The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-13
is TOO STRICT
Says Quarantine Should
Be Raised.
The Hawaiian Planters Monthly for
April Criticizes Conduct of
Plague Campaign.

~ me DuDOIlC prague, winch 0rSt APP
Fpeared in Honolulu about four months
ago, has steadily declined, till at the
present writing it may be said to have
been stamped out, there having been
only one death per week from it during
the past six weeks, and none for the
past ten days, while the deaths FRONT
consumption and pneumonia have av-
eraged fifteen or twenty per month";
There is. therefore, no good reason
why the quarantine should not be rails
ed, and the port declared free from
contagion. The continuance of the
quarantine, under the present condi-
lions, is working as hardship on ev-
cry branch of business. In Sydney, y.
S. W., with over thirty deaths during
the past six weeks. there has been no
quarantine established, up to the last
advices. With ordinary care on the
part of Boards of Health, in any large
port, and especially where a reward of
800 is paid to the person who first re-
ports to the Board of Health any case
of bubonic plague. comparative safety
is secured against the spread of the
} disease.
The plague has very seriously inter
lered with the shipping business of the
port of Honolulu, but seems now to
have been entirely checked. The cases
reported averaged about four or five
each week, while the total deaths from
1T for three months past have been
only sixty. Strict quarantine of the
sections of the city in which the
l ;c ~
tained, and no communication is al
owed with them. How much longer
he present conditions of restricted
.ravel and trade will continue. no one
can tell. Over fifty buildings occupied
oy Asiatics and others as dwellings Of
shops, where the plague has founC
.odging, have been burned. in the hops
Of destroying the germs of the disease
Certainly, everything is being done
hat the most enlightened policy could
levise, and every house is visited twice
each day, to ascertain the condition o
he inmates, and report any cases o
illness. The first symptoms are noted
'eported and watched. This for
population of 10000 is no light task
out it is endorsed and aided by al
classes.
AS the sugar plantations are located
|
| city, and no communication with then
is allowed, except by telephone. the.
: remain strictly free from contact will
he plague. The sugar from them i
| shipped direct from the mills onto YES
sells. which are not permitted to com
| within the plague limits. Trade an
travel between Honolulu and the 9th
er Islands of the group are suspended
and though il is a hardship to many
It is acquiesced in by all. Sugar on tn
| other Islands of this group continue
TO be shipped abroad as before, an
none of 1t comes to this port.
Now that the serum antidote 70
this disease has been received fror
Washington, it is probable that yer
few deaths from the plague will occu
after this, except in cases too far &C
vanced to receive benefit, and it Is hoI
ed that it's spread will thus be checked
if not entirely eradlcated.
The weather throughout these Is
ands has been very favorable to I'll
harvesting of the sugar crop. A
there has been no case of plague o
! any plantation in this group. there ha
not been the least interruption in tn
= harvesting of cane and the manufa'
ture of sugar. The shipment of suga
has been progressing from the variou
ports. and there has been no contat
with the Chinese district in this cit.
where the plague commenced and Ia
been confined. There has been SON
delay in the early part of the season
in distributing the sugar ships to II
various plantation ports, but this
now over. and the crop is moving o
as rapidly as could be expected undo
the circumstances. The total will M
vary largely from previous estimate
1t is possible that the very dry weatl
er of the past four months may r.
duce the total outcome more tina
was anticipated. The quality of tt
sugar, however, is very fine-nev'
better than the crop now going
market. Complaints continue to con
in regarding the falling off in the SUI
ply of artesian water. This is attri
uted to the rice plantations, and Il
great waste of water taken by theI
n the surplus from which is constant
, allowed to flow to the sea. The law
~ prevent this waste should be rigid
enforced.