The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-07-16

the payment OF money were real es-
tate. The debt was the principal
thing, and the mortgage followed the
debt. This proposed that if he
held a mortgage on real estate he
might be taxed for it, and the mort
gagor, who had possession of the
land, was to be taxed for that too.
He cited other anomalies that the
bill in his judgment contained.
Minister Dare presumed the AS
sembly would agree with him that
all nations, as they increased in
population and wealth, had the cost
of government increased. To adopt
measures for increasing the value of
land was the policy of good govern
ment. 1.-THE land was improved by the
appropriations of Governmental was
only reasonable to suppose that it
must be taxed on its enhanced value.
There might not be trees and
orchards in this kingdom now which
are worth while taxing, but orchards
and vineyards would come in time
and would have to be taxed. The
owner of the land should be taxed
for his interest, and the MORTGAGE
for his interest. Under the head of
personal taxes in the proposed
amendment only few new terms
were introduced. About all it added
to the old law were jewelry, watches
and machinery. Taxes were every
where and constantly being levied
on property which was changing
hands. If the land was measured
off in regular squares as in the
United States, then the land alone
might be taxed.
Rep. Thurston-Suppose three
men are claiming land; are you going
to tax all of them?
Minister Dare-Yes.
Rep. Thurston-Then l do not
wonder the Government wants to
pass this bill.
Minister Dare--The gentleman
asked silly question, and l an
swered in n silly manner. This would
tax the person in possession of the
land.
Noble Bishop-That is in the law.
Minister Dare said they were not
talking on the old law, but on this
bill. The possession of land was Il
good basis for resting the assessment
on. A claim to land was sometimes
good and sometimes bad. (The
speaker here took his seat, saying
gentlemen should pay as much at
tenton to his argument as he had
paid to theirs Messrs. Dole, Castle
and Thurston protested that they
were hearing every word, but Mr..
Dare said noises came from across
the floor like those produced by
negro minstrels. He was not used
to that kind of legislation and would
sit back and look on.
Rep. Kauhane commented on the
clause of the section, taxing all
fruit trees, ornamental trees, nut
bearing trees and vines. They knew
that Hawaiians did not take enough
interest in planting trees, and they
should like them to take more in
terest in such things. If this bill
passed he was afraid it would dis
courage Hawaiians from making inn
provement in that respect. In as
sessing land he had always consider
ed that which had valuable trees as
being ratable higher than land with
out trees. Therefore, without being
specially marked for taxation, those
improvements had been taxed and
were taxed now.
Noble Cleghorn supported the
motion for indefinite postponement
of the first section. He believed in
having all tax laws as simple as
possible, and he believed this bill
was making taxation more compli-
Gated than there was any necessity
for. He could not understand why
deeds of trust, mortgages, etc.,
were called real estate, and he quite
agreed with the remarks of the last
speaker about trees. They wanted
to encourage the natives in planting
trees of all kinds. They must give
the tax assessors credit for having a
little judgment, and he thought they
would be able to judge between a
poor piece of land and piece that
was cultivated. There were many
poor pieces on the islands now that
were worth very little: he hope be-
fore long to see them covered with
vineyards; but if they were going
to pick out those things for taxation
they would defer that contamination.
another thing was that the taxes
now were very reasonable, and the
idea was to make the law as simple
as possible, but to be severe on peo-
pie who tried to evade their taxes.
He believed in taxing all kinds of
property wherever it was found.
Let the owner of ii be taxed.
Minister Dare--You cannot always
find the owner.
Noble Cleghorn said they could
find out, and quoted the present law
where it makes all real estate tax
able, at three-quarters of one per-
cent upon the value of the same,
Personal property was taxed at the
same rate, and was defined "to
mean and include all household
furniture and effects, goods, chat