The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-12-29
COUNCILLOR EMMELUTH WANTS
1T SUPPRESSED.
The Report Of the Committee on Educa-
tion-The Weekly Meeting of the
Executive and Advisory
Councils.

tetnOon, Win PRESIDENT Dole In the
chair. There were present: Ministers
King, Damon and Smith, and Coun-
cillors Hatch, Warehouse, Allen,
Young, Wilder, Tenney, Mott, Ena,
Brown and Emmeluth.
The minutes of the last meeting
were read and approved.
Minister Damon read a petition
from j. j. Williams, asking that
some provision be made by the Gov.
eminent for sending a series of about
fifty views OF Honolulu, comprising
the principal buildings, etc, to the
Midwinter Fair. On motion, this was
referred to special committee, com
posed OF Messrs. Tenney, Emmeluth
and Mott.
A communication from l.. a. Thur
ston was read by the Secretary, ask
ing that the Government lend some
curios and other matter to the Mid
winter Fair exhibit of the Islands.
The communication will be found
In full In another column
MIR. Brown suggested that the mat
ter be left In the hands of the Execu
tive.
Mr.. Smith thought that the AID
vIsory should express an opinion in
the matter. On his part, he thought
that such an exhibit would be sue
cessful and beneficial to the Islands,
and he would recommend that the
Government should send an exhibit
such as was asked for.
Mr.. Young said that although
many of the things would not be
valuable, great many of the curios
were rare and could not be replaced
il lost He therefore recommended
that they be insured. As for the
Band, he would not be in favor of
sending any musical organic alton
composed of foreigners.
On motion, the matter was referred
I'd the Executive Committee.
Mr.. Emmeluth moved that in the
matter of j. j. Williams furnishing
views for the Fair, !1ae amounts ex-
pended by the Government be limi
ted to 800.
Mr.. Young said he did not favor
the Government spending any money
for such purpose.
The motion was carried.
The report of the Committee on
Education was read by Mr.. Emme-
luth, of which the following Is the
gist:
REVENUE AND ACCOUNTS OF THE
We find the source of the revenue of
the Board to be as follows:
Interest on Government bonds, rent
and sale of school lands, sale of text
and copy books, materials, etc, school
taxes of the respective districts, tut
ton fees COLLECTED only at Fort street
school), legislative appropriations.
All revenues except legislative APP
propriations received by the Board go
into its general treasury account.
Formerly the school tax was retained
and disbursed by the school agent OF
the district in which it was collected.
The law of 1890 made all school taxes
payable to the Secretary of the Board,
the districts where such taxes are col
lected being credited with the amounts
paid in. No school district on the ISL
ands collects sufficient school tax to
pay its expenses.
Through lack of business methods
the office has bought large quantities
OF text books in remote markets, at
prices 5 to 10 per cent. higher than in
voice prices on small quantities to To-
cal dealers purchased in the San
Francisco market. On copy books,
material, ETC., the difference was still
greater, local dealers selling under the
Government rates and making q salts
factory profit.
The cost of education is increasing
by about double the percentage of in
crease in pupils.
q Owing to the isolation of the Bureau
of Education and the consequent lack
OF facilities for keeping pace with the
progress shown in other branches OF
the Government service, the methods
OF transacting business in this depart
mept are antiquated.
Writing to the committee on his ex-
perience in auditing the books of the
department, the expert says: "The So
called books of said bureau are pr; c.
tically unavoidable and do not record
many sense intelligibly its financial
transactions" etc. What is said OF
the books is equally true of the routine
business of the Office. One prime
cause for this state of things car be
found in the fact that the administra-
tive functions of the Board have been
gradually thrown on the secretary,
with the result that the business at
at the meetings OF the Board partook
disapproval of the secretary's acts,
whereas such acts should have been
the result of the Boards deliberations
and conclusions.
Long service and familiarity with
the work as conducted gave the secre-
tary prestige with successive APP
pointees on the Board altogether be-
yond his actual capacity for conduct
ing the business of the office. This is
evident from the methods used in
purchasing supplies, from the manner
of keeping the accounts of the Board
which has been severely criticized by
the expert from whose report we
quote further: ''The system MAIN
tanned seems to be legacy from q
forgotten age" And again, sit is
amazing that such account keeping
should have been maintained and re-
ported favorably on by so called ex-
perts for many years."
The evidence of large number of |
teachers, also, goes to emphasize this |
state Of things il the executive office |
1&>the Board. They claim that the |
<ation OF administrative auth |