The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-16

There are 10000 and 13,OOOton YES
sells which ply regularly between San
Francisco and Honolulu, and some of
the biggest greyhounds of the Pacific,
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
and the Togo Kisen Kaisha stop at
Honolulu on their way to and from
Japan. There are also "A number OF
sailing vessels which go from Hawaii
down around South America and
thence to New York and Europe, and
there are many tramp steamers which
call at the islands.
The Government has done much to
improve the health of the islands.
They now have a bureau of health,
which spent last year more than
$4,000, and there is a sanitary COM
mission which will reorganize Homo
lulu as to its sewerage and drainage.
There are district physicians who
make house.to-house inspection to
keep track of the sick During the past
year they have made 500 visits and
filled 10000 prescriptions They re
ceived 5000 calls and examined $4,000
school children.
A campaign is being made against
tuberculosis, and the United States Is
carrying on leprosy investigation
which may result in the finding of a
cure for this dread disease. They have
discovered the bacillus which pro-
duces leprosy, and have inoculated
monkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, white
rats and horses with it, So far only
the monkeys have taken it, and this
IS said to be the first time that it has
been developed in any other animal
than man. They are now experiment.
ing with horse serum as an antitoxin.
In addition to the leper colony on
the island of Molokai the Government
has now a receiving hospital for lep-
ers at Honolulu, and on the island it.
self it is adopting a new policy as to
the treatment of lepers. In the past
it has been customary to regard them
as outcasts. They are now considered
as patients and treated like other hui
man beings. There are $50 lepers in
the hospital, of whom five-sixths are
Hawaiians and the most of the re-
mainder Portuguese and Chinese.
The leper settlement is on a tongue
of land comprising several square
miles on the island of Molokai The
lepers have a colony of their own. and
this is a complete community of itself.
1t is much like the leper colony of the
Philippine Islands, in that it has it's
own magistrate and police and its So
cial and it's business life 1t has
churches, debating clubs, baseball
grounds and a racetrack. There are
two bands and a moying-picture thea
| ter
In the colony ape four large institu
tional homes. One is for males, an.
other for females, a third for hopeless
cases and fourth is a nursery for the
children. There are also about zoe
other buildings, consisting of machine
shops, ,storerooms and detached cot
tages occupied by lepers. Among the
schools of Honolulu are some for non
, leprous children whose parents are
= lepers.
Sugar and Labor.
p Some of the big questions of the flu
ture in the Hawaiian Islands have t.
/, do with the labor question. This il
based on the sugar plantations, whicl
J are, enormously rich, but which re
; quire cheap labor to handle them
J There are few spots upon earth tina
produce sugar like the lowlands ant
valleys of this Sandwich group. TIL
area is not large, but the crop las
year amounted to more than a billiol
pounds, or enough to give every mar
woman and child in the United State
a pound of sugar a month all the yea
through and leave some to spare.
The sugar plantations of Hawaii a
belong to rich corporations and trusts
There are altogether siXty-five con
panies, most of them chartered unde
the laws of California. The stock
, held by 1000 persons, some of whol
live on the Islands, some in the Uni
$ ed States, and not a few in Englan
+ and Germany. The corporations hay
an aggregate capital of $15O,00O,OO
and they produce about 100000
9 worth of sugar a year. Some of tn
: plantations have declared dividend
o as high as two per cent. a mont
9 while others have gone into ban
:, ruptcy
=. The work of sugar raising IS scie
:, tifically done. Enormous sums a
= spent for machinery and fertilize
:, About half the land is irrigated, al
= that at cost of $14O per acre,
:, about four times as much as simil
=. work in our country. The labor co
=, forms about sixty per cent. of Il
. whole.
1t is this labor demand that h
brought the Asiatic to Hawaii. The
Il