Kekuni Blaisdell

The King [Kamehameha IV] went before the legislature and said, "The number one problem in our kingdom is the disappearance of our people. Every other problem is negligible compared to that problem. Other peoples in our homeland have their own hospitals, but we native people do not. And that's why the Queen's hospital was established."

So the Queen's hospital was established in 1859, by act of the legislature, for sick, indigent and disabled Hawaiians, in order to provide free medical care.

Queen's hospital was initially supported by a hospital tax. That is, every ship coming into Honolulu harbor paid a tax. And that tax went to support free medical care ... for our native people.

And initially, it called for a board of directors with 21 persons, ten selected by the government, and ten elected by subscribers, that is those who contributed to the hospital. And the King was president of the board.

In 1909, after the takeover by the haole oligarchy, a secret meeting was held by that board. And at that meeting there were two actions taken. One was the wording. The clause, giving the mission of the hospital for indigent, sick and disabled Hawaiians, that clause was removed.

The second action taken was that all of the government members of the board of directors were out. So the hospital became no longer a government hospital providing free medical care for native Hawaiians, but became a private hospital and the sole beneficiary of the Queen Emma lands.

The Queen Emma lands of course include the area in Waikiki where the International Marketplace is, lower Halawa valley, inherited by Queen Emma from her grandfather John Young. And large acreages in Kawaihae. So the Queen's hospital is the wealthiest hospital.

But the income from those lands no longer goes to our native people.