The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-02-28
SOME BILLS.

The House started a lot of bills upon
their career yesterday They will be
printed and then the public will have
a chance of seeing what the future
legislation is to be- Most of the bills
are practical in character and for the
general advantage, but these are really
the light skirmishers, the main bills
are coming on later. There will in
vOlve d new plan of taxation, a change
in the electorate the closing of the
saloons. and the reorganization of the
Board of Health.
Representative Robertson has pre-
scented bill relating to the powers of
the Circuit Judges in regard to guard
ianship matters. Mr.. Robertson can
always be depended upon for bringing
forward good judicial bills, which are
well drawn and meet the needs of liti-
giants The country is indebted to him
in the past for good work in this line
and it will be equally indebted in the
future.
The act to forbid minors being en-
ployed in saloons is eminently proper.
1t is curious that with all our legisla
ton upon the regulation of saloons,
there should be no law prohibiting
minors from working in saloons, though
there is a law forbidding the supply
ing of liquor to minors. Even if the
Dispensary law passes, those saloons
which have licenses running consider
ably ahead, will of course continue
their business till the expiration Of
their licenses, so that Representative
Hogs act will be of benefit for that
length of time at least.
Gnfnan's bill with regard to the
creation of a new court of claims to
take evidence concerning injuries to
property caused by the action of the
Board of Health during the presence
of the bubonic plague is also practi-
cal measure. That there should be
compensation has long been agreed.
Upon what basis there should be COM
pensation is question still open to
discussion. But whatever basis is
taken, there must be investigation as
to value of the property destroyed, and
witnesses must be examined to prove
the validity of the claims, otherwise
there would be any amount of oppor-
tunity for fraud. Representative Gil
fillan's bill is comprehensive and pro-
vides fully for carrying out thorough
investigation. There will be amend
ments proposed by the Independents
no doubt but the bill itself is so mani
festly fair, and so much to the adVan-
tage of those who have just claims,
that it should pass with comparatively
little change.
Another public calamity claims the
attention of the legislators, and Repre-
sentative Dickey put forward a bill to
appropriate money to repair the dam
ages made by the late storm. Roads
and bridges suffered all over the coun-
try and their repair is in the nature of
an emergency. The question is wheth-
er the sum asked for, 100000 is sutii-
cient to cover damages from one end
of the Islands to another.
The other bills proposed are of minor
Importance, but fairly good start has
been made, and if such is continued on
similar lines, no one will be able to
complain of the first Territorial Legis-
lature. The only difficulty is the length
of time. Even ninety days would he
insufficient to carry through all the
legislation which is proposed and which
is urgently required,
The use of two languages naturally
increases the length of the proceed
ings. Every motion has to be trans
lated, in fact every proceeding ought
to be. This practically doubles the
work of the Legislature and unless the
closest attention is paid to business,
and debate is considerably restricted,
it will be impossible to carry most of
the important measures through. At
the outset there has been a tendency
TO wordiness, but that seems clearing
away, and we shall probably see next
week q clearing of the decks for prac-
tical hard work
There are many things which both
sides of the House will he agreed up
on, and such things should be pushed
along and got out of the way. There
can be no good gained by factious
opposition. Opposition for the sake of
opposition is not good parliamentary
tactics. The way for the minority to
act is to work with the majority, and
only make a determined stand in pro-
test if it is found that the majority is
working to violate some constitutional
or moral principle.
BIG FIGURES