The Hawaiian gazette., 1901-04-02
THE COUNTY ACT.

Ranrasentatiye Makekau, entitled, An
Act providing for and creating certain
counties in the Territory of Hawaii,
and providing a form OF government
for such counties" Is 'fearfully ana
wonderfully made.
In its printed form 1t consists or Tor
ty-nine large pages, of which only
about one-third have anything TO 90
with counties or their government. Inc
remainder Is made up of an elaborate
system, or. more properly, chaos oil
provisions respecting schools anu
schemes for the organization and gov
eminent of cities, towns and villages.
II the small politicians and would-be
bosses who have kindly undertaken te
lay out the legislators work for them
and tell them what they ought to az
and hew TO do It, had taken the trouble
to refer to section As of the Organic Ac'
they might have read THAT each law
shall embrace but one subject. which
shall be expressed in Its title.
Another very important part OF the
Organic Act, which the unofficial law
makers seem to have forgotten all
about. is the restrictions on the debt
contracting power contained in section
IS of that most inconvenient and OBJ
scope of these restrictions plain 1t VIII
be best to quote a considerable part
OF this section in full, as follows:
Nor shall any debt be authorized to
be contracted by or on behalf of the
Territory, OR ANY POLITICAL OR
MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OR
SUBDIVISION THEREOF, except to
pay the interest on the existing indebt-
edness, or suppress Instruction. or to
provide for the common defense. eX-
cept that in addition to any indebted
ness created for such purpose the Leg
islature may authorize loans by the
Territory, OR ANY SUCH SUBDIVI-
SION THEREOF, for the erection of
penal charitable and educational insti-
tutious, and for public buildings,
wharves, roads and harbor and other
improvements, but the total of such in
debtedness incurred in any one year by
the Territory OR ANY SUBDIVISION
shall not exceed one per centum upon
the assessed value Of the Territory Of
subdivision thereof, as the case may
be. as shown by the last general assess
ment for taxation, and the total indebt
edness for the Territory shall not al
any time be extended beyond seven pei
centum of such assessed value, and the
total indebtedness of any subdivision
shall not at any time be extended be-
yond three per Centum Of such assessed
value, nor shall any bond or
instrument OF such indebtedness be is
sued unless made redeemable in not
more than five years and payable in
NOT MORE THAN FIFTEEN YEARS
from the date of the issue thereof; NOR
SHALL ANY SUCH BOND OR IN
DEFICIENCIES BE INCURRED UN-
TIL APPROVED BY THE PRESI-
DENT OF THE UNITED STATES"
All this is plain enough; about as
plain as the English language can make
IT, but the trouble is that a large pro-
portion of the Legislators do not under
stand the English language and the
unofficial legislators who draw their
bills for, them either do not know or
do not care what the Organic Act does
or does not contain, They probably
pocket their little fees, laughing in
their sleeves as they say to themselves,
What's the odds; these fellows will
never know the difference"
Now, with these plain provisions Of
the Organic Act staring them in the
face, what do these professors of legis-
iative patchwork put In the proposed
County Government Act? To so into
details would be tedious and is unneces-
sary Eet one sample suffice for the
present. Notwithstanding the Organic
Act forbids indebtedness being incurred
in any one year beyond one per Centum
OF the assessed value, Mr. Makekau's
bill authorizes even as small and un-
important subdivisions as school dis
tricts 10 borrow money and issue bonds
for FIVE PER CENT OF the assessed
value at one lick, and so far as the
bill Is concerned they can 20 on and
borrow money and Issue bonds TO an in
definite extent, provided only a major
ity OF the taxpayers vote for II, 1t is
10 be remembered that a majority OF
taxpayers may pay very small minor
ity Of the taxes, The fact that the pro-
posed law authorizes the issuing Of
twenty-year bonds, while the Organic
Act limits the time Al fifteen years.
and the absolute ignoring OF the APP
prevail OF the President OF the United
states only serve 10 further illustrate
the general cTuzness ~ the whole
measure
The beauty of the ably, described
policy viii bH better appreciated when
it is understood that under the pro-
posed county governments the school
age De- 10 extend from s.K 90 twenty
ono years of ngs. and that any locality
containing EIGHT persons within those
aEsi may be- sri apart az school disc
ir.gI Tue giving authority tu major
~ ~ ihl taxpayers il "a locality whore
there may le aB feW aa ElluT persons
lHdsr iNfEiF rnuH years uf Hgs b. Issue
fRentYrytar bonds H ono af ibn most
tnaFNlHH pieces ~ sophisticated lF
nsfHHfr Hlih FIIUH tHH community
nae been fafaul f4Fa long rIH. Ith
ffa nH "a fT people 800 tatHHl a4Hr
GssIr GOOSE N h4maf HHFtT tHaa Nhun
itFH aH mHkiHF thrHffIFH p HWfUn
ff hHfssmfHt ~ HihrIh