The Hawaiian gazette., 1890-11-18
Letter from MIR. Peter Lee.

l0Rb, uuu GudC 1GCP' " o.
when the item of an appropriation
of $40, 900 for my Volcano road was
under consideration, saw fit in the
course of his remarks on the mat
ter, to make a charge against me
of so grave nature, that in justice
to myself l feel forced to ask for a
short space in your columns ID
which to answer same. Among
other things, I stand accused OF
trying to deceive the House. This
l deny and furthermore character
ize as vile misrepresentation and
falsehood on the part of the wise
Scion from Kona, and whether it
was done knowingly or not it
amounts to the same thing. A
brief history of matters, to the
truth of which l am prepared to
take oath, will perhaps give the
public the best insight into the
matter and it can then draw its
own conclusions. 1t was at the
earnest solicitation of the [. l. S. n.
Co. that. l first started the hotel
business at Punaluu, which was
combined with the transporting of
tourists to and from the Volcano.
This required the expenditure of
what, to poor man like myself,
was a large sum of money, which
afterwards was still further in
creased when l was forced to build
a wagon road to the Volcano, to
save myself on account of competi-
ton with the Wilder's S. S. Co.'s
new Keauhou route.
A contract was regularly drawn
up between myself and the l. l. S.
n. Co., in which 1 agreed to build
a road to the Volcano through a
country over which the Il. S. n.
Co. claimed to have right of way,
which they were to transfer to me
after 1 had paid back a certain sum
of money that they had advanced
for the purpose of assisting in
building the road. put in per-
sonally some cash and eight
months of hard labor, the road was
completed, and has since been oper-
ated and kept in repair at my own
expense, and at loss to me, as the
tourist traffic has never been heavy
enough to make it a paying bust
ness.
Some months since was asked |
by the Hon. W. G. Irwin, Hon. S. |
Parker and others why l did not |
sell the road to the Government, as
1t was a shame to expect man to |
keep a road in repair at his own
expense, and for the public use and |
benefit, and furthermore whether
or not would be willing to sell to |
the Government. After thinking
the matter over | offered to sell |
whatever right, title and interest l
had in the road for the sum of S1O,-
600. l have always considered my
self the owner of the road, as the |
whole expense of building it has
been borne by myself alone; but it
seems that the l. /. S. N. Co.agreed |
to give me a right of way over
country to which they had no title,
never having had the first scratch
of pen from the Hawaiian Agri-
cultural Co, lessees of the property.
Fortunately for myself 1 have since,
through the kindness and efforts of
Mr.. P. G. Jones, obtained a right
of way from the Hawaiian Agrlcul-
tural Co.,so that as far as title goes
there can be no objection to the
Government purchase of the road.
Further l deny that the road only
cost $4,000, and who should know
better than myself. What the road
has cost, however, is no ones bust
ness, much less Waipuilani's. The
true question is, was my price ex-
horbitant, or did 1 ask more
than it would have cost the
Government to construct it, or
another as good, between the
same points. In all candor l would
beg to state that Judging by the
cost to the Government of the Hilo
and Volcano road and other roads,
that my price was reasonable.
Finally 1t would seem as though
some one connected with the l. 1.
S. N. Co. (for 1 hardly think
company of its standing would in
5erfere in a matter of this kind)
has been telling Rep. Waipuilani
and the committee huge lie about
NY having worked for monthly
wages, and finding myself headed
off l went to the l. /. S. n. Co. and
got them to transfer the owner
ship of the road to me, etc., ETC."
never as vet have had the honor