The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-04-16
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY. APRIL 10.

the Interior. As far as the amendment OF the old
law went, it was generally approved. 1t left the sub
ject of roads in the hands of the Minister, to choose
his own aids to establish and carry out such "a system
as he might approve. This law went into operation
on the first of January, and though the fourth month
is well nigh passed, up to this nothing has been done
towards providing for the wants of the people, in the
matter of roads at least no official notice has been
given of any action taken to carry out the provisions
Of the law. The state of our roads is of too vital
Importance to the interests of all classes of the
people, and to the general prosperity of the kingdom,
to meet with such negligence as this apparently has.
From different parts of the kingdom we hear that the
roads are becoming in places quite impossible, which
might be remedied by proper supervision. The gov
eminent imposes a tax to keep the highways in con-
dition for travel, and those who use them justly look
to the government to use its Legitimate means to keep
them in order. The tax imposed is amply sufficient,
if placed in the proper hands, to preserve good roads
throughout the year. The public only ask that the
proper persons may be appointed for this work.
An intelligent correspondent whose views on most
subjects are we'll weighed, inquiries, whether an entire
change of the present system of road taxation would
not be beneficial to the kingdom. Such a change, if
made, should only be done after mature elaboration.
The writer asks -" Would it not be more prudent
(because more economically for the government, more
pleasing to the people, and more profitable to the
public, consequently better for all concerned-instead
Of keeping upon our statute book, such a relic of n
defunct feudal system as our present personal ser
vice and Communication arrangement for road making
to abolish the personal service-have the tax paid
in money and a competent person employed upon each
Of the islands to oversee the roads, employ and apply
tie labor where it is needed, and insure us against
having five thousand dollars worth of work expended
in a populous district where little is needed, while
passage through the adjoining sparsely peopled one
Is almost prevented for lack of FIVE hundred dollars
worth 20
In a valuable work on roads by Gillespie, we find
the same views as those which our correspondent ex-
presses, and which, whether practicable here or not,
are worthy of being generally read:
"The Road-tar system, of personal service and
Communication, though nearly universal among US, is
unsound in its principle, unjust in its operation,
wasteful in its practice, and unsatisfactory in its
results. Borrowed from the statute-labor of England,
and the Corree or Prestation en- nature of France,
like them it is a remnant of the times of feudal vassal-
age, when one of the tenures by which land was held
was the obligation to make the roads passable for the
troops of the lord of the manor. .
The fundamental principle of the Road-tax Gas
word existing) is a false one. Its contemporary Gus
tom of requiring rents to be paid in kind, has long
since been found to be less easy and equitable than
money rents. Just so is work paid for by the piece
preferable in every respect to compulsory labor by the
day. Men are now taken from their peculiar occupa-
tons in which they are skilful, and transferred to
one Of which they know nothing. A COOL ploughman
does not think himself necessarily competent to forge
the coulter of his plough, or to put together its wood
work. He knows that it is truer economy for him to
pay a mechanic for his services. But the laws assume
him to be a skilful road-maker-a more difficult art
than plough-making-and compel him to act as one;
though his clumsiness in repairing his plough would
injure only himself, while his road-blunders are in
furious to the whole community. Skill in any art is
only to be acquired by practical and successful expert
ence, aided by the Instructions of those who already
possess it. An artisan cannot be extemporized.
Labor by the day is always less profitable than that
done by the piece, in which each mans skill and in
dustry receive proportiOnate rewards. Working on
the roads is generally made a half holiday by those
who assemble at the summons of the overseer. Few
of the men or horses do half a days work, the remain
der of their time being lost in idleness, and perhaps
half of even the actual working time being wasted by
its misdirection.
1t follows from the preceding remarks that the COM
mutation system operates very unfairly and severely
upon those who commute; for they pay the price of a
full days work, and their tax is therefore doubled.
Such are the principal defects of the present system
OF md1agnS the ElOOr eXpen1eu OIL UOWH FOduS. DuI
it is much easier to discover and to expose, than to
remove them. In the following plan the writer has
endeavored to combine the most valuable features of
the various European systems, and to adapt them to
our peculiar Institutions.
In each State, a general legislative act should
establish all the details ofconstruction, and determine
definitely, "What a road ought to be" in accor-
dance with the theory and practice of the best engin-
GERS. Surveys should be made of all the leading
roads, and plans and profles Of them prepared, so
that it might be at once seen in what way their lines
could be most efficiently and cheaply improved.
The personal labor and Communication system should
be entirely abolished. Ifthe town-meeting would vote
a tax in money ofhaf the amount now levied in days
work, its expenditure under the supervision to be
presently described, would produce a result superior
to the present one. When the road is a great thorough
fare, extending far beyond the town, it would be
unjust to levy upon it all the expense; and a county
tax, or, in extreme cases, a state appropriation,
should supply what might be necessary.
In regulating the expenditure of the money raised
the fundamental principle, dictated by the truest and
most far-sighted economy, should be to sacrifice a
portion Of the resources of the road to ensure the good
employment Of the remainder. The justice of this
principle needs no argument; its best mode of appli-