The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1890-06-24

is one of the disadvantages, If it
may be so called, suffered by every
business man, that while he is him
self solely responsible for his BUSH
ness, he must depend upon the
bona tides of his subordinate
clerks. 1t is evident that the At
torney-General or the Minister of
the Interior, particularly, must at
tunes be absent from Honolulu. and
it would be outrageous to stop all
payments in both of these depart
ments, or for that matter in any
other, simply because the Minister
could not be present to sign drafts
for payments maturing during
his absence. With responsible
clerks present, there should be no
more reason that drafts should not
be signed and passed into the
hands of such clerk for proper use
than that checks should be signed
by business man and handed to
his clerk for use during unavoid-
able absence; and yet we thorough
ly agree with the Auditor that IN
matter of such nature too great
caution cannot be used.
The depesiting of Government
funds in private bank or in any
other place without accounting for
the same to the proper department,
also seems to be unauthorized and
something which should not occur.
We cannot agree with the Auditor
in his views upon the question of
the support of prisoners, especially
in relation to public works, but as
this matter has all been discussed
in the papers heretofore, it will not
be gone into again, So with regard
to payments on account of con-
tracts. There is properly no rea-
son why the Government should
not be held to the same course in
business matters as private houses,
the Minister. OF course, being al
ways responsible for whatever is
done.
We most heartily concur in what
he says with regard to statistical
bureau. 1t is one of the browning
needs of tue Hawaiian Kingdom at
the present time The great want
of some central authority for stats
tics has been shown III the reports
at the present Legislature and has
appeared also in some former no
tees, for there are considerable dis
crepancies between the reports
made by one department with
those of others or between the CEN
trail office and bureaus. This |
should not be. A statistical bureau
might well be organized and
should have authority not only in
matters of financial statistics but in
all others. 1t is almost impossible |
at the present time to ascertain |
what the facts are in this Kingdom |
with regard to vital statistics in |
their various departments also |
with regard to labor statistics. The |
same is true with regard to the in
vestments of capital. We have |
nothing, for instance, excepting the
tax books to show what distribu-
ton is made in various branches of |
industry in the country. 1t Is high
time that a bureau was organized
with full power and authority and
covered by an act in all these mat
tiers. The statement of the taxes
which appears in table at the
end of the report is interesting and
valuable and shows the total collec
ton for the year 1888 to have been
1896, 494, for the year 1889 $751;
493. We learn elsewhere that the
actual cost to the Government of
the assessment and collection of
taxes for the year 1889 is less than
perhaps it has ever been before,
being something over six per cent
as against about eight per cent as
the lowest formerly, and we also
learn that the total amount of un-
collected tax, part of which may
even yet be collected, is very far
less than for many years hereto
fore, being somewhere in the neigh
borhood of five per cent. Such
facts and figures should be suffi-
cient to cause the indefinite post
ponement of the act of which
notice has been given in the House
to repeal the general tax assessor
law of 1888.
The general appearance Of the
Auditors report is somewhat mar
red by a few typographical and
other errors. but taken altogether
the work contains many valuable
and is worthy of the