The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-02-21
Filth ELSEWHERE.

The keynote, or one may rather say,
the clarion cry of cleanliness" which
DR.. Wood has sounded should not be
confined to Honolulu. We have places
which are bad enough still, in spite of
all the burning we have done, but they
can be equalled in many parts OF the
Islands.
On Maui the plague breeding district
of Kahului was described by DR.. Wood
as being in worse condition than Ho-
noluu's Chinatown, and those who
knew it were quite ready to agree with
him. 1t was a pity however that the
President of the Board of Health was
not able to make a survey of Waikiki.
The writer does not remember the
he has a very vivid remembrance Of
a street. the chief business street,
which ran from the residence of Judge
Kalua to the old Armstrong premises,
and later occupied by the plantation
office. Along this street were, and still
are, rows of insanitary shacks which
would make a plague germ howl with
delight. The ground on which these
shacks are built is saturated with filth,
just as the ground in Chinatown was
saturated. No amount of cleaning and
white washing will improve the condi-
tions to any appreciable extent. If
plague once gets in there, and there
can be no certainty as yet that it will
not get in there, it will find a very con-
genial home.
OF the sanitary and insanitary cOndi-
! tons of Hilo DR.. Wood gained some
knowledge during his late visit to the
rainy city, and the inhabitants have
been carrying on a fierce crusade
against the filth breeding centers. But
it must be remembered that no amount
of embarrassing and cleaning will get
ria of the danger of plague if reeking
cesspools and filth saturated ground are
beneath the cleaned up shacks. Such
places are merely whitened sepulchres
and are the more dangerous in that
they give a sense of security which
they do not possess. The rain, for
which Hilo is often laughed at has
very probably been it's greatest source
of safety, since the copious down pours
have sluiced out the i'll smelling and
insanitary places.
On this Island quite a number of
insanitary places exist. There is a nest
of shacks in Waialua which will equal
almost any of the dens that recent in
vestgation has brought to public no
tice. The same may be said of Kane
ohe, and Waianae has also it's crop of
insanitary shacks, and scattered round
Oahu some pretty bad places may be
found. If they are not plague breed
ers, they are fever breeders certainly
and should be forced into sanitary con-
dition.
Kauai, the Garden Island, has it's in
sanitary novels as we'll as any other
part of the group. Along the left bank
of the Hanalei river there are stores
and shacks quite equal in plague posi-
biltes to any that can be pointed to
elsewhere. There used to be a very
insanitary lot of buildings in Waimea
at the foot of the bluff where the Camp
bell house stood. There used to be some
unsavOry spots in the Hanapepe valley.
Molokai has greatly changed but it
certainly has not become some sanitary
since the change, for fever has become
almost epidemic. OF course this is in
a great measure to be attributed to the
opening up of new soil, but there used
to be some very insanitary habitations
and these spots are not likely to have
improved very much during the last
two, or three years.
Any one having a knowledge of the
Islands can readily understand how
insanitary conditions have arisen, and
harm because the population was
sparse. But as the population has come
crowding in the conditions have begun
to tell, and it is clearly the duty of
the Board of Health to have active
agents in every part of the group, and
the President should make occasional
trips around himself. The logical con-
clusion from this is that the office of
the President of the Board of Health
should have a salary attached.
1t is thus clear that when we have
conquered our plague, we have rather
a big contract on our hands. But we
must force our way forward. 1t is not
enough to clean Honolulu, the whole
group must be put in order, and then
only constant vigilance will keep us up
to the high hygienic standard that we
must aim at. ""