Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-04-21
EXCESSIVE LIGHT BILLS
Town Up In Arms Against a Doubling
Of Rates.
Same Story All 0Ver-From rs 10 200 Per
Cent. Hlgher-Some Kicks Cause
Of Advance.

y
In nine cases of every ten the
answer to this question is, From
rs to 200 per cent greater" And
it is fact. From Waikiki aud
Punahou to Kamehameha school
the story is the same. All sorts
of maledictions have been shower
ed upon the Hawaiian Electric
Co. The collector for the concern
has been questioned and abused
and threatened until with him
life is hardly worth living.
Today the situation has almost
reached the pitch OF a revolt.
Some people refused for a
time to honor their bills.
But the collector merely
whistled and said: "If not, why
notp" The gu, stion defed an
swer. 1t meant, mo money, no
light" The coin invariably ap
D. AIRED. Then came the kicks.
The people are still kicking. In
all parts of the town they are
u-ing objections that have no
place in family dictionary.
Some of the business houses
escaped the heavy March billie by
having what is called "hat" rate
with the company. That means
that they have standing monthly
figure aud carry no meters. Lights
must come on and go off at stipu
lated hours. This arrangement is
made by the drug firms, saloons,
cycleries, Metropolitan Mea' Com
pany and other couceIns haviu g
regular night hours. 1t is the
private houses and business con
cerps with meters that have suf-
fered.
The biggest proportionste suf
ferer located down town is the
Waverley Club. Their bill of
about SO in February jumped to
S45 in March, an increase Of 4E
per cent! Officers of the Club
assert that thu liyhts were not
used more in March than in Feb
ruary. Tracy the hsberdasher ex
perienced an INCREASE of AZ per
cent; Golden Rule Bazaar, AZ per
cent Thrum, 20 per cent. These
concerns Were opened a few
hours four evenings in the month
Fairchild's bill WAS increased &C
cents for the month.
In private hou. es the bills have
almost without exception, been in
creased from 100 to 2U0 per cent
Charles j. Ludwigsen and a hun
dred others pad 200 per cent ex-
ira. @. Is. Rey nolds, F. b Auer
bach and almost the whole of the
remainder of the town paid double
for March. Everyone will tell
you that no more light was used
in March than February. Many
report less. A half hundred PEG
PIE affirm that their lights were
out nearly week, and complain
bitterly against the excess in
charges. Nearly all say tue liz hts
were very poor during most of the
month.
An unfortunate feature of the
situation is that not one man In a
hundred knows the rea- on for the
increased charges. One gentle
man asserted boldly this mprning
that it was a msneuver of the
Electric Company to pay for $25,
600 worth OF new machinery to he
imported in the next few weeks.
Nothing could be more unjust
than such a statement. The high
figures were as much of surprise
to the electric people as to anyone
else. Iu February no one antici-
psted such thing.
The reason is found in the EN-
barrassment at the works during
March. Low power has been
necessary most of the time. The
meters run opposite to power
That is, when power is low, they
run high and vice versa, The
meters were in all cases read Cor
rec ly. Patrons have had tn.
electricity. Whether it costs
more to run at low than high
power will not be discussed here