The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-07-18

agreed to pay a small fee for their
certificates of award in order that the
whole matter might be completely fin
ished up, and the bounty of the terri
tory reach the benetciaries? Would
there have been any voice in favor of
letting Lhe work stop there and then,
and be obliged to walt for another leg
islature to act which might not act,
and might in fact repeal the whole
law, and save nearly a million and a
half dollars to the territory? We be-
lieved there would have been absolute
unanimity i'm favor of the fee. But be-
side and beyond all that we had The
right under the law to make the
charge.
1--WE carefully figured out the fee
and came to the conclusion that al the
rates finally fixed we would be able to
repay the $4,000 advanced by the mer-
chants, pay all the expenses OF the
work, and be able TO report to the leg
islature our work completed. all bills
paid, and return to the treasury the
$1,000 appropriated for witness fees un-
used, and we hope from 500 to $500
from these fees collected. If we had
not done this we would have had to re-
port to the legislature asking for an
additional appropriation to repay the
money advanced by the banks on the
notes of the merchants, and unless we
could have secured some money in
addition to that already advanced, we
would have had to report a work un-
completed
II know it looks large when one firm
is called on to pay $1,000 or more, but
it must be remembered that this
amount is distributed among over 5000
claimants. and that the great majority
of these paid only 25 cents. In any
event the lawyers who are paying un-
der protest do not pay any of it. The
most that any claimant has had to pay
to the government on account of his
claim is this IS cent fee for awards UNI
der $50, 80 cents for awards of $50 to
500, and larger fees in the case of larg-
er awards. Have any of them got as
good service for as small fees from
their protesting attorneys? 1t may al
so be a matter of interest to know
that the fire commission appointed
under authority of President Mckinley
required a deposit of $40 on the filing
of a claim.
LAS to the total amount of the
awards, there was never any purpose
on the part of the commission TO bring
the total within the amount of the APP
preparation irrespective of the merits
of the claims themselves. Every claim
was considered OIL it's own merits, ev-
cry item, of every claim was considered
on it's own merits and according to
general rules appropriate and applica-
bic to all claims and all items. In faCt
we did not know what the aggregate
of all the awards would be until long
after ali the awards were made, not
until all the awards were entered up of
record and were footed up from the
record of awards We are very glad
that they DO come within the appro-
priation, for that brings the final set
Element of the whole matter nearer to
completion, but it never entered into
cur calculations in making awards to
bring the total within the appropria-
ton Independent of the merits of the
several claims or of their just aSgre-
gate.
Something has been said about the
discrepancy between amounts claimed
and amounts awarded, and some publ
cations have been made as to these,
The fact is that a mere statement Of
the amount claimed and the amount
| awarded does not tell the whole story.
In many cases the element of insur-
| ance represents a large part of the
apparent discrepancy. In fact / think
il does in almost all of the cases pub
lishcd where there is an apparent large
discrepancy. Where a part of the loss
was covered by insurance that was
taken into consideration for it was no
part of the plan of the Legislature or
the work of the commission to pay
from government fund what had al
ready been paid by the insurance COM
panies
The commission has worked hard
and faithfully. 1t has looked on itself
as a trustee of the bounty of the ter
ritory charged with doing substantial
justice between the territory and the
claimants in accordance with the prin-
ciples laid down in the act creating
the commission. We have done that
work to the best of our ability and we
hope and believe to the substantial
satisfaction of the claimants and the
public"