The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-04-14
HEALTH SITUATION IS
THROWN into CONFUSION
by EVENTS OF ONE DAY.
Demand That Power Be
Put Back in Health
Board.
CFrom Thursday s Advertiser.l

(from lhursday 8 Advertiser.)
One case of cholera broke out yester-
day morning in the All Leong block at
the corner of Queen and Punchbowl
streets, adjoining the Judiciary and
board of health buildings. The victim
is Hawaiian stevedore, named KAPPA
ma, twentyteight years of age, and was
is good health Tuesday. He was taken
sick late Tuesday night and died early
Wednesday morning. The source of in.
lection from which he derived the dis.
ease has been proved fairly eonclusively
to have been a poi shop at 72O South
street, that shop supposed TO have been
closed by the city poi ordinance.
Instant action was taken by the
board of health, with the result that the
poi shop in question has been practical
ly demolished, as far as possible and
the tenement where the disease broke
out, alarge one, being emptied of inhabi-
tants. Exclusive of the Chinese poi
makers fifty-one contacts have been iso-
lated.
The board of health has also estab-
lished a strong chain of evidence to
prove that this poi shop was the center
of infection during the epidemic pre-
vious, which was supposed to have come
to an end just month ago. The shop
secured its taro from a patch near the
place where Manana died. starting a
series of deaths in that locality. This
shop then continued to supply poi to
/ the Cyrus Green tenement on Luso
street, the second focus of the disesae,
the most formidable one the board had
to handle.
The Proof.
During the last epidemic cholera
broke out in the localities to which this
shop sent poi. When the poi shops were
shut on the moral certainty that the
poi was the medium of transmission the
appearances of foci stopped, and in ten
days the disease was stamped out by
the board in the face of a. general howl
over it's caution in regard to the poi
shops. Using every effort possible the
board kept the shops closed until the
last remnants of legal excuse was
gone and a few days later the city
passed the poi ordinance which was to
permit the city health authorities to
continue that embargo until the shops
were in fit condition to operate.
The community forgot about the poi
and the poi shops and the epidemic,
thinking that everything was under con-
troll as it should have been. The reeur-
renee of the disease yesterday brought
forth the fact that almost every shop
in the community was at that time run
ming wide open, not half of them in
spected and none of them with a license.
Evade Responsibility.
Coming on the heels of a story pub
lished in The Advertiser yesterday
morning, wherein the full facts and
figures pointing to the incompetency of
the city health department were print
ed, the city health authorities felt the
blow of this case and made a scramble
for cover.
In his haste to shift the burden of
blame that was so glaringly due to
someone, Doctor Mackall, the city
physician, evolved several different
stories regarding the department Is
work.
To President Mott-Smith of the
board Of health he gave one reason
in the morning, and in the uncertainty
of his first position stated to him that
he did not know whether that shop was
open OF not. To Advertiser reporters,
two hours later, he produced his note
book and pointed to a page where he
had noted that particular poi shop on
South street as condemned, and stated
emphatically that it was shut
Centralize Authority.
E. D. Tenney, head of Castle & Cooke,
said he was heartily in sympathy in
placing the board of health in a posi-
/ tion of authority to control the situa-
tion and to control the sources of food
supply and particularly the poi shops.
Mr.. Tenney then presented a resolution
which had been offered partially by
George w. Smith, chairman of the
health committee of the chamber. This
was seconded by Richard Ivers and
passed unanimously.
Respect for Authority.
Mr.. Smith stated that the people, par
tieularly the cosmopolitan population
of the Islands, did not have the amount
of respect for the sanitary officers that
they should, but they did have a pro-
found respect for the officers of the
federal government.
Mr.. Smith said there was an absolute
necessity to have health matters in the
hands Of people who can and who will
enforce the regulations feaTlessly and
without a display of eowardice which
comes often to those who depend upon
their political positions from the cleo
torate. 1t has been demonstrated, he
added, that ordinances are not enforced,
or only feehly so. The present lax
situation, particularly on the part OF
the county health officials, is a menace
to commerce and he believed IL was
time to bring pressure to bear to have
laws passed by the legislature, laws
that would conserve health and cleanli,
ness to the city.
A Vital Neeea6ity.
President MOtt.smith, OF the board
Of health, dweit upon the vital neees
atty Of having legislation which would
give to the territorial board OF healtl
proper authority 10 maintain protection
10 public health. He told Of the organ
izaiion Of the board Of health a. 1856
and how Il has become 3 trained Or