Desire to Live in Kalaupapa
According to reports, most of the assistants [kokua] and the people who have been diagnosed not to have leprosy have requested of the Board of Health to remain in Kalaupapa.
Amongst these requests, four have staunchly opposed their being removed from the place of the sick. In accordance with the thought of the Board of Health, some requests were granted while others were denied.
The petitions of Mrs. Jessie Kaeana and Mrs. Lahela Amaka for their husbands to go to the colony as kokua were approved, and Superintendent McVeigh [Lunanui Maka-we] helped in this.
C. Kopena, a kokua that was ordered by the Board of Health to leave, asked that the decision be changed. The Board of Health gave the 31st of August as his last day to live in the colony. Kopena stated that he lived there for a long time and has not in the least gone against the Board of Health. When he left for the colony, he sold all of his assets, believing that he would spend the rest of his days there; and now, he is unable to return to the outside world unless he has supplies. If the Board is set upon his leaving, he needs to be given a home outside, and if not, he will become a vagabond of the earth.
According to Superintendent McVeigh, Kopena refuses to work, and has tried to join in with the rest of the kokua to defy the power of the Board of Health. For this reason, the request was denied.
McVeigh stated that when telling Kopena the Board of Health decided to remove him from the colony, Kopena said, “ko ke hele”¹, and that he would be staying.
That was not the case of Mr. and Mrs. Imihia. They asked the Board to allow the two of them to live there because they have no ohana left living, and they don’t have enough money to sustain them for two days.
Mr. McVeigh asked that they live in the colony and he said that Imihia works hard and is a farmer. The request was approved.
The request of Simms was denied for him to continue living in the colony, because he was suspected of having leprosy, but he will be released after he receives his clearance.
According to the explanation of McVeigh, Simms is one of the most lazy blacks that he has seen, and he should be sent out to work for himself.
The request of Sam Kaaiko and his wife was approved to go to the colony to visit their child.
Mrs. H. K. Aylett’s request was denied to take her young child to the colony.
¹Hawaiianization of the phrase, “go to hell.”
(Kuokoa, 8/7/1903, p. 3)

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XLI, Helu 32, Aoao 3. Augate 7, 1903.