202 
conducted from a central or vantage point. This vantage point 
may be considered and termed as strategic, and as such will now 
be described. 
The geographical location of Hawaii, its large and increasing 
sugar output, its growing foreign trade, its natural advantages as 
a naval base and military mobilization point, and finally its con- 
venience as a general coaling station and port of call, cause it to 
be almost a commercial necessity in the Pacific Arena. 
The same reasons which make it a .commercial necessity make 
it a quarantine necessity. 
Hawaii is the natural strategic quarantine base in the Pacific 
Arena and the more the commerce increases the more will this 
fact be realized and appreciated by the commercial and sanitary 
interests alike. It is exposed to diseases of every description from 
every land, and occasionally it may have disease of its own to ex- 
port, despite the precautions which are constantly taken, and 
taken, too, in a measure commensurate with Hawaii's importance. 
But as 9 'clearing house" or ''fender" for disease in transit 
across the Pacific it will ever render incomparable service to the 
Pacific Arena, and after the completion of the Panama Canal, to 
other parts of the world as well. 
Hawaii has suffered in the past from three epidemics, one of 
smallpox, one of plague, and one of cholera, so that the inhabi- 
tants individually and collectively appreciate the value of careful 
quarantine and thorough internal sanitation. 
Perhaps in no other city in the world are so many people ready 
to lend so much moral and financial aid to rational quarantine and 
sanitation. So that in rating Hawaii it should be considered as a 
quarantine center or sanitary sieve, riot a disease center of export 
nor import. 
PRAEDIAL LARCENY AT JAMAICA. 
A bill dealing with praedial larceny in Jamaica is about to be 
introduced into the Legislative Council of the colony, and at a 
recent meeting of the Agricultural Society, the Governor gave 
some indication of the main provisions of this bill. It is proposed 
that any persons found with agricultural produce, and who can- 
not give a satisfactory account of how it came into their 
possession, may be liable to arrest on suspicion, and the onus of 
proving their ownership to the article challenged rests on the 
suspected persons. Further, it provides that, besides the police, 
other authorized persons, such as magistrates, district constables, 
persons nominated by branch Agricultural Societies, and others 
appointed as special constables shall have the right to arrest per- 
sons whom they have reason to suspect. It will be seen that the 
proposed enactments are very stringent in nature, but praedial 
larceny has largely increased in Jamaica of late, and demands 
drastic treatment.— The Agricultural News, Jamaica. 
