The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-10-16

SIR: The open letter to the Minis
ter Of the Interior, under the heading
of "Wilson's Traction Engine" pub
lished in the PACIFIC ADVERTISER of
October 5th, is communication that
calls for reply at my hands. pro-
pose, with your permission, to deal
with its numerous allegations in their
order.
Firstly, them that the road "was
never built to withstand the strain of
a Traction engine drawing two huge,
heavy vans" The Volcano Road is a
public highway, dedicated to the use
of the public, not to the use and be-
hoof of one class of the public, name
ly, the drivers of four-footed beasts,
but is intended for the passage of all
vehicles alike. This is a clear rule of
the Common Law, as / understand it,
and any statutory enactment that
seeks to curtail these privileges would,
/ am satisfied, be unconstitutional.
The fact that the road is only sixteen
feet in width proves nothing beyond
the fact that the Government deemed
that width sufficient for the ordinary
traffic that would be carried on. If
extraordinary conditions ever pre-
vailed, and man in the exercise of
his legal rights desired to propel over
the road a vehicle that might slightly
inconvenience the public, the Gov
eminent would naturally expect that
man, as a good citizen, to take all
measures in his power to minimize the
inconvenience. The introduction of
my engine created the extraordinary
! conditions, and / at once set to work
to devise method of overcoming it so
that no reasonable complaint should
be possible. Prior to importing the
engine | saw difficulties, by reason of
this limited width, and made ar
rangements that so soon as the en-
CINE is in working order will leave no
opportunity for complaint save to the
chronic growler. A messenger is sent
ahead for some distance to look out
for vehicles coming in the opposite
direction. Word is then brought back
to the engine-driver, and the engine
and vans are shunted on to siding
leaving the road clear for traffic. The
accidents incidental to all new ma
chinery have at times detained us be-
tween these shunting places and tenn
porarily inconvenienced drivers of
vehicles, but everything is fast get
ting into working order and there
will very soon be no further trouble.
/ deny absolutely that the road is not
strong enough for the drawing over
it of my engine and two wagons, but
Hitchcock calls them vans and, more
over, speaks of them as "huge and
heavy" i may say for his benefit that
loaded to their fullest capacity, they
carry two and One-half cords of wood
on inch tires. On the island of Maui
similar wagons, with finch tires,
haul three cords, and we are not
treated to long, fearful appeals to the
Government from there. TheVolcano
Road, like every road that in part
passes over a clay soil is liable to have
its surface very badly cut up, until by
constant use and regular repairing it
becomes settled. Ten miles of the
thirty-One, i. e., from the thirteenth
to the twenty-thiTd mile, as Mr.. Hitch
cock says, passes over this class of
soil, and its present condition is what
anyone conversant with new roads
would expect. From the nineteenth
to the fifteenth mile post was built in
a very wet time, and was never rolled,
and the lightest traffic was bound to
find out its weak spots. Under ordi-
nary conditions of traffic years would
have passed before it would have be-
come firmly set. My engine, how
ever, has gone straight to the root of
the matter; and, once put into proper
repair, there will, l venture to say,
never be further trouble with it. As
a matter of fact, long before the intro
ductiOn of the engine the ten miles in
question were full of ruts, as might
have been expected
Second, that "these men Il. G., the
settlers), had right to suppose that
the road would be kept for the use of
carriages and wagons. But in this
they are disappointed If Mr.. Hitch
cock were authorized to speak for
"these men" 1 should content myself
with saying that no body of men or
any community has the right to sup
pose that public highway is to be
used by privileged class of vehicles.
My right to traverse the road with my
engine, so long as unreasonable incou-
venience and damage do not result
therefrom, is an absolute one. 1t
happens, however, as can be abund-
antly proved, that Mr. Hitchcock
is not the mouthpiece for the Vol
cano road settlers. He represents,
if any constituency at all, very small
one. By far the largest number of
these settlers know that the engine is
not an Inconvenience, neither has it
done any more damage than is to be
expected from heavy wagon passing
over a new road that had already been
much cut up.
On the other hand, from the stand
point of the settler whose aim at the
inception of his work is business and
] not sentiment the infrndncfinn of tho