The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-21
THE REGISTRAR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
INTERVIEWED.

The dOings of the Hawaiian Treas
ury having been made the subject of
TOwntalk and numerous statementsin
connection with them having been
openly made which we knew to be alb
solutely untrue we concluded that the
shortest way to get at the truth for
public Information was to go to head
quarters and hear what the chief
official of the Treasury had to say on
the matter. Hence the Interview of
which the following is a report:
Querist: Mr.. Pratt, according to
some of the local papers you appear
to have been doing quite lot of
wicked things. Have you any
objection to explain a few of these
matters to me?
Mr.. Pratt: None whatever. What
have done I am ready to give an
account of.
Querist: 1t is said that you re-issued
$4,000 certificates of deposit that
ought to have been cancelled and
that you have or had $500 more
uncancelled. Is this true?
Mr.. Pratt: No it is not. On a GER
tain afternoon Mr.. Cartwright and
Hon. III. A. Widemann came here
asking for information and I suppose
they must have misunderstood what
told them. At that time there were
uncaneelled SIS, 900 of silver certifi-
Gates that had been presented for re-
demption. These had almost all
been redeemed for the Treasury itself
because for convenience sake do not
take from the Special Deposit every
little amount wanted by individuals.
take out $1,000 silver or $4,000 gold
at time. So if the Treasury likes
to recall such a transaction do not
see who is to object to it. Of the
$4,000 uncancelled certificates $IO,-
900 were re-issued to the Treasury for
gold which Messrs. w. G. Irwin &
Co. exchanged for them. $27, 600 were
re-issued for silver from the Treas ury
which is somewhat less than the
amount of the silver certificates for
which the holders had asked for sill
yer since December 1st when the new
law came into operation. The re-
mainder $38, 600 were in the special
deposit uncancelled at the time but
have since been cancelled, because by
claiming notes and gold again at the
Custom-House the Government has
rendered the use of them unnecessary.
As to the other $3s,OOO uncancelled
notes talked about they do not exist.
They are created by a mistake of
figures.
Querist: When did you stop pay
ing gold for certificates .?
Mr.. Pratt: Not till we received in
formation that a raid would be made
upon the Treasury for all the gold
which the Government had there.
Querist: Tell me about the sale of
the foreign silver. It is claimed that
the Government violated the law.
Mr.. Pratt: The law could not be
carried out literally because there
were not people to put in the tender rs
necessary. The law itself was an
absurd one. The Government ought
to have been authorized to ship the
silver to America and get the best |
price it could for it in that wide mar
ket. AS it was, only three bids were |
made. A Chinaman whose name I |
forget and Messrs. Grimbaum & Co, |
rendered for $4,000 each, but they
wanted to pick their coin, a process |
chat would have taken about a month !
and left us all the least valuable |
coins. w. G. Irwin & Co. and Bishop
& Co., Jointly made a tender for the
lot and obtained it.
Querist: 1t is said that the Gov
eminent committed violation of the
law in taking silver at the Custom
House and this is called Colossal
stupidity"
Mr.. Pratt: The Legislature when
it passed the New Currency Act re-
pealed the law that forbade the TAX
ing of silver at the Custom House so
there was no violation of law. I'm
fortunately for those who wanted tn
get Hawaiian silver at a discount.
this measure saved the public from
their clutches, and no more popular
measure was ever taken by the Gov
eminent. Silver is now so far from
oelng in excess in the hands of the
public that the Bank Itself had to
come to me this afternoon for $4,000
of it.
ouerist: 1 thought the papers said
you were refusing to give silver for
certificates.
Mr.. Pratt: That has already beap
officially denied. Now the mis-. Guide