The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-02-13
WILL STICK
To PA|A|
Lepers Will Not Be
Deprived of
Staple.

Paiai will still remain the staple food
for the lepers at Molokai, according to
the decision reached by the Board of
Health yesterday. The proposed sub
stitute of taro flour or taroena was
unanimously voted down and the good
old-fashioned poi, which kept their an
cestors alive, will still be furnished to
4 Hawaiians and others now at the set
Element. The decision was reached
| upon the submission of a report and
ANALYSIS by Food Commissioner Shorey
upon the relative merits and cost of
paiai and taroena. The report which
| was adopted, is as follows:
Honolulu, H. T., Feb. u, 1902
/ DR.. H. c. SIoggett,
President Board of Health:
| Sir:-In compliance with your request
for report on the amount of poi which
can be made from paiai and taro flour
respectively, I beg to submit the follow
ing figures:
The paiai examined was one bundle of |
n pounds, from lot shipped from Maui |
to the leper settlement. The taro flour |
examined included samples furnished by |
the makers and packers bought by me |
III the market. The paiai was in good !
condition, and no variation was found in
the samples of taro flour
The moisture and solid content of the
samples was found to be:
per cent. per cent
Moisture Solids
Paiai commonwealth 37.19
Taro -four ....................12.2S S7.72
Poi, found in the market, varies
from moisture so per cent and solids 20
per cent, to moisture SO per cent and
solids IA per cent 1t is evident that,
provided poi of the same moisture con-
tent is made in each case, it makes no
difference in the relative amounts of
paiai and taro flour required to make the
same amount of poi, whether poi of high
Or low moisture content is made.
Taking poi of average moisture content y
viz, moisture SO per cent and solids II -
per cent, we have the following figures: :,
1 ID. paiai will nave 2.1S lbs. POI.
p lbs. paiai will make 1878 lbs pol
1 10. taro flour will make SIG lbs. poi. =
And from this it follows that to make :
the same amount of the same kind of :
poi as can be made from 81 lbs. of paiai >
requires S.S7 lbs. taro flour
Paiai in bundles of q lbs. each costs =
1t the settlement 80 cents per bundle. so
that other things being equal taro flour
to be on an equality with paiai in cost .
would have to be furnished at 1913 cents r
per Id. Respectfully,
E. c. SHOREY,
Food Commissioner
iSSIueht olOSSell stated IndI lne a
lowest price at which the drug firm S
would furnish taroena was twenty V
cents per pound, which was just dou- b
bic the present cost of paiai, and still 4
not one-half as suitable. DIR. Moore was '
also in favor of paiai and said that -
taro flour bore the same relation to -
oaiai. as did canned chicken to spring m
chicken 1t was the general opinion Ii
hat even if the taro flour was as cheap W
is the paiai it was still not satisfactory II
o the lepers, and there would always W
De more or less kicking, if they We're l.
confined to a strict diet of taroena Mr. ..
dott-Smith suggested that the taro g,
our was even more expensive than the a
rdinary flour, and it would not be ap- V;
reciated by the natives even as an 81
lternative diet, in cases where the dc
upply of paiai fell short. 1t was final in
decided not to make any changes in 2N
ne food now being furnished and the re
fer to supply the settlement with ia III
1ena will be turned down.