The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-02-17
THE PACIFIC
Commercial A0Oertl5cy
II, 1888

y A SPELL of rainy weather, rather more
protracted than usual, has turned most of
the streets of Honolulu into mere canals of
mud. Wherever any weight of traffic exists
to test their qualify, these public highways
of the capital city of the Kingdom have
proved themselves to be utterly inadequate
to provide for it. The omnibuses running
on two out Of three of the chief lines of
passenger traffic have been Withdrawn from
the service of the public simply because the
streets in which they are accustomed to ply
are in such a condition that neither the
vehicles nor the horses which draw them
Were safe from injury if they continued
their journeys. This is u crucial test of the
condition of the streets, because a time
when the roads are dirty is in the natural
course of things a time of harvest for the
omnibus proprietor. But things nave come
to such a pass that il is not worth his while
to submit his horses and vehicles to the
wear and tear which the state of the
roads would impose upon them even for
1.-THE highest remuneration which full
Loads could return to him Every one
else is in the same position as the omni-
bus proprietor. If he be accustomed
to drive his own vehicle he has to take the
risk of choosing between a tramp through
the mud and the chance of breaking a
spring or dishing a wheel. Our wharvCs are
lined with vessels discharging cargo which
must be earted and housed. The plant of
our carriers is taxed to its utmost TO supply
the needs of their customers. The neigh
borhood Of the wharves is a sea of mud,
every street is cut up and full of holes, and
all this is in consequence of IA week of rainy
days. Not n week of rain-the actual num-
Der of hours during which not a drop has
fallen very much exceeds that during which
it has rained. The showers have required
with persistence enough, and at short
enough intervals to prevent any general
drying up during the intervals between
them, and the result is such as we have
described. Every one is more or less put to
inconvenience, many suffer actual loss, and
all are grumbling. Who is to blame?
1t is no doubt a relief to peoples feelings
to utter ~objurgations against the powers
that be, to call the Minister of the Interior
by all sorts of uneomplimentary names, to
say that the Road Supervisor is unfit for his
post because he has not lone thiso or that
has not in fact been omnipresent, omnipo-
tent, and all-wise and able to perform the
miracle of making the Widows cruise of
the appropriation remain always full in
spite of all that he spends. Fortunately
hard words break no bones" and no onei is
likely to be seriously hurt by all the strong
language that has been used here about the
roads since Friday of last week. But all
the same, it is very unjust. For the amount
of money as disposal the work which has
been done towards forming and reI airing
the streets of Honolulu during the few
months which have passed since the
appropriation rule was passed IS very
creditable to all concerned, and is solid
and substantial in its character. But for
this work and it's s%oundness there can be
no doubt that Mr.. DOdd woul have had to
withdraw his omnibusses from the Nuuanu
route as well as from all others. But for
this work and its t~horoughness the traffic
between the business part of the town and
the esplanade whaTves might have become,
by his time, all but impossible. What has
been done is good, and by the value which
we are forced by the evidences of our senses
to put upon it at this juncture is proved to
be excellent enough, both in design and in
execution. 1t is in quantity, not in quality,
that it falls short. Honolulu has, in an
amazingly short space of time, spread itself
over a large area If an engineer had been
asked for an estimate as to what would be
HhAA ~ nan GIN - ANAAN @-NCNC
order the streets now required for the daily
use of the inhabitants of the city, he would
probably have suggested that the whole Of
the public loan which the last Legislature
determined to raise was needed to start
with for this one purpose only. No Ministry
could have asked for an appropriation sutfi-
eient for a fourth part of the work that is
absolutely necessary to keep the streets OF
Honolulu passable, to say nothing of re-
constructing them all as they ought to be
reconstructed. Those who should propose
such a thing would simply be laughed at
and those who should propose to pledge the
credit of the country for the purpose of
making the streets of Honolulu what they
should be would be loudly decried as UNI
wise and u%nfaithfuI public servants by the
very people who from day 70 day lift up
their voices at our street-corners, and revile
the Government and its officials because
of the state of the roads, as we have said
before-as we shall reiterate till a whole
some change shall come-it is with the
people of Honolulu itself that it rests to
convert their city from one of the meanest,
dirtiest, shabbiest of villages to be found in
the civilized world into a respectable, we'll
paved city. If those who live in it are not
ready to put their hands into their pockets
and TO pledge the credit of the city, and to
demand and obtain some form of local self
government, things will go on just as they
are, though we grumble and scOld as we
please.
THE chief bugIer of the Stalwarts gravely
enunciated the dictum that those who had
onnoaad the Coronation as beinp the work