The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-02-12
A COMPLETE SEWER SYSTEM.

The general argument for a sewer !
system does not need to be repeated |
here. 1t was thoroughly gone over |
before the present sewers were author
lied. Everybody is informed, or is |
supposed to be, that no village, town |
or city can call itself healthful and
sanitary until it has a sewer connec-
ton with every one of its inhabited |
structures. Here in Honolulu We are
about to provide.such conveniences for
most OF the houses and stores, but we
have not determined to extend them
to all sections. The belief has pre-
vailed in official circles that Honolulu
could safely wait awhile longer for the
whole thing. 1t was a mistaken view,
as the conditions of the plague now go
to show. That deadly visitation has
supplied special argument why we
should make the sewer system COM
plete and do it as expeditiousEy as we
can.
| This argument is scientific. The
medical faculty are agreed that moth
ing preserves and nourishes the germ
OF the bubonic plague like the con-
tents of cesspools. That is the reason
why, in places where cesspools are
permitted to exist, the pestilence
breaks out at intervals after it is
supposed to have been expunged. ORR
entail towns where sewer systems are
unknown never get wholly rid of the
black death. Rats are killed, streets
cleaned, infected buildings burned,
suspected ones fumigated, bodies Gre
mated, exposed persons isolated. The
plague thereupon disappears-but it
, does not leave for good. 1t merely
conceals itself. A few germs lie i'm
bedded in the cesspools; they multiply;
rats that have survived the crusades
c or the progeny of such rats, catch the
: disease, and, behold! the buboniC
t scourge is back again. Kobe, for ex-
3 ample, has suffered from the plague be-
d fore, and will have more of it, ant
i that city is type of others.
s Shall Honolulu also be a type? i
e depends upon whether we are wis'
C enough to give the city so complete
g a sewer system that we may abolish
n and prohibit cesspools and all subter
ranean deposits of filth. The deadlies
= disease germs are now lodged unde
r our feet. Undoubtedly they will fin
z. resting-place in the contents of cess
- pools, to reappear, if We do not, as 500
n, as possible, empty these foul places
lie saturate them with disinfectants, ant
4 by the means already described, Gu
II off the principal source of future bu
err bonic propagation.
ne There are those who already dissen
as on the score of cost, for every commu
e. nifty has its penny wise and poun
re foolish. II Honolulu had put s4O0, 90
instead of $257, 900 into its sewer sys
It TEN and begun the improvement whe,
he the cholera epidemic taught the nee
he we should probably have saved III
'et million or so that the bubonic plagu
m Is costing us. Without cesspools i
In Chinatown it is doubtful that the blac
n death would have made any headwa
ne mere. Sewers saved Singapore an
as they probably would have saved us. ]
or Honolulu continues on even a partia
e. cesspool basis who knows but we sha
al have more pestilence in a year or tw
at with another draft of a million or MOI
nd upon the financial resources of tt
IN. land? If We are to talk about ecoy
u omy, let us make it true economy
II that which expends a few dollars
ed save many. The ounce of preventic
may be costly, but it is much less e,