The Hawaiian gazette., 1875-10-13
WEDNESDAY. OCE ls.

QulTeu DY bne lONn may Dt Htlu III btOLS' AAS
thinks US " fippant," and is certain that we
"have given no consideration TO the subject
on which we vapor" BY the bye, ".vapor"
is a good word to use in discussion on the
water supply 1t has an appropriate look,
even if it be utterly meaningless in the con-
nection One of the definitions we have been
accustomed to attach to the word is :" TO
boast " or ''vaunt,'' but as the AdUertise-
cannot have used it in this sense, we are
forced to the conclusion that by virtue of some
poetic license, he has engrafted new mean
ing Of his own onto the word. Our contem-
porary's plan, even granting that it would en-
tail no risks, and that it would work as well
as he anticipates, would be only make-shift,
and as such, we still maintain, would be " i'm
mensely expensive" The first cost of three
miles Of ten-inch pipe would not be cent less
than $4,000, while it is doubtful if the
reservoir could be built, and the necessary
labor performed, short of s25, 900 more. Now
5000 for a temporary make-shift would be
"paying dear for the whistle" We call the
plan a mdte-shyi, because it would merely af-
ford a transient alienation to our trouble, and
the removal of the COWS would still be our Ill
innate resource 1t would possibly prove
immensely expensive to buy out the rights
of dairy-men and other landowners occupy
ing the watershed of the valley, if it were
necessary to do so at their own extravagant
valuations, but by act of legislature the pro-
perty can be had for its actual present value,
and one thing is certain, viz: its value will
never be less than it is now, but it will inevi-
tably increase year by year. We believe that
these private rights could be obtained now for
a sum considerably short of $4,000.
Two correspondents in our last issue ques-
toned the authority, if any, for the disburse-
ment of money from the public treasury for the
building of new steamer. In looking the
matter up, we find that the Legislative Assem-
bly, of 1872, with the approval of the King,
enacted the following
"SECTIon l. The Minister of the Interior is here
by authorized to purchase to contract for the
building Of a steamer for the performance of the
inter island steam service and to pay therefor sum
~
that such steamer shall possess good sea going |
qualities and shall be competent TO perform the trip
around Hawaii each and every week.
SECTION q 10 order to carry out the provisions
of this Act the Minister of the Interior is hereby
authorized TO draw on the Minister of Finance to an
amount not exceeding eighty thousand dollars, and |
the Minister of Finance is hereby authorized to pay
such drafts out of any moneys in the treasury not
otherwise appropriated"
This Act was approved on the 29th day of !
July, 1872; the same day the appropriation
Act was approved, the fourth Section of
which reads: "The Minister of Finance shall
not cause or allow to be paid from the Urea
sury, any money for objects not provided for
by this law; provided however, that all sums
deposited in the Treasury, for
which Certificates of Deposit are issued, and
he interest thereon, may be paid when due,
without special appropriation for that object"
By some oversight the amount for the build
ng of the steamer was not inserted in the APP
preparation Act the usual course in such cases.
L is known that the then Minister of the In
erior could not be brought to see the necessi-
friends of the Bill urged the want as an imme-
late and pressing one The Bill authorizing
he Minister to purchase or build new steam
r was intended as a backing to the appropri-
tion, as warrant or spur to an unwilling
iinister.
That this Act, authorizing the purchase or
'uilding of a steamer, was not considered of a
wo-fold nature, that is an Appropriation Act
s well, is evident from the fact that it was
lot returned as an unexpended balance in the
eport of the Minister of Finance to the Legis-
alive Assembly of 1874.
Admit, if we please, that it was an Appro-
riation Act, the End Section of the Appropri-
ton Act of 1874 reads:
1.-The Minister of Finance shall credit the appro.
rations of the last Biennial Fiscal Period all the
mounts appropriated by the Act, approved the
9th day of July, A. D. 1872, and remaining uuex-
ended on the Slst. day of March, A. D. 1874 not
therwise reapproprated, and such amounts shall be
oaAed no longer available for The objects for ulica they
gre originally appropriated"
The Appropriation Act of 1874 contains no
for the disbursement of dollar
or building or purchasing new steamer, nei-
her was there any special Act enacted; but we
md in the fourth section of the Appropriation
let the same mandatory clause "The Minister
f Finance shall not cause or allow to be paid
rom the Treasury any money for objects not
rovided for by this law ="
We are not advised that the Privy Council
as ever stretched the provisions of the 18th
-rticle of the Constitution, by which in case of
public disaster" it is authorized to provide
'r drawing moneys from the Public Treasury,
, cover the expenditure for a new steamer
When we consider that the Legislative As
emily will be convened within six months, it
perhaps better to wait and have sufficient
UNI appropriated in irregular way, rather than
Ike irregular short cuts to attain our end.
Roads.
A., ., r-,,,,.. e A., f.. r