The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-10
THE WATER
QUESTION
Discussed by Council
Of State.
NUUANU FILTERS OPPOSED
Majority Of Councillors Inclined to
Believe That a Reservoir Is
Needed First.

tration system for the Nuuanu valley
wate'a until the Waterworks Depart
ment can furnish sufficient supply of
water to be purified Unless the Gov
eminent can demonstrate to the entire
satisfaction of majority of the coun-
cilors that the filtration plant can be
put to a practical use, the Council OF
State will probably vote the item out
of the bill The members who oppose
the appropriation are fully alive to the
necessity of pure drinking water and
state their views in public very strong
| ~, that it will be useless expenditure
of money to put such a large appro-
priatiOn into a filtration pant wnen
| the crying need of the hour is water.
| DR.. Wood of the Board of Health will
| be invited TO speak before the Council
| today on filtration, and the vote upon
| the appropriation item will depend
| largely upon the force of his arguments
| favOring the publication of what little
water Nuuanu valley possesses.
The Board of Health will also be
compelled to get along without a pur-
chasing agent for its supplies. The
Cabinet ministers failed to impress the
councillors that such an addition to the
large army of office holders under the
Board of Health was an absolute neces-
sity. Even if the Board controlled in
times of epidemic large sums of money
IL would be impossible for one man to
make all the purchases. Councillor
Robertson was against creating new Of
fees in the Board of Health, Councillor
Sol
of friends" had already been furnish
ed with fat salaried positions, and
Councillor Jones said he would have to
vote for the item because so much
money had been squandered-'yes
stolen almost"-during the plague cpl
demic, and a purchasing agent would
be an Indispensable factor in prevent
ing a recurrence of such wholesale ex
penditures.
Yesterdays session was attended by
President Dole, in the chair; Ministers
Mott-Smith, Young and Damon. Secre-
tary Manson, Councillors Isenberg. Ka-
ulukou, Allen, Jones, Kane, Bolte,
Gonsalves, Robertson, Mott, Robinson,
Kennedy and Achi
Councillor Achi's resolution in regard
TO the personnel and rules of the Court
of Claims was made the order of bust
ness for today's session by reason of
the late arrival of the author. The pos
sible action of the Council has, how
ever, been forestalled, by the Executive
Council which caused the Court of
Claims to adjourn. Councillor Achi
made his appearance in the Council
hall yesterday just too late to prevent
action deferring his resolution until
today.
4. 4
the sub-totals and grand totals of Bill
No. 2, reported the bill furnished to the
Council of State by the Secretary called
for full appropriation was s1,325,957.
Several omissions had been made
which ran the total up to 81, 329 ,213.66.
Councillor Robertson, on behalf of the
Committee on Judiciary and Attorney
| Generals Department reported upon
the concluding enacting clauses of Act
| 2, and referred to Section as follows:
IL shall be lawful for the Minister Of
| Finance to make payments in accord
ance with the appropriations authoriz-
| ed by this Act until the 31st day of
| December, 1901, and thereafter at the
same rate until new appropriations are
made. Provided, however, that as to
the appropriations herein made for the
| payment of other than continuing or
running expenses the said Minister may
continue to make payments in accord
ance Herewith until the 31st day of
| March, 1902, in all cases where a con-
tract has been entered into by virtue
| OF any such appropriation"
The object of this amendment Is
two fold. In the first place IL removes
the Objectionable wording at present
used which has been construed to al
low the unlimited expenditure of re-
appropriated items between the end of
the biennial period and the 31st day of
March following, by substituting a pro
rata expenditure therefor.
Secondly, 1t will prevent the lapse of
so-Called specific items, that is, of items
for other than continuing or running
expenses, after December 31st, 1901, as
TO those under which contracts have
been entered into, and allows them to
run until March 31st, 1902.
A recommendation was made that
the last section conclude with the
words by the President" which they
deemed necessary in order to make the
| section conform to the title.
Filtration was the stumbling block Of
the session. Each councillor aired his
opinion on the scientific need of water
filtration, or argued that the Nuuanu
valley water was pure and that the ar
tesian water lower down was impure,
and in greater need of publication than
that which flowed down from the Pail.
lsenberg thought that II DR.. Wood of
the Board of Health were invited to
| lay before the members the proofs of
the impurity of the valley water, the
Council would straightaway vote for
the appropriation. Typhoid fever was
on the increase and the only way to
prevent its spread was to have pure
water for all purposes. He explained
that the Board of Health was unan-
imous In approving the passage of the
appropriation.
Councillor Robertson opposed the es-
Enlistment of an expensive filtration
system until there was n promise OF