The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-20

officers of the Government In the man
-hgement of departmental matters under
existing centralized conditions.
E'The present Superintendent of Public
Works as a member of the Legislature
of 1898, was most determined and force
full in his utterances and attitude to-
ward the then Superintendent of Public
Works, w. L. Rowell. When Alexander
Young retired Mr.. McCandless took the
office and the lion and the lamb lay
down together.
Your committee reverts to this matter
solely for the purpose of showing that
good government cannot exist under
such conditions
'1n all transactions of this kind the
peupie are the losers. In this instance
they have been heavily so, but the loss
has been so divided that there seems no
opportunity to fix actual responsibility.
Added to this comes the political
changes and that in tne head of the Of
fee, but your committee feels that with
the Assistant Superintendent lies the
actisal responsibility for these losses.
That W. e. Rowell lacks. and for
years past has not had. the confidence of
the taxpayers as evidenced by the re-
pcrt of a committee to the House of
Representatives during the session of
1888, when their arrangement of that Off
Ger was severe and cauStic, is proven by
the present attitude of all those with
whom the department does business. 1t
is proper, therefore, to seek a reason
why the new officer taking charge of
this most important branch of the Gov
ernment, with his known antipathy to
this man on record, should permit him
20 remain in control of important duties.
why did not j. A McCandless, when
taking office, relieve himself and the peo-
pie of the necessity of carrying on the
pay roll a man who to him and them
had become so offensive through con-
stantly recurring evidences of his in
competence?
Your committee believes that the in
terestS of the Department of Public
Works and of the community at large
would be suhserved by the separation OF
w. +. Rowell from the administrative
service of that department and we rec
ommend accordingly.
I'VE recommend further that a pens.
clause covering malfeasanee in office u.
added to the general laws: that the
amount of a bond required with a con
tract for public work should be not les:
than 40 per cent of the contract price o
the work and that two or more suretie
be on such bond.
The gross negligence shown in max
ing estimate of the cost of work of thi
kind, that has too frequently been dis
played in the disparity between the est
mates and actual competitive tender
leads your committee to suggest tina
when estimates are submitted the
should deal with the proposed work i
detail and should be based upon com
parison of expenditures for similar pur
poses within and for the biennial perio
last passed. The department, if proper
~ conducted, should have an enormou
amount of this detail information o
=capd So arranged as to be readily avail
able for reference. 1t is impossible
believe that with such care as would +
Ordinarily exercised by any bushes
man. information of this character wou
not have been used in checking upo
proposed new work, and the peculiar fe'
lures of the work under discussion wou
have been eliminated.
1.-The inference to be drawn is that NJ
McCandess permitted his anxiety to no