The Hawaiian gazette., 1903-08-21
GENE TE2|ES
BADLY KEPT
Crowded and Too
Shallow Are
Graves.

| Following Is the report OF y. H.
Tracy, City Sanitary officer and In
spector of Cemeteries, for the month Of
July:
Six new cesspools have been located
to be dug.
Three 4S-hour notices have been serv-
ed and the nuisances We're abated
within the required time in each case.
Seventeen restaurant, eleven lodging
houses and two hotels applied for GER
'ificates of sanitary condition to OBJ
tain licenses, and all save one lodging
house were inspected and passed. The
four lodging houses held over fiom
last month are still in hand. One
case is an appeal TO the Circuit Court
! for running without a license. 3t4S
adults can by law be lodged IN these
buildings licensed.
PROSECUTIONS.
There have been seven arrests made
and in each case a conviction was Sc
cured. One man arrested for vio-
lating Section 1924 of the Penal Laws
of 1897 was fined s25; two hog raiscrs
who allowed their pig pens to dis.
charge into an open stream were fined
'25 each, and third for the same Of
Tense was fnei SIG Three different
men, arrested for carrying slops
through the streets in containers such
as did not prevent spilling and Leak
age, were fined $40 EACH The hog
raising business has grown 10 such
proportions that the gardeners are IN
| able to take care of The superfluous
sewage, and we are having consider
able trouble watching out for men
dumping it into the streams and ponds
| This is extremely difficult, for the
many bitches and streams and ponds
are so scattered ard drain in so many
different directions that the source of
a nuisance is hard to trace.
SPECIAL INSPECTION.
During the month my assistant and
l have made 1898 inspections and he'll
| a half hour meeting each morning
with the inspectors. These inspections
represent visits to premises to investi-
gate sanitary conditions, or are made
to ascertain the necessity or method
of remedying conditions, and are usu-
ally to assist or advise the INSPECTORS.
The districts have been slightly
changed as to boundaries and the men
have been changed about in the ma
jority of instances, and one man is
tending to nothing but the hog and
duck ranches and the swill wagons.
BURIAL CONDITIONS BAD.
1 have had considerable difficulty in
my inspecting of burials, disinter-
ments and removals, but have now
gotten fairly good control over the
situation. Hardly a cemetery was in
spected but that 1 found that the
graves We're less than six feet deep.
some being as shallow as three feet.
The enforcing of the law has shown
up conditions in several cemeteries
which should not be allowed to con
tinue. For example, in the cemetery
at Waikiki water is reached at depth
of from four to five and halS feet, de =
pending on the tide, and it is conse-
quently necessary to bury in the water
The same condition eXis,s III the rear
half of the Catholic cemetery on King
street.
CROWDING THE DEAD.
Again, in digging graves in the diff
ferent cemeteries, except the Chinese
graveyards, it is glaringly apparent
that the location of bodies is no-
known and with few exceptions old
graves have been opened in digging
new ones. The lots are not marked
and as many as three graves have
been exposed in digging for enc. FIRE.
quently funeral will be stopped until
hole can be aug in another place
Rock Is often struck and the burial
of the body has to be postponed for
a day. This obviously should not
happen.
1t seems to me that the opening OF
an old grave is a serious menace t.
. health, especially as it is often I'M
known which body is being exposed
and the particular disease which caused
the death consequently being unknown
as we'll as the length of time since the
interment. Also graves are being
dug so close to each other that less
than six inches of soil lies between the
| bodies.
Something, it appears, should be
done and l should like to have a COM
mittee from the Board OF Health in
vestigate these conditions and make
recommendations for their abatement.
INSPECTION OF SEWERS.
buildings, plumbing and house sew
ers, reports the following worP for the
semi-monthly period ending August Is:
Number of plans filed 80; permits is
sued, so; inspections of plumbing. go.
inspections of new and old buildings.
4; final certificates issued, 80: sewer
connections, 0.
Seven building permits were reteiv-
ed, of which six We're approved. One
is held until the premises are put in
sanitary condition.
HILo INSPECTION.
d. l.. Bowman, sanitary inspector OF
Hilo, reports for the month of July that
six 4s-hour notices had been given and
obeyed. A Portuguese was prosecu-
ted for common nuisance. fined and
ordered to put his premises in good
| sanitary condition, which he did Or