The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-03-23
T III e
TUESDAY
DR.. AIMING AND THE BOARD OF
HEALTH.

We have received pamphlet which
purports to be "Copies of Report of Dr.
Edward Aiming TO the Board of Health,
and of Correspondence arising there
from" We say ''purpoFts" advisedly,
because for DIR. Awnings sake We would
gladly suggest doubt of his response
bility for so gross a breach of official de-
corum as the unauthorized publication
of these papers, belonging to the Board
of Health, unquestionably is. Ii the
Board of Health, in its biennial report to
the Legislature, had suppressed these
papers, DIR. Aiming would have been JUS
titled in demanding their production,
which could have been accomplished
through the Intervention of some mena-
Der of the Legislative Assembly; and if
this resource failed he would then have
been justified in their private publica-
ton; but he is wholly without excuse in
the course he has taken, and his action
in this regard, whether he is directly re-
sponsible or not, is certain to initiate very
seriously against him should he again
seek an official appointment here or else
where. No matter what personal grew
ance may exist in the case of public
officer, there are obligations of duty and
discipline which no gentleman can afford
30 ignore, and which are morally obliga-
tory upon all. DIR. Aiming, unfortunately
for himself, has ignored these obligations
and .alAa4d Ii-s4aalf 1a.44isAl4I in the wrong
without serving any personal end, or
furthering any public object, that we can
possibly imagine. TO adopt the language
of the President of the Board of Health,
IN his reply to Messrs. Bishop, Schaefer
and Atherton, acting as a committee of
interference with the Board, we are
compelled to believe that DIR. Aiming
has met with unwise advisers, whose
course of action throughout has been
dictated, not entirely for the public well
fare nor by philanthropic interest in the
progress of DR.. Awnings labors on behalf
of the lepers,'" and we cannot but ex-
press our regret also ''that even in the
care of the sick unworthy prejudices are
permitted to intrude, where charity as
well as science should be supreme"
DR.. Aiming may thank his injudicious
friends for any unpleasant comments his
course of action may call forth; and
when age ripens experience and tempers
zeal with discretion, he will probably
be ready to admit the force of these re-
marks, and we doubt not also that he
viii regret that he became an easy tool
of older and more designing men.
OF the wider bearings of his contro-
very with the Board of Health we
shall aot speak in this place A perusal
ii The correspondence and DIR. Awnings |
report viii convince any impartial per-
son that this gentleman is in the wrong.
The Board of Health simply asked |
reasonable service for the salary paid |
and facilities afforded him as Special |
Government Physician at the Leper |
Hospital. This he declined to render
and fell back upon a medical reserve
Doctors Trousseau, McKibbin and |
15fotiie-to sustain him in his refusal to /
do plain and palpable duty, enjoined |
alike by moral and legal considerations,
because, forsooth, the Board was ga
lay Board of HEALTH" If this
statement were not in print over
DR.. Awnings own signature we could not
such moral obliquity possible
but there it is. DIR. Aiming knew, and
the very eminent physicians, whose
names he used, likewise knew that the
Board of Health is a Government de-
nent, that all Government ply
3 are appointed by this Board and
BILE to it, that they are lawfully
orally bound to render the very
OCCASIONAL service they are capable
te Government which pays them,
by virtue of their appointment,
4 reposes confidence in them. 1t
; not matter whether the Board of
-ealth be lay or professional Board.
It is simply Government department, I
to the Legislature and ulti- {
nately to the people; and it certainly is
novel as well as an immoral doctrine ]
o PROFOUND, that because the Board of /
1ealth is constituted of laymen, there l
re tiIe medical officers of the Health s