The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-03-09
is AGAINST It
Appointment of Paid
Inspectors.
A Citizen Who Dos Not Favor the
Change States His
Views.

The Board Of Health is making a
big mistake and Do mole ia the peo-
pes pocket Dy ATS IeW-.ang ed IDEA VI
appointing some thnty pad SANTA
Inspectors, sad a man yesterday wnO
has been and is now one OF the fore
most Al tnc Asut asa444st as pl..sDS.
4 would IKE my assertions 10 see pant
IA hopes IAdC LAey may nave a deter
rent eHecJ, DuJ as 4 AN an everyday
communion with the members OF the
DOai q Oh Heath, think IC best to keep
my name out OF the paper.
ne scheme. as 1 understand it, is
TO supplant the present system of hav-
ing volunteer Inspector Tor every
apana in the city or say some forty in
spectCrs and Z67 suD-inspectOrs-by
one grand mogUl and thirty inspecto. S,
all to be paid out Of the pubic purse,
and expected to cover the entire city
thoroughly every day. l don't hesitate
TO say that this is a foolish and ex-
pensive move that will be futile in its
accomplishments and prove a NEE ex-
cuse for paying out Government funds.
In the first place, thirty men cannot
cover this city satisfactorily. l under
stand these paid inspectors are to ride
bicycles, and l notice that already the
head inspector, who, by the way, is to
have the appointment of al the others,
is travelling about in carriage. Each
one is to have a. certain district, which
he is supposed to visit thoroughly
every day. Now the real virtue OF the
volunteer inspectors has been that
everyone in the city was seen once
every day about the same time and es-
pecially the dangerous classes, Chinese
and Japanese, were watched narrowly.
With thirty men, each will have to
do az least ten times as much work as
each of the present force of 307. This
is a simple arithmetical conclusion. II
will take tall hustling on an inspectors
part, be he awheel or have the wings
of Mercury, to see everyone in his dis
trict daily. He will have to begin at
one end of his line and work, and quick
", to the other end, to achieve any
thing People who know the willy Or
ientals can easily see how those so dis
posed could make null the work of the
paid inspector. They would soon learn
his time and sick man who feared the
white doctor would make his toilet to
fit his coming.
The paid inspector will have time
for only a cursory glance at each indi-
vidual in his district and he must be
shrewd diagnOstician to penetrate
the bland faces of Celestials who seek
to hide their condition, no matter what
1t is. 1t is put forward also that these
paid inspectors will go int every room
in every house ana thus necessarily see
anyone who might be so i'll as to be in
bed. This don't fit at ali with the
nature of the Oriental. II would be
only a trifling task for a sick mans
friends to bundle him from one room
to another when the foreign devil
came. | have had good deal of ex-
perience in the inspecting line and
am certain the paid inspectors will not
be a success, if the detection of disease
is the end to be arrived at.
'On the other hand the paid inspect
or system is going TO saddle another
burden of debt on the already over
weighted public. Each OF the thirty in
spectOrs is to receive SO a day, and the
high muck-a-muck' s. a day. Figure
this up and you have a total Of $95 a
day, without expenses. or nearly $4,000
month. This is hardly fair to those
who pay the taxes. My. opinions have
been formed by constant observation
and by exchanging condolences with
others who are up in the inspect on
business. What the Board of Health
should do is to offer a big reward for
every case of plague brought to it's
notice and do away with inspection al
together after the necessity for the
present volunteer system is over. Those
who are now serving will continue to
do so as long as they are needed and
the expense Of $4,000 a month which
the Board is about to incur would be
saved Again, it will be difficult to get
men at SO a day. who are out of employ
ment, and who will faithfully execute
their trusts. Let the Board increase
their reward Of 800 for the detection
Of a case of plague to $3.50 or $500. II
would be cheaper at any figure than the
paid inspectors, for ii would stimulate
everyone to earn the reward and moth
ing would be paid out unless disease
was actually discovered"