uage.” (Gibson)
In part, the Instructions note, “Every Hawaiian, who desires to be regarded as civilized must construct a privy near his dwelling, with a pit underneath it, at least six feet deep.”
They further note, “Every head of a family, and owner, or renter of a lot in Honolulu, or other town, can observe these rules …”
“Rule 1. Fill up at once, without waiting to be commanded by health officers, any privy pit, that has been open and used for a number of years.”
“Rule 2. Dig a new pit adjoining the outer wall of your yard, not less than seven feet deep; and do not wall up its sides with stone, or brick, or plank, or any other material. Let the surrounding soil of the walls of the pit help to absorb and defecate the impurities cast in.”
“Do not dig your pit within 30 feet of any well in use. And do not dig your pit adjoining your neighbor’s house. Be sure and have an air opening at least two feet square in the little house you build over your pit, as well as a door.”
“Rule 3. Provide a barrel, or a box, to stand inside of, or near the little house that covers your pit; and have this barrel or box filled with fresh, dry soil, especially the red, dry, iron tinctured soil from the kula plains …”
“… and have a paddle, or scoop of any kind, – a shingle would answer – to cast, after you use the place, a small quantity of dry earth into the pit. This earth must always be kept dry. All this will require some little labor, and perhaps expense on your part, but a blessing will come with the care and outlay, O, Hawaiian father of a family.”
“Rule 4. Dig a fresh pit at least every year. If your yard is small, you can return to the old places covered up, after a few years, and dig a pit in the same place a second time, without annoyance or injury.”
“Rule 5. Never permit any ordure to be deposited, or exposed in your yard, or on any pathway by your house, no more than you would permit your own person, or the person of any member of your family to be openly defiled by such impurities …”
“And thus, as you would keep your persons and your premises clean, your lives would be clean, and God, that giveth health, will abide with you, and not turn away.” (Gibson)
In 1897, Rudolph Hering, a New York Sanitary Engineer, designed Honolulu’s sewer system; it was a “separate system” whereby separate networks of conduits would carry sewage and storm waters, a system still used today in Honolulu.
Work on the system began in 1899 and sewer lines were laid out in a gravity flow pattern in a rectangular fashion and ran along Alapaʻi, River and South Streets, past Thomas Square, and ended in the Punahou area.
The sewer outfall to the ocean was built in 1899. The outfall ran some 3,800-feet out to sea at a depth of 40-feet of water, rather than farther out to a 100-foot depth (due to funding constraints.) (Darnell)
In 1900, the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was constructed; with features such as large arched windows, exterior walls of local lava rock, roofs of green tile and a smokestack 76-feet tall.
The use of the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was abandoned by the City and County of Honolulu when it built a new pumping station on the southwest portion of the block, adjacent to the Historic Ala Moana Pumping Station in 1955.