The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-09-14
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER u, 1886
THE ROAD TAX VOTE.

1t is claimed by the Adoeyfisey that
no effort was made by the Government
to defeat the Road Bill "beyond present
ing to the Legislature its defective
features, with view to amendment" :"
This is a curious statement after the
published fact that the Ministry
voted in the minority for the
indefinite postponement of the bill.
Our contemporary must mean that no
effort was made by the Government to
defeat the bill, until they had been
frustrated in their efforts to mangle the
essential principle out of it. They
fought hard against the main object of
the bill, which was to take out of the
hands of the Ministry trust which
they had abused. They had certainly
abused trust, in keeping any if not
all of the districts out of the road tax
collected therein, which the law speci.
ically gives the several districts. If
the new system provided proves to be
a step from bad to worse, the admins
tration of the past period is response
BILE for the change, because its manage
ment Of the road funds drove the Leg
islature to do something for the protec-
ton of the different districts in their
legal rights. From the opening of the
session there was constant stream of
petitions asking that the road tax be
expended in the districts where COLI
lected, indicating il.at the law provid-
ing for that to have been done had not
been observed. 1t might have been
only matter of bookkeeping, as our
contemporary has been trying to make
out In that case it must have been
bad bookkeeping that would not show
whether each district had received the
benefit Of the road tax collected IN it as
the law provides Had the Ministry
been able to present any satisfactory
exhibit to the Legislature that such had
been the case, there would have been
an end to all complaint and contro-
versy in the matter. But we think the
A9ps)1iSer is mistaken in its explana-
ton .ofSthe ground OF difference be-
rystsn'the Ministry and large major
istyasfthe Representatives. According
to that paper the appropriations for
roads throughout the Kingdom are
only SO much authorization for the
Government to apply the district taxes
to the roads within the several districts.
THIS is plainly misstatement of the
facts. Otherwise either the items in
serledin in the past and present Appro-
priation Bills for unexpended road bal
ances and road taxes to be expended
in the districts where collected, or else
those other items of-specifc appropria
tions for roads in all the districts of the
Kingdom, would have been omitted
Under the apparent theory of the cast
presented on behalf of the Govern
ment; there would not be room fo
both the classes of appropriations men
toned. The Ministry have. themselve
given corroborative evidence to tn
accuracy of our statement of the case
Had they been satisfied that the dis
trlcts, singly or collectively, had re
ceiyed their road tax back, why shoul
they present in the Appropriation Bi
large item Of unexpended road taxes
to be expended in the districts wher
collected2 As we have admitted, ther
is possibility that our contemporar
is right in anticipating evils create
than those sought to be avoided, frol
the operation of the new Road Bill
provided it becomes law, Yet II
representatives OF he districts may |
excused for hoping that anything whic
will give their constituencies the
money back ON their roads, will |
better than having them deprived
their road taxes altogether. Anoth'