The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1890-02-20
THURSDAY, FEB. 20, 1890.
ROADS PAST AND PRESENT.

We have Just had "oDe of our
old-fashioncd konas,
and yet, two days after the downpour,
the streets were, in most parts of
the town, in fair condition. There
was perhaps as much pleasure driv-
ing last Sunday as ever, and in
many directions the streets were al
most perfectly dry. The discreet
II ,turally kept to the makai roads.
During no previous regime would
such a state of affairs have been |
possible.
There are two or three obscrva-
,ons to be made ON the foregoing
extract.
Without condcmning any former
roads administration, the same COM
parison might he made, in almost
any town or district in America, be-
tween the roads of to-day and those
OF past period. The exceptions
would he in cases where towns are
laid out Systematically at their
foundation, with provision for good
roads and drainage being secured as
the borders of the towns are ex-
tended. Many if not most of the
large cities began on village plan,
the pioneer builders being obliviOus
Of the possibilities and probabilities
of growth. The Older streets of
Boston itself. the "hub of the
universe" as its people have fondly
called it, are said to have been laid
out on the lines of the COW paths
that threaded the site. There is
scarcely city of any age in Amer
lea where millions of dollars have
not been expended in widening
streets made narrow in the early
days, when economy of ground for
the public was exercised although
vast unoccupied areas stretched out
on all sides. Whatever improvement
we see in Honolulu must fairly in
part be attributed to the necessities
of the city's growth.
1t is admitted that in the latter
part at least of the previous regime
TO this the funds for roads and
bridges throughout the kingdom
were not well administered. To a
large extent the funds were not ap-
piled to their objects. There was a
perennial and hopeless Indebtedness
of the treasury TO the country dis
lricts for road taxes that by law
were only to be expended in the dis
tricts. Broken stone for macadam-
izing streets in the city was used for
other purposes. The city road
service came TO be made source Of
private revenue in various ways.
All this admitted. there was much
faithful work done on the roads
prior to the last few months OF the
Gibson administration. Some of
this work stands as monumental
rcfutation of such sweeping partisan
statements as that above quoted
from the Advertiser. Richards
street, for instance, on which tht
present Government has had TO eX
pend little or nothing to keep in re
pair, while it remains by all odds
the best made and smoOthest drive
in HOnolulu-which is in good con
dition without mud even in til,
midst of the most tremendous, old
fashioned kona,' not having tt
abide the orty-eight hours of flint
weather required to make some
roads Of the present regime com
fortably passable on foot or OF
wheels. There is Queen street from
Punchbowl street to Fort street, re
made in 1881 SO as to he the best o
our main thoroughfares for fou
years. The Palama road rebuilt tt
the Kalihi road the same year wa
in excellent condition for thre
years, and would be still, in spite o
very large traffic, except for tn
coral covering being too soft for en-
durance. This road has, however
been in part renewed with the SAM
material within the past few months
hut so much less substantially thai
before that the first heavy rain made
il a bog throughout. Even the Pal
road was under the old regime KEEP
in pretty good fair-weather condi
ton, and that is .he most that Cal
he said for it now. To look at ;
longer stretch, take the Eva road
This important route was remark
ably we'll maintained under the ol,
regime. 1T was in 1886 that th
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