The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-04-16
THE INSANE ASYLUM
BILL AND ITS MERITS

Editor Advertiser: I read in your
proceedings and noticed that House
/ Bill 134, which is to provide consult
ing medical board for the Territorial
insane asylum, received but scant con-
sideration from our Senators, and was
tabled, iii conformity with the recon-
mendation of the Health committee,
who anticipated in the passage of that
bill conflict of authority, and a drain
on the Territory treasury. Sympathy
for those poor inmates of the insane
asylum, induced me to give that par
ticular bill more than ordinary atten-
ton; to read and canine it care
fully with the result that I consider
it one of the very best bills so far in
troduced, and was therefore sorry to
see the Senate committee reporting
against it, after it had passed the
House without a dissenting vote.
I 1 believe that the law, which said
bill is intended to provide, would be
a great benefit to at least some of the
poor inmates of the asylum, and it
seems pity that it did not meet with
the approval of the Senate committee.
Do the gentlemen of the Senate not
realize that these poor insane beings,
our relations and friends, the wards
!
on Molokai, are subjects of the deep
est sympathy and pity, and are, next
| to the Board of Health, depending for
| justice and fair treatment entirely up
on them? Gentlemen, I sincerely hope
| you will prove yourselves friends to
these poor unfortunates.
Naturally it is not to be expected
that the Board of Health would care
to yield, or voluntarily surrender, any
authority or power it possesses. AL
though overwhelmed with duties, it
might find it hard to give the needed
attention to all matters it controls, and
thus be the cause of neglect and suf-
fering somewhere; and if this be the
allotment of the poor afflicted at the
insane asylum, who will squeal, and if
so, who will listen to crazy people? So
everything is as it should be; you and
l. of course, shall never swell their
number.
But hold on, there is the superin-
tendent, true, but he might be the very
cause of complaint, or if it be the
Board Of Health, will be (the superin-
tendenD as our employe of that same |
body, kick and thus perhaps jeopar- |
die comfortable md lucrative posi- |
ton? You must admit, he is not likely |
to he foolish enough to do so.
And again, crediting the superin- |
tendent or resident physician, what |
ever you may please to call him, with |
all the virtues, the best intentions and |
alertness to duty, reducing abuse of i
power to a shadow, is he competent |
and trained to give appropriate treat
ment for the mind, as the condition |
of some of his patients requires, and |
would his judgment on any matter
equal that of an honest, competent |
medical board of several members, as |
the bill in question proposes to create? |
I think there is but one answer to that |
question, and that is no!
As to the dual authority the Senate |
Health committee seems afraid to es-
tablish, if the bill was to become law |
I reiterate that 1 have examined the |
bill with the greatest care, and have |
failed to find anything in it, which /
could support that contention. And as |
to the costs, another objection, I ven
ture to say, it would not amount to |
over $1,000 year, and would any we'll
meaning member of our legislature
object to the expenditure of such a
trlf1e In such good cause, when we
see thousands upon thousands foolish
ly squandered, as witnessed in the
Nuuanu dam proposition
Gentlemen of the Senate, why not
give these poor unfortunates a chance
to recover by the aid of proper treat
ment as prescribed by a board &.
You would want yourselves, if you
were placed in their position?
There being even no allusion in the
bill re the establishment of a lunacvI