The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-04-14
TROUBLE COMING BETWEEN TWO HEALTH
DEPARTMENTS OPERATING IN HONOLULU


(from Ncdnesd
A storm now gathering over the health
Of Honolulu, whether terri
toriai or city, is threatening to break
and there is a possibility of it doing so
this morning on the. floor Of the senate
in the discussion Of the poi bill. Aided
by members Of the board Of supervis
ors, displeased with the way the city
health department is being conducted,
and also by the displeasure of the
mayor Is office, not altogether a political
one, there is a move on to clear up for
once and all the dual health authority
existing on this island and either place
everything in the hands of the city or
everything in the hands of the board
of health, If Eben Low had been
homeN the chances are that the coming
storm would have broken somewhere
long ago.
When the poi bill came before the
senate yesterday morning for second
reading, it was deferred again until
this morning on motion of Senator Fair
child. Fairchild has picked up mad
vertently one of the loose ends of the
petty political game that is being play
ed in sanitary circles and as he has
proved himself man interested enough
in his work as a legislator to find out
things for himself, the symptoms indi-
cate that there will be trouble for
someone this morning.
Fairchild received a letter from one
of the parties who are doing their very
best without coming out in the open to
squelch the poi bin which is now in the
senate. He afterwards found out that
the information" CONTAINED in the
letter on which he was asked to base
his actions was wrong. Consequently
he asked for another days time on the
matter and it is probable that when he
rises to speak today there will be some
facts and figures of the Fairchild brand.
Jealousy or Worse.
Fairchild complains that there has
not been the openness regarding health
affairs that there should have been
That there is an inside feud between
the board of health and City Physician
Mackall is one of the facts that he has
discovered, but during all the time that
the board of health officials have been
before the senate, there has been nc
letter or anything else produced to
place this feud on record, which has
left the lawmakers up in the air in di
vining reasons.
Fairchild yesterday expressed as his
opinion that the statutes made the
board of health supreme in the Terri
tory on health matters and that the
county departments were deputized
under it. If this view is sustained and
maintained the city health department
is liable to come out at the small end
in the coming scramble for cover.
Mackall is against the poi bill on the
plea of dual authority in the admins
tration of the law and has asked thai
the bill be killed and it is fairly Ger
tain that he has been responsible fol
a greater part of the suspicious attitnd,
which certain members of the senate
cultivated.
The board of health, on the othei
hand is not giving the city poi ordi
nance the dignifed consideration tina
a real live city ordinance ought to have
/ The administration of it so far has beer
done in such manner that the detail
of it are liable to become public prop
erty through the senate records befor,
long and it is also possible that the.
will be weapon by which the bill viii
be forced through the senate after al
in order to give the board of healtl
n censor 3 TriVilepes