The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-02


used at first without -ny plan as t.
lanes, or walks, and graves were
made at random you might say. Later
j all was cleared off and the place laid
| out as if there had been no buriaIs
! Now it is not uncommon at all to
! strike other collins. and in digging a
I grave there a few weeks ago in a
space supposed to be unoccupied, three
| different collins We're cut into each
lying at a different angle The local
press recently referred to the King
street cemetery as follows:
I'm digging the grave for the last
burial in the Catholic cemetery on
King street, the grave diggers disturb
ed the collins of two other long de-
ceased occupants of the burial grounds
and the new coffin was not only laid
in their place, but was lowered into
a foot and half of water. These
shocking conditions at the cemetery
have led Governor Carter and Super
intendent of Public Works Holloway
to take up the matter of securing a
new site for Catholic burial ground"
1t might be added that the entire
area of this cemetery is about two and
a half acres, and while no one can tell
since it was first opened, records at
the Board of Health office show 4124
between April, 1876, and Dec. 81. 1903.
Further comment is unnecessary.
Since this was written a report on
our city cemeteries, signed by Doctors
Mays and Cooper of the Board of
Health, has been made to that body,
and from it we quote:
h.
Sanitary officer it appears that from
Sept. 1, 1903, to Dec. 1, 1903. a period
of three months, thirty-seven collins
were actually chopped in two, and part
of the remains of their former occu-
pants re-burfed beneath. the new coffin.
To dig a grave without disturbing an
other coffin is becoming more and
more matter of difficulty AS many
as three and four holes are sometimes
dug and filled in again, before a spot
of unoccupied soil can be found Some
of the cemeteries, wholly or in part lie
so close to sea level that by the time
a grave is excavated to the required
six feet, it will often be half filled
with standing water. In the past
three months five buriaIs took place
in which collins were entirely sub
necessary, before the interment can be
completed, that two men shall descend
into the grave and stand upon the cof-
fin, one "a either end, to weigh it down
into the water until sufficient earth is
thrown on"
The report closes with the following
resolutions the Supreme Court not
having passed upon the County Act at
the time:
Resolved: That the Board of Health
call the attention of the Board of SUI
pervisors of Oahu County to the over
crowded and insanitary condition of
the cemeteries in this city. and earn
estly ask their cooperation in abating
the evil.
Resolved: That this Board in the in
terests of public health and decency,
advise the closing. by ordinance, of all
the city cemeteries to further inter
ments from and after certain date,
said date to be determined and fixed by
the Board of Supervisors.
Resolved: That inasmuch as one of
the cemeteries within the city limits,
known as the Makiki cemetery, is own
ed and conducted by the government,
this Board recommends that the Board
closing said government cemetery at
Makiki to further burials as soon as
possible, and that a site in lieu of
same be selected from the public lands
outside the city"
In 19uv the Board of Health passed
regulations forbidding the further bur-
ial of boaies in the city, except in the
cases of families who owned lots which
xTrho he
were not bad. The succeed
ing Boards have not carried out this
regulation in the spirit Intended, and
permits for buria1s are still being is
sued.
AT the time of our visitation of the
plague, the bodies of victims were sup
posed to be cremated, but no one
doubts that there are in our cemeteries
bodies of some who died from this
disease, and those graves (as well as
many others) remain a menace to the
as who knows when one
might be disturbed and the disease Civ
en- a new start, soon, or in the years
Of the future. /
Now as against this what is offered?
a cleansing BY fire; a change from the
body as we knew it in life, in the short
space of an hour to clean ashes. Which
seems better the placing of the body
n satins, enclosed in a rich casket with
silver trimmings, the carrying of the
whole through the streets in an elab-
orately decorated hearse, to a modern
cemetery, there to be deposited in the
earth to let decomposition and decay
10 its work during years, or the chang !
ng of the elements of the body in
Few moments as it were, in the beau
iful surroundings of modern crema-
DRY, and then the placing of the ashes
n a neat receptacle which so far as
my danger to the living is concerned
.ould be kept in ones room, but which
would more likely be placed in col
or better still in the eyes
If many be placed under ground in
heir supposed resting place. But ev-
n in case of future disturbance there,