The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-06-25

appropriation necessary, l answer
that so long as the business is kept
on the gold basis on which l left it
no assistance from the Treasury will
be required, as gold will always
secure exchange for money order
business without cost to the Govern
ment. If the money order business
cannot be maintained by the pre-
sent administration without BIZ
ennial appropriation Of $4,000,
the sooner it is closed the better.
Had the gold basis been adopted in
1884 for the money order business,
as was strongly urged by me, there
would have been no loss attending it
during the prevalence of high pre-
NUNS on exchange. But, by per-
emptory orders from the Minister of
the Interior, | was forbidden to
make any change, and the silver
basis was adhered to, resulting in
loss to the public Treasury of about
$4,000 in one year, for which His
Majesty's Ministers alone are re-
sponsible. In connection with these
items / may be permitted to refer to
a matter in which the last Legisla-
tive Assembly took special action,
and through committee directed
me to carry out their wishes to pro-
vide more street letter boxes, for
the purchase of which the sum of
$500 was specially appropriated in
1884 (the item of Post Office Incl
dcntals having been increased by
that amount for this purpose), with
instructions that it should be spent
in the purchase of letter boxes to be
set up on Hawaii, Maui and Oahu.
The wishes of the Legislature of
1884 have not been carried out, not
from any want Of attention on my
part, but because the permission to
send for them was not granted, /
having called Mr.. Gulick's attention
to it once, if not twice. Not only
have no new street boxes been OBJ
tanned, but / understand that the
twelve boxes which I erected in 1884
in this city have been torn down by
order of the Minister and slowed
away as useless trash. These boxes
have proved q very great assistance
in collecting letters for the mails,
and during the last two years more
than $4,000 letters have been col
lected from the twelve street boxes
in this city, or an average Of over
5000 letters from each. If these
boxes were introduced and set up
at all central points on all the mail
carrier routes throughout the group,
not only would it be great conve-
nience to many poor people, but to
all who live at distance from the
main roads and Post Offices, and
assist largely to increase correspon-
dence, and consequently the reve.
nue. of the Postal Service, which is
chiefly for the convenience of the
people. Having promised the spe'
cial committee of the Legislature
of 1884 to provide these street letter
boxes, it seems proper for me to
make this statement and to show
distinctly that no reason can be
given by me for not obeying their
request, except the refusal of the
Minister of the Interior to sanction
the expenditure, especially as the
Post Office had ample funds, having
paid into the Government Treasury
early in April the sum of So, l44.47
which were the surplus earnings o
the bureau for the year ending
March 81, 1886, the entire receipts
, for that year from all sources hay
, ing been S56.050.1S. / have tn
| honor to be, sir, your obedien
1 servant, III. M. WHITNEY.
9 Honolulu, June Is, 1886.