The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-06-08
ECONOMY.

Representative Pogue was thorough
w sound when he told the House OF
Representa- YES yesterday they were
voting money which was far in excess
of the revenue of the country. For
the last week or so some of the mem
bers seem to have taken the bit with
in their teeth and started upon sort
of wild career of adding items to the
appropriation bill, many of which will
not pass third reading and still more
of which will never pass the Senate.
The only result of stutiing an APP
priation bill with more than the in
come of the country warrants is to
leave in the hands i'm the ministry the
choice of what shall be spent. 1t is as
if one gave boy five dollar piece,
and said to him this is all the money
j can give you. now this is the way
you must spend it: Shoes So, hat $3.50,
circus tickets 50, candies 50. But"
will say the boy, 'all that comes to
far more than five dollars" and then
you reply, "Oh, that's all right, spend
il how you like, but don't exceed the
five dollars" Very naturally that boy
will reason that he can get a cheaper
hat, say for ST. His shoes are very
fair, they need mending, he has
them patched for so cents, and the
remaining $3.50 goes for circus and
candy. The Star does not mean that
the members of the ministry would
waste the money which is entrusted
10 them to spend, far from it, but they
look at what has to be spent from diff
ferent points of view to the residents
of different districts, just as the boy
regards the relative merits of shoes,
hat and circus tickets.
If the Legislature wants to have
control of the expenditure of the
expenditures of the funds of the ma
ton, it must make the expenditures
fit the income, otherwise it throws
the control. within a certain limit,
into the hands of the Executive, and
thus throwing it into the hands of
the Executive, it gives that body a
power which it should not have. BY
the course followed system of ia
voritism must to great extent be
established, and even if the Executive
really rises above all favoritism it
will none the less be charged with it,
for every district will desire its full
appropriation and will eye jealousy
one
What was the use of being economi-
cal over Bill No. ), which appropriated
salaries. if there was to be such a
wild outburst in the appropriation bill
proper. 1t would be far better on
third reading to be less economical
over Bill No. ). The Star preached
economy then, and it breaches econo-
my now, but if this wild burst of
recklessness is TO pass, it would be
far better to restore Bill No. to its
original proportions, for the present
attitude is to save at the tap and let
out at the bunghole, a policy by no
means new in the financial history of
almost any country in the world.
There are men economically minded
in the House, and these should unite
in sternly voting down any unneces-
sary or eXtravagant expenditure.
There are many things proposed
which would be desirable, but we
cannot afford them. A carriage and
a pair of horses are desirable, but the
bulk of our citizens cannot afford
them, and so content themselves with
the slow but thrifty tram. Even in
some cases meat is desirable, but the
poor laborer of Europe has to con-
tent himself with very small guam
tity indeed once week. If the coun-
try cannot afford luXuries, why the
representatives of the country should
not try to smuggle them in.