DESIRE THAT THE PA OLA HOSPITAL BE REMOVED.

In a petition signed by 192 citizens residing near to the Pa Ola Hospital [Halema’i Pa Ola] in Kapalama, which was put before the board of supervisors [papa lunakiai] at the meeting this past Tuesday; made clear in the petition was that the Pa Ola Hospital had become something which threatens their lives, and they asked that the hospital be moved elsewhere. The petition was read and placed in the hands of the committee of that board, while asking that the committee meet with the board of health without delay.

“We do not have the authority to move the hospital somewhere else,” Supervisor Pacheco explained, “that falls totally under the board of health, but there is nothing wrong about giving it to the health committee of this board to do something about. We have been told that the flu is under control at this time, but the strange thing is that the number dying from the flu is increasing, and the city government is paying for the burial of those who die. We put our home in the board of health that the body will do something that will clearly save the people of this city from this plague [ma’i luku].

The Petition

“We, the citizens of 11th Precinct of the 5th District [ka Mahele 11 o ka Apana 5] of the City of Honolulu, ask the board of supervisors to remove from this precinct the hospital seen at Pa Ola, standing on Waikiki side of Banyan Steet and the Ewa side of the Asylum Road [alanui Halema’i Pupule], being that it believed to be a threat to the lives of the people for the reasons below:

“1. There are no strong quarantine rules that are in control in that hospital.

“2. Some of the large grammar schools [kula a’opiliolelo] in the city are located in very near proximity to the Pa Ola Hospital, and for the stupid children and those who do not look out for themselves, the disease will not fail to spread from the hospital, and into the schools and into the whole district.

“3. The 11th precinct of this district is one of the most packed with people in Honolulu, and it is an area where the flu will spread quickly from the center of where the sick are, like the Pa Ola Hospital, and in a short time, the number of people with the sickness will continue to increase, where quarantine cannot happen, and the whole city is under threat.”

(Kuokoa, 3/5/1920, p. 3)