The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-06-11
HEALTH BOARD
PLANS TO ACT
viii Take Protection Of the Pub
no AGAINST Market cOndi-
tons Upon Itself.

Having before II an example OF Just
how much Of farce the city govern
ment considers its "purc food ordi-
nance, the board Of health is prepar
ing to pass ARTICULATION covering the
same situation and take the protection
of the public upon itself. With this
idea in view, President Pratt will seek
the aid of the attOrney-general in
drafting regulation to be placed be-
fore the board and IL acceptable, add
il to the health laws of the Territory.
City Physician wayson and Doctor
Pratt have held several conferences
over the matter and in view of the fact
that conditions in the fishmarkets are
becoming worse, decided that the situa-
tion is absolutely intolerable. The
Chinese taking their cue from the
treatment accorded them by the pro-
scouting officials and the machinery of
government in general have ceased to
worry at all over "pure food" and
most of them have never before SO
flagrantly defied the law as they now
do daily at the fishmarket.
Six months ago all the Chinese stall
keepers at the market were arrested on
warrants sworn to by the deputy city
attorney. Judge Monsarrat tried them
and on the testimony of j. H. Boyd,
the fish inspector, and a witness for
the government and after a personal
visit to the market discharged the
defendants. Boyd testified that he had
never seen a cleaner market in all his
''travels' on the Pacific Coast, and as
all the Chinese were ready, the judge
saw nothing unusual about the market
when he visited it.
The city attorney professed to be
very indignant and announced that he
would arrest the Chinese every day
until they came through, no matter
what the Judge did to them. The
ordinance was then new and very
much in the public eye, and although
the most important clause in it had
! been cut out, it was still very hard
one to circumvent The city attorney
did not try to circumvent it. All the
stallkeepers were arrested two days in
succession and the law being thus
indicated vast and gloomy silence
settled down over the whole occurrence.
i One case out of twenty or thirty was
tried, the man was found guilty, fined
| twenty-five dollars and appealed. The
other cases then started to play hide
and seek on the calendar and after be-
ing continued seven times before the
middle of March disappeared alto
| gether and are now somewhere in the
dim recesses of the police court calen-
dar. AS they are yet untried seven
months after the passage of the ordi-
nance (Which was demanded as an
instant safeguard of the public healthy
it is TO be inferred that the case in the
circuit court has been similarly lost.
The excuse of the prosecuting attor-
ney, the two defending attorneys, Curry
and Humphreys, and the judge is that
they are waiting for the case in the
circuit court to be tried so that they
will know how to proceed. Every posi-
BILE fault was discovered in the ordi-
nance by the defending attorneys. 1t
had as many constitutional holes in it
as a sieve has. To judge by the de-
murrer filed and overruled, it was I'M
constitutional in three different ways
affecting the constitutional rights of
the Chinese stallkeepers any way you
! looked at it.
While the legal end of the campaign
for ''pure food'' has amused itself
with this little farce the medical end
has had to sit back and do nothing.
Two weeks ago the Chinese gave up all
attempts at pretense and took down
the screens that they had kept suspend.
ed (two feet) above the meat on their
counters. The clause forbidding
"promiscuous handling is joke.
The board of health officials, there
fore, following their announcement
that the fshmarket has become bed
of possible infection for every disease
in the island, will step in and relieve
the city attorney and the other attor-
neys of any further constitutional wor-
ries. The board has a specially re-
tanned attorney who is known to love
a fight.