The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-04-14

TELEPHONE
IS FAVORED
Business Men in
Line for New
Franchise.
(From Sundays Daily.)

With a resolution declaring that its
members favor the passage OF the bill
granting franchise to the Standard
Telephone Company, the Chamber OF
Commerce set its seal of disapproval
upon the Mutual Telephone Company
yesterday morning. In the afternoon.
after a deal OF talk. and finally vote
just as strong in its condemnation, the
Merchants Association reconsidered
and gave the Mutual company until
Tuesday to present its statement in
rebuttal of the testimony Of the COM
mittee of experts.
Both the meetings were largely at
tended and the feeling ran high. The
report of the joint committee OF the two
bodies was read. the procedure being
the same in each meeting. Chairman
Macfarlane read the report which was
as follows:
FINDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE.
"Your committee. after carefully
questioning the experts, have arrived
at the following conclusions. viz:
"First-The company have neglected
to cable wires as far as possible with
in the following districts, viz: King.
Alakea, Hotel, Merchant and Queen
streets.
"Second-That there are a number of
dead cables and dead wires on many
of the streets and wires so crowded on
cross-arms and distance between some
poles so great as to make 1t impos-
sible to maintain any kind of salts
factory service.
"Third-Glass insulators should be
tn. ne Intv
cross-arm which are in bad con-
dition.
"Fourth-That the King street cable
is in a very bad condition, and has been
so for long time, is borne out by the
statement of the Superintendent that
seventy-five per cent. of the wires in
said cable are out of use and will ac-
count for complaints of many sub
scribers.
"Fifth-Outside force insufficient to
expedite the work of repairing and
renovating.
"Sixth--Apparent ignorance on the
part of the company of what are dead
and what are live cables. entering the
tower. as well as what are dead and
what are live wires on the poles.
"Seventh-The necessity for more and
better operators. From. the general tes-
timony of the experts, your committee
are satisfied that the cables and wires
of the Mutual Telephone Company,
with few exceptions, are in very bad
condition, and unless Immediately Wig
orous steps are taken to correct these
conditions, we cannot look for any i'm
provement in the telephone service"
TIL report is signed by f. w. Mac
farlane James A. Kennedy, C. l..
Wight and w. Pfotenhauer
ENDS IN ADVERSE ACTION.
In addition he reau the letter sent by
the committee to President j. o. Carter,
of the Mutual company, with copy
of the experts report, and asking ques-
tiOns which appear suggested in the
closing paragraphs of the report, as in
diCtments. The letter from the COM
pany was offered, setting forth that the
superintendent was preparing n full an
swer and asking for time In which to
get il In, say the first of the week.
Then followed the testimony of the ex-
perts, showing n condition worse than
had been anticipated in any OF the for
mer statements. how the dead wires
numbered the street, poles were too far
apart and cross arms insecure. with
porcelain instead of glass as insulators.
In the Chamber of Commerce the re-
port was accepted and there was some
argument upon It, f. j. Lowrey moved
that the secretary be requested to mott |
fy the President of the Senate and the
Chairman of the House that the Cham !
Der of Commerce favored the adoption |
of the bill to grant the franchise to
the Standard Company. Mr.. Swanzy
seconded the motion in strong speech
10.
farlane, that there should be time |
granted owing TO the courtesies which |
had been shown to the committee in |
the making of the investigation, the |
motion passed with large majority.
MERCHANTS WILL HEAR ARGU-
MENT.
In the Merchants Association there
was "A long discussion. Many members
showed that they favored the passage |
of the Chamber of Commerce motion,
as made by Robert Cation, but there
was an undercurrent, put into words by
j. c. Rothwell, that the company
should have the time needed and that
there should be an Investigation of
rates before the Association tied itself
up to a new company The motion of
Cation was adopted with four negative
votes, whereupon Mr. Macfarlane ex-
planned that he was not voting owing
to the fact that as a committeeman he
felt that there should be time 10"
Tense. Wight made the san
ment and then on motion of
matter was reconsidered and
for action Tuesday. the compa
ready with its report at 10 ocl,
and the meeting to be
3 o'clock ip the afternoon.
There was an effort made I
the Board of Directors take fiji
ton. but this was voted down,
to the Importance of the gu
though 1t was felt that the expr
of opinion was such that 1t would
a great deal to change the min
the members.