The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-03
FRANCES OF THE TERRITORY.

| The Governor Is fiSht "HSh nc
that the need of cutting down expen-
ses of Territorial government is para
mount. Property-owners do not want
70 nav the old rate of taxes; indeed
they are unable to do so. and unless
the proposition is to let everything go
TO smash and the Devil take the hind
| errnost economy of the most drastic
kind must be applied to public ex-
penses.
That there is room as well as occa-
sion for it the Governor admits. He
| states in so many words that there
are now numerous unnecessary items
Of expense"-sl5O,OoO for the harbor,
$4,000 for remodeiing the judiciary
building. coo for the exhibit at st.
Louis and other items aggregating
$500, o00. with the possibility of sub
tracing s25O.0OO from the budget OF
the Board of Public Works. This
makes a total of s55O,OOO; but, as the
Governor shows, over s1.5OO.OOo must be
cut out of the scheme of expenditure
to make strap and buckle meet. The
showing almost makes one regret that
Congress, in its wisdom, did not see mt
TO set up District of Columbia gov
eminent here and spare US the admin
istrative machinery of a rich and pop
ulous State.
Cutting down salaries by twenty per
meet the whole need. The amount
to be saved by horizontal reduction
OF salaries all over the Territory is but
s425, oO0 Added to s550,OOO this sum
leaves a deficit of s525.O0O still to be
provided for. How can it be met?
One hesitates, even in the face of a
growing sentiment the other way, to
recommend the transfer of our leper
colony expenses to the Federal Govern
ment, assuming the latter would Shout
der them. But by all means, as soon as
the Legislature meets, the militia
should be abolished, root and branch.
AS an unnecessary expense that or
ganization is heavily underscored in
the taxpaying mind; it is almost as
much under the ban as County gov
eminent. Then there is the band and
the pension of the ex-Queen to con-
slider.
1t seems a pity. on the surface, at
least, that the question of the govern
nent control of public utilities was not
taken up when the Territory
vas organized. A large part of New
zealand's revenues comes from such
sources; and various nations maintain
nonopolies, as in salt, which do them
treat financial service. Hawaii can
Tot, of course, go the lengths in such
xpedients that are attained by indie
PENDENT States or by home-ruled de-
tendencies of the powers; but pre-
it could, when the Territory
vas organized, have taken over to it
elf certain monopolies which are now
enjoyed by private corporations, and
cot good profits from them.
The condition of Hawaii is this: A
people, suddenly bereft of prosperity
ire left to support a government or
ianized when the country was rich and
Wiling to be prodigaI; organized on a
cale suitable for great State of the
Union or for an independent power
faxes, necessarily high and once easily
'orne, are now so oppressive that they
,annot be met without dire personal
acr1hces; and it is proposed by a nom
axpaying majority to increase them ;
" adding governments within govern
nents for the sake of the spoils of Of 7
ice. Even without increase the Ter {
itorial government is too expensive to
'e carried; it rests like a gigantic in
ubus on a country which could be !
wisely governed by a single Board of
supervisors, or by a Commission of
i've men. Hawaii's capital and it's &
Undertakings are not so great as those &
Some ordinary private corporations
mich are thriftily run by a president
nd small board of directors; vet the !
'err1tory supports machinery which 7
'ould carry on any one of fifteen h
merican States. Relief of some kind
lust be had or ruin will stare us in
he face The alternative is either
lgher taxes or a simpler organism of
overnment, something as simple as $
ould come of annexation to Califor- P
ia, for instance; and the source Of
ornament relief seems to us to be
ongress rather than the Legislature.