THE LEPER ISLAND OF MOLOKAI.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 212, 20 November 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LEPER ISLAND OF MOLOKAI.

A Land where one does not have to pay taxes or rent, and where a beneficent Government provides cottages and rations herds, and clothing, and where not only blankets but even medical attendance are without cost, is not this a veritablo Utopia ? Yet such a land is our nearest neighbour in the Pacific, and is only some two thousand miles distant. As one'a steamer leaving San Francisco approaches the Hawaiian Islands, before it can drop in the beautiful harbour of Honolulu it must needs pass Molokai. And Molokai? Why, thac is the fifth island in size of the entire group of the Sandwich Islands, and is some forty miles in length, with an area of about 200,000 acres. On its eastern side are elevations of fully 2,500 feet, while on its western slopes they diminish to a height of about 1,000 feet. Its valleys are beautiful, and are filled witn deer. A herd of spotted deer, presented by the Mikado of Japan some thirty years ago, -were placed, by the King of the Sandwich Islands on Molokui, and now number somethrje thousand roaming at will over a large part of the island. Here are many kinds of the most luxuriant tropical vegetation, tlio balmiest air, the most invigorating seabreexes, even such spicy breezes as blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle. But though every prospect pleases, few persons can be induced to make their home on Molokai. The entire population is only some three thousauil, and a year ago eleven hundred and twenty of these were lepers. Possibly nowhere ia the world is the census more carefully taken and more accurately known tban isthecise in the northern part of this int-resting island. Molokai, as is well known, is the name for the leper colony of Hawaii. The lepers do not occupy all the island, but only tb.3 grassy plain, ten miles in length, and varying from one to two miles in width on the north side of the island, and yet separated wholly from the rest of the island aud its population by a precipice fully a thousand feet, high, which can be scaled at only one point, and here it is sjcurely guarded Despite their freedom from taxation and rents, their ample supplies of food and clothing, their abundant herds of cattle and horses, and their fertile fields which require so little labour, the lepers arc virtually lifeprisoners, shut in by the ocean on one sidi and by the impassable mountain on the other. Most of the lepers are natives, but foreigner* are found among the colonists, and all who once come to this part of Molokai save to brina: supplies or to inspect, as the Board of Health tvice each year, do so with the expectation of never returning. At a cost of some 10,000 dols. per month, the Hawaiian Government maintains this opeu-air leper hospital in order to perfectly quarantine and thus finally stamp out leprosy among the Sandwich Islanders. Sheltered from the strong sei -wind, this plain of Kalaupapa would make an ideal place of residence, alike for its beautiful surroundings and the salubrity of its climate ; and here everything is done, compatible with preventing' the spread of the disease, to make its unhappy victims contented. But the heartrending wails of those who part with loved ones aad friends for the last time as they are about to be con* voyed to Molokai tell the motto of the Leper Asylum: •• All hope abandon, ye who enter here." Hut this separation from friends is the chief sorrow of the Hawaiian leper, and that is required in order to save loved ones from the possible contagion of the disease.