The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-13
REMODEL CHINATOWN.

hbnOOCAA NhAAA'@h
The right of the Board of Health 20
90 on and condemn and burn buildings
the condition of which menaces the
public health is conceded. The thing
IS being done every day. At the rate
the fires are being set to coincide with
the spreading of the plague, it will not
be long before the greater part of the
AsiaIc quarter is in ashes and the way
cleared for the building Of model
Chinatown where epidem.cs can no
more get a foothold than is the case
a, present in the equatorial city Of
Singapore.
We have already printed the facts
about Singapore in the form of com
munication. That place was once a
plague-smitten city where thousands
died. The plague sometimes comes TO
it now; so do cholera. smah pox and
other communicable maadials. Bat
there are never any epidemics. TIE
reason is that the British thoroughly
sleansed and severed the city and gave
it a supply Of pure, filtered water. At
he 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 herdine and
cleanliness is insisted on. Now Singa-
pore, despite it's heat and humidity, IS
not a menace as it used to be % the
health Of travellers and to the Fa' East,
but a place where people may live dsi
safely as they do in other part Of the
tropical zone.
IL is becoming possible 70 mike Chi
natowI as crediable to Honolulu as
tle native quarter of Singapore Is TO
that Malaysian capital Al that is
needed is more fire. a 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 a model settlement built for
the Asiatics on new ground; but if that
is not practicable it would be glad to
nave lAC DAt1Glit AlAlllslaJ " II A4AeAhN
over. After a complete clsaring away
o. every wooden structur. and every
one of any kind that had leen infected,
the streets could be widened and alleys
cut through the blocks; he highways
could be paved and severed and the
fire limits made to cover he whole dis
trict. Between the Oriental town and
the white mans Honolulu should be a
park covering the entire space between
Nuuanu and Smith streets planted with
grass and trees and so arranged thai
it could be shut in at any hint of cpl
uemic and used, in that way, as bar
rier to ingress or egress. With plenty
Oh light and air, and pure water, sani-
tary homes and a police specially
charged with the enforcement of health
laws, this city could breathe freely
content in the thought of a security
from disease not exceeded by that OF
any city of the mainland.
Can we get along with measures less
sweeping? The Advertiser does no,
think so. We tried to after the cho,era
epidemic and here we are, face to face
with something worse. It has beer
proved that a combination of crowded
wooden shacks, cesspOols and narrow
/ streets, occupied by Chinese, Japanes,
ana natives cannot be kept clean. TIL,
/ task is next 10 impossible. 1t hai
never been performed in any part o
| the world in a way to exercise thu
plague. Thus there is but one thinl
to do here and that is to build a new
Chinatown that will be as sanitary il
It's fixed utilities and habitauons a
money and skill can make 1t. The
and only then may we feel secure.
OF course such a rehabilitation woul
cost heavily, but not so much so a
the loss of three cargoes of sugar, re
fused entrance at foreign ports becaus
OF plague would necessarily imply.