The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-07-16

and accepted. such on the plat
form of the reform party, one plank
of which is to abolish all useless
Offices, they cannot support the bill
brought in by majority of the
committee. He therefore moved TO
pass the original bill to engross-
ment.
Noble Smith said that the main
features are these: he gave the
Ministers credit for sincerity at the
last session but did not give them
credit for wisdom, but now he did
not give them credit for sincerity.
They said that they could not re-
move the corrupt Governors then in
office, and consequently wished to
have the Office abolished. Now
the bill removes that difficulty.
The bill goes farther than some of
the majority of the committee cared
to have it 90. 1t authorizes the
Ministry to remove the Governors
at any time, which was considered
very arbitrary by the committee,
but it was adopted by them and the
majority were willing to stand by it.
He said he wished to disclaim any
desire to push the Ministry to de-
feat in this matter. He did not
consider the success of the commit
tee bill as q defeat of the Ministry.
The committee feel that this bill if
passed will not defeat the Ministry
and unseat them, unless they like
to have it do so. He moved that
the committee bill be read second
time by its title.
The motion was carried and the
bill read. He then moved to con-
slider said bill section by section.
He said he was as anxious as any
Minister to abolish any useless
office, and if there was no other
recourse for Kidding the country OF
the present incumbents, he should
support the bill to abolish the office.
He enumerated many officers OF the
government on the various islands,
who are not under amy supervision.
The reason that the iunrtiOnS Of the
office are not delegated TO Gov
ernors on Oahu, i, because the
seat of Government is in Honolulu,
and the heads of departments can
supervise all subordinate officers.
Not so in the country. The ten
dency has been to neglect the coun-
try, and concentrate all the power
in Honolulu. This is not wanted.
A better supervision of the workings
of the Government in the country is
demanded, and has been agitated
for some years, but to abolish the
office of Governor will unl Y increase
this difficulty and tend more and
more to concentrate all the power in
Honolulu. He asked Mr.. j. O.
Carter and Mr.. Pratt what would be
the result in the assessment and
collection of taxes if this office was
abolished, and they both said, it
would be impossible TO keep the run
of it and it would not be known
whether taxes were properly assess
ed or not. Now in the assessment
and collection Of taxes alone it is
necessary to have this Office. 1t is
impossible for the Minister of FL
nance to keep the run of those mat
ters. Angel Gabriel could not him
self do it, if he was placed in the
same position as the Minister. lie
said he had referred to those gentle
men as they had had large expert
| | n
lieve that because thing was good
at one time it should always be
good. He referred to n remark by
Hon. S. @. Wilder, who in convcr-
sation said that a good Governor on
the islands was an invaluable aid to
the Ministry, and his opinion Should
have some weight, as he has had a
long experience in the Government.
Another branch of Government work
requires supervision, and that is the
Road Boards. Corruptions are
creeping in that need to be looked
into. Their power is greater than
road supervisors were under the old
law. If good reliable men could be
found to take the office, per-
haps such corruptions would not
exist, but 1T is fact that can
be proven that corruption does exist
in this department. Another rea-
son why the office should be con-
tinued is, for the supervision of the
minor offices in the country now
held by Hawaiians, who if they
have no one to guide and check
them will soon lapse into lazy in.
dolent servants, while if they are
properly governed make good SER
wants, and it is policy to employ
Hawaiians where they can perform
the duties. 1t would be just as
sensible for plantation owner tc
discharge his Manager be-
cause he has a good Bookkeepel
and other minor positions filled
with good men, as it is for the
Government to abolish the Office OF
Governor, because there are good
men in the offices subordinate to
him. He said that the Chief Clerk
of the Supreme Court, when making
up the report of the Chief Justice
said, it was impossible to tell
whether the inferior judges reported
one-half the number of cases they