The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-30
THE QUEENS HOSPITAL.

The condition that the Queens Hospi-
tai finds itself in today is the result of
the narrow lines upon which the insti-
tuition was laid down. Anything plant
ed on a narrow basis is bound to topple
over in time. BY it's constitution every
Hawaiian must be treated free of
charge. Anyone else having to use the
hospital had to pay. To meet the cases
of actual restitution, however, charita-
BILE people have from time to time en-
dowed beds, but the number of these
is by no means adequate to the number
of destitute patients, and the result is
that the charitable societies are con-
stantly being called upon to furnish
funds for the support of such people
in the hospital.
If the hospital were entirely a private
one there would have been no cause
for complaint If anyone has the means
he can found a hospital for any class
in the community to the exclusion of
all other classes, but the means to sup
port the institution must be from a
private source. The moment it comes
from the public funds, if even in part,
the public can claim share in its bene-
fits and all must be treated alike.
And this is the trouble with the
Queens Hospital, though endowed with
property by Queen Emma, it has also
to be supported by public funds. The
legislature has since the time of it's
foundation given it a direct subsidy,
and a law was passed by which every
foreign sailor and every passenger had
to pay a tax which went to the hospital.
The latter tax caused so much friction
that finally the steamship companies
paid the tax themselves.
Here has been a very fertile source
of friction. Ship owners had for years
paid a tax for the support of the hos
pital but if any of their men fell sick
they had to pay for their men while in
the hospital. If the American Consul
had a sick sailor on his hands, he had
to pay for his support at the Queens
Hospital out of his own pocket or let
him out in the street. This is no fairy
picture but actual solid fact.
Now the source of supply from the
tax upon passengers and sailors has
ceased By the decision in the Rookie
case some of the landed estate has gone
to other heirs, and the question of direct
support from a future Legislature be-
gins to look doubtful. The prospects
of the Queens Hospital being able to
carry on it's present semi-private, semi
public lines seem very obscure, though
considerable property is still left, but
it's income is reduced by about $4,000 a
year, and perhaps somewhat more. It's
secretary thinks that it can carry on
perfectly well without the subsidies. If
such is the case one does not see why it
has been accepting them for all these
years. 1t would have been a much more
popular institution if it had not.
What we need is free hospital. A
seaport town without a free hospital
seems a very great anomaly. A seaport
town in which funds are devoted to
private institution, the funds being in
in large measure derived from a pas
senger and sailors tax, is a still greater
anomaly. In this, as in much else,
great change is coming.
Exactly how the establishment OF a
free hospital will relieve the Queens
Hospital is not clear. 1t will take the
bulk of the American and European
patients away, but these are the pay
patients now, out of whom a profit is
made, or supposed to be made. How
large this is the secretary in his re-
marks does not show, but he intimates
that in spite of the Rookie decision 1t is
very considerable. This makes one
think that the Queens Hospital in past
years has had an income in excess OF
it's needs. Is 1t so?