The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-05-19
HONOLULU EASY TO
CLEAN AND KEEP So
MAN WHO CLEANED CANAL
ZONE HERE-MosoU1ToEs
ARE mB MEAT.
tFfom Thtrsday,s Adveriisar.l

(From Thursdays Adversely
While Honolulu Is macking mos
quitoes, being tempted to the verge Of
profanity by the little stingers and
wondering what else can be done to
exterminate the buzzers that are to-
days troubles and tomorrowis menace,
there has been in the city for the past
year the man who had charge Of most
of the mosquito campaign work In tho
Panama Canal Zone, the campaign
that made possible the building Of the
canal.
| This is james Rocks, contractor, who
spent two years on mosquito work
along the Zone and retired, on account
of his health, with al medal from Presi.
dent Roosevelt and letters of apprecia-
ton from William c. Gorgas, assistant
surgeon general of the United States,
chief sanitary officer of the Canal Zone
and the man who drove the yellow
! fever from Havana. Mr.. Rocks came
to Honolulu to reenperate after his
! Panama work and finding the climate
here such as it is, has decided to make
Honolulu his home. It is not unlikely
that he will be placed in charge of the
! mosquito work here, after July /.
President MottSmith and DR.. Pratt Of
the board of health. knowing a good
man when they see one.
''What Honolulu needs is more
dltching and not so much oiling,'i said
Mr.. Rocks yesterday. discussing the
possibility of exterminating the mos
quitoes. "To make Honolulu mosquito
/ proof is easy, compared with the work
done in Panama. Drain the low places.
insist on property owners keeping
their places in sanitary condition,
educate them at the police court if
necessary and generally get busy. A
mosquito only lives three months; make
it So he has no place to breed and in
that timo he will die off, 1t isn't
necessary to chase after mosquitoes;
Just cut him off at the source of supply
and let him die ont
what Honolulu needs more than
anything else is proper building
ordinance. 1t is disgrace to civiliza-
tion that things have been permitted
to 60 on as they have in the slums,
with houses fat ON the ground, with.
out opportunity for proper sanitation.
Here you have a good class of
people to deal with. The Japanese are
lawabiding and will do the right thing
if they are told and shown what it is:
the Cinnamon are naturally tidy and
will help in keeping their places clean;
the Portuguese only have to be shown
once; the Hawaiians have not had
much of chance to learn what santa.
non means, but they can be shown and
they will not hold back once they are;
the Americans and other whites here
are away above the average. Down in
Panama we had to deal with ignorant
people, rich and poor, and we had to
train them to keep clean by example.
by force and by education.
"The Panama Zone is ten miles wide
and forty-eight miles long, swampy.
dirty, covered with jungle and alto
gether about the worst place possible
when we started in. 1t is one continu-
Gus town of forty-eight miles. with
city at each end. We started in at
Colon and we cleaned up straight
through to Panama, giving the strip
thorough polishing. We tore down
water tanks, we ripped off the storm
CUTTERS, we filed in wells, we put in
waterworks and sewers and made every
house connect up; we eemented the
streets, we cut down the sidewalks to
grade, we drained swamps. Then we
went back to Colon and we cleaned the
strip up again, right through to Pan.
anna. Then we started all over the
ground again and we cleaned it up.
Then we said to the people: Nov
You are clean; see that you keep
clean. and we saw that they did.
You won't have to do that in
Honolulu; you won t have to go into
every room in every house and see
that there is no mountaineering
water standing around, and you won t
s have to take any 'dons before the
alcalde' as examples, although the
health inspectors ought to go on the
motto that everybody looks alike'.
and if there should be any rich man
defying the authorities he should be
pulled the same as anyone else.
81 think the first thing that should
be done here is for the government to
supply proper garbage cans, with
covers, one to every three or four
houses. Put these where the garbage
men know just where to find thenl and
see that every householder uses them.
They will save their cost in a short
time by the way they will save the
time of the garbage collector and at
the same time viii be cleaner and bet
ter than the boxes and pals and mis-
eellaneous holders used now
"HonOlulu will be easy. All that
is wanted is some work, some money
and lots of authority. Honolulu can be
made as clean as the city of Colon,
and that city from being the dirtiest
is now the eleanest city in the world,
bar nOne.n