We tried TO after the cholera
epidemic and here We are, face to face
with something worse 1t has been
proved that a combination of crowded
wooden shacks, cesspools and narrow
streets, occupied by Chinese, japanese
and natives cannot be kept clean. The
task is next 10 impossible. 1t has
never been performed in any part of
the world in way to exercise the
plague. Thus there is but one thing
to do here and that is to build new
Chinatown that will be as sanitary in
its fixed utilities and habitatlons as
money and skill can make it. Then
and only then may we feel secure.
OF course such a rehabilitation would
cost heavily, but not so much so as
the loss of three cargoes of sugar, re-
fused entrance at foreign ports because
or plague would necessarily imply.