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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

ول

Reference :-

C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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not very likely that stegomyia scutellaris was introduced from Mexico, because there is no record that it occurs there or in adjacent countries. The following is a list

of the places where the larvæ of stegomyia mosquitoes have been found in Honolulu :-

Scutellaris.

Fasciata.,

The management of sanitary affairs in Honolulu is in the hands of the Board of Health of the territory of Hawaii, consisting of a President, a Secretary and six members, of whom two are medical men. It appears from the annual reports

of this Board that prior to 1909 efficient sanitary work was hampered for various reasons. In 1909, however, partly owing to outbreaks of cholera and plague, there was an awakening to the necessity for a more energetic and liberal sanitary policy, with the result that at the present time the territory devotes at least one-fifth of its total revenues to health and sanitation, and the Board of Health is well equipped for a thorough and continuous campaign. For the two years ending June, 1913, some of the appropriations are:-

General sanitation

Filling insanitary lands

Reclamation of swamp lands

Water-supply

Sewers

Suppression of contagious diseases and tuberculosis Mosquito campaign

Rat campaign

12,584

50,000

7,000

100,000

30,000

20,480

6,000

3,600

Through the action of the Legisuature of 1911 an expert and influential Sanitary Commission was appointed with power" Honolulu with reference to present and future dangers and requirements and to to investigate the sanitary conditions of report the result of such investigation with its recommendations of what work should be done and the necessary plans and specifications for doing it." This enquiry is being carried on continuously, and at the same time a vigorous sanitary policy is being pursued upon the basis of new laws by which the powers of the Board of Health were greatly extended and strengthened. Special campaigns against rats and mosquitoes, and against tuberculosis, leprosy, and other particular diseases are a feature of the policy. The anti-mosquito campaign was started in March, 1910, and has since been prosecuted with much vigour. At the time of my visit in February, 1912, the sanitary authorities of the territory were being assisted in the work of investigation and supervision by Dr. George McCoy, of the United States Public Health Service. The campaign has for its chief object the obliteration of the artificial, collections of water in which stegomyia mosquitoes chiefly breed; but efforts are also made to diminish the enormous number of culex larvæ constantly present in the extensive natural collections of water in the neighbourhood of the town. There are 26 sanitary inspectors engaged in searching for breeding places, each man's district comprising the area occupied by about 2,000 people. The sewer catch-basins, of which there are about 400 in the town, have been found to be prolific breeding places, as well as numerous cesspools and waste- water holes. Throughout the city, house roof-gutters are one of the most important breeding places of stegomyia mosquitoes, and at the time of my visit they were being entirely removed, or perforated so that water could not lodge in them. examination for breeding places in trees, banana plantations, and gardens was also A systematic in progress, and an endeavour was being made by filling holes in trees with cement, and by clearing away undergrowth--to reduce the output of mosquitoes from such places. Irrigated rice fields and large areas of water on low-lying land were dealt with by stocking them with larvæ-cating fish of the family Precillida, a stock of which was obtained from Seabrook, in Texas, in 1905. The species which thrive best were said to be Gambusia qffinis, Fundulus grandis, and Molliensia lattipinna; and the observations I was able to make led me to the conclusion that the irrigation ditches and large areas of water in which there is little or no vegetation are kept remarkably free from mosquito larvæ by the fish, and that for such breeding places the plan is very useful and effective. It is, however, much less effective where the presence of weed or grass affords shelter to the larvæ. Further details will be given in my report on methods for the destruction of mosquitoes. The campaign against stegomyia has been much facilitated by engaging a lawyer as one of the members of the executive anti-mosquito staff. Each morning he receives a list of addresses of houses where mosquto-breeding places have been found, with details of the work

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required for their remedy, and he spends the whole day in hunting up and inter- viewing the landlords of the houses, explaining to them the law on the subject, the penalties which neglect of it will incur, and endeavouring to get them to have the work done or to permit the sanitary authorities to do it. In the Chinese and Japanese quarters of the city the seeking out of the landlord, or other person responsible for insanitary conditions, is not the least of the difficulties of the campaign, and the plan just mentioned has proved of great service in securing prompt action and quick results.

In the annual report of the Board of Health for 1911 (which is the latest available to me at the time of writing) Dr. T. S. B. Pratt, the Chief Health and Sanitary Officer, makes the following remarks regarding the results of the campaign: "There has been a great deal of criticism of the work of this campaign, but those who have done the most to find fault did not take the trouble to find out what was being accomplished and what were the difficulties encountered. To talk of eradi- cating the mosquito from Honolulu is to state the impossible; to talk of controlling the mosquito so that it is no longer a menace from the health standpoint is to state what is possible. The public must do their share voluntarily or be made to do so, and wet land cultivation within the limits of Honolulu will have to go, and low lands must be filled or drained before much headway can be made."

From my own observations in February, 1912, I came to the conclusion that in all the areas which I examined, and especially in the principal residential and business sections of the city, the work was carried out with such thoroughness and care that it could not fail to bring about the chief object of the campaign, namely, the reduction of stegomyia mosquitoes; and I formed the opinion that this object had been already in great measure accomplished. The reduction of the other kinds of mosquitoes present in Honolulu is an entirely different and wider problem, and the presence of such mosquitoes was doubtless responsible for the complaints of the residents who still believed that little or no reduction of mosquitoes had resulted from the measures.

Shipping Communications—

1. Between Hawaii, the United States, and Mexico :--

Steamship Line.

The American-Hawaiian Steamship

Company.

Matson Navigation Company Oceanic Steamship Company

Union Steamship Company

Associated Oil Company

2. Through Services:-

Steamship Line. Pacific Mail Steamship Company Toyo Kisen Kaisha Company,

Eng Hook Fong Steamship Company

Canadian Australian Steamship

Company.

Balfour Line...

38411

Details of routes, &c.

The chief routes of this Company are: (1) Salina Cruz to Hawaii and return viâ Puget Sound, San Francisco and other Pacific coast ports; (2) Salina Cruz to Pacific coast ports and return; (3) Hawaii to New York viâ Straits of Magellan; (4) Hawaii to San Francisco and return; (5) New York to Puerto Mexico and return. Six steamers on various routes between Pacific coast ports and Honolulu and Hilo. Two steamers between Honolulu and San

Francisco.

Nine tank steamers and barges between California and Hawaii for transportation of crude oil. Two steamers, two sailing vessels, and one

barge in the crude oil traffic.

Details of routes, &c.

Hong Kong, China, Japan and San Francisco. Hong Kong via China and Japan and Hono- lulu to Manzanillo, Salina Cruz, Callao, Iquique, Valparaiso, and Coronel and return by same route.

From Chinese ports to Manzanillo and

return.

Vancouver to Australia.

From Europe via the Straits of Magellan to Honolulu; thence to Pacific coast ports.

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