The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-16
THE SIX. MONTHS BILL
PRESCRIBED AS
GUIDING
Continued from page II

Inc WORD failure in Sec 81 boy.
quoted, is not qualified in any way
.. and 1 do not believe can be limited /,
its meaning. 1t must mean failur,
from any cause whatsoever. and GER
tainly there has been a complete failur,
on the part of the legislature in regard
to passing bills for the purposes abov,
cited. These bills, having failed in tn.
particulars pointed out, must the Gov.
ernor recall the legislature for the pur.
pose of enacting new appropriations fol
the departments omitted from sale
bills.
Sec. 81 provides that 1.-The Governor
shall call the legislature in extra ses.
sion for consideration of appropriation
bills" This has been done. The Sec
ton also provides that until the legis-
lature shall have acted the Treasurer
may, with the advice of the Governor
make such payments, for which pur-
pose the sums appropriated in the last
appropriation bills shall be deemed 10
have been re-appropriated." The clause
until the legislature shall have acted, :"
refers to the time during which this ex-
traord1nary use of past appropriation
bills may be made.
The legislature has been called. ac-
cording to law, and has failed to act.
Under these circumstances Tam of the
opinion that the clause, permitting
prior appropriations to be made use of,
applies. This clause is intended to pro-
vide for the very contingency now fac
ing the Government.
Sec. 81 requires, and is mandatory
upon the Governor to call the legisla-
ture in extra session. It does not,
however, require the Governor to con-
tinue calling the legislature in extra
session, for the consideration of appro-
priation bills. In order to test this
statement, let US assume that the Gov
ernor must call the legislature in extr.,
sessions until it shall have acted upon
appropriation bills. This would enable
the legislature to compel the Governor
tC keep it in session for the whole term
of two years in which they hold office,
by course of parliamentary delay.
This reduces the rule to an absurdity,
and shows that it is beyond the inten-
ton of this section. The only man
datory requirement is, that the Gov
ernor call the legislature in extra ses-
sion when they fail to act in their regu-
lar session, and this has been done. It
does not require him to call an extra
acted. But If they fail to act in such
session, then the section states the
The argument that the leg
islature did not fail to pass the neces-
sary appropriation bills in their extra
session has no foundation in fact. BY
the departments they did, the
appropriation acts are worthless for the
complete carrying on of the Territorial
Gov l.
is not complete in all it's necessary de-
partn1ents, is not a government at all.
The failure, therefore, to provide for
the Police and Judiciary, is as much
4 failure to provide for the Govern
ment, as though the failure had ex-
tended to all the departments of the
Government. 1t is beyond the power
IF the legislature to pass appropria-
ion bills wiping out departments Of
when the laws, requiring
heSe departments, in order that there
shall be a legal and valid government
within the Territory, are still in force.
These observations apply to all de- |
artments whose appropriations are |
ot contained in the eighteen months |
ill, but which, by the laws of the Ter
ltory, are necessary to the carrying on
f the government thereof. If it were /
ED that the Governor must call the |
legislature in extra session and con-
niue SO doing until they should pass
covering these various
apartments, then the precedent would
e established that whenever a legis-
lture, for purposes of its own, wished
} force the Governor into granting it
perpetual session, it could pass such
appropriations as it deemed proper,
aving out, say, an appropriation for
lie Treasurer's department, without
hich the Government of the Territory +
Hawaii could not continue under its
resent laws. In such a case the Gov
nor would have to keep it in perpet->
al session until it did make appro-
ration for that department, because
: would be powerless to act under the
tier portion Of Section "a. This ques-
on reduces the situation to an alb
lrdity, and shows the fallacy of such
asoning.
It may be argued that the legisla-
re has the right to regulate appro-
iations as it pleases; to appropriate
withhold; to establish or repeal an
ice; to provide or refuse to provide
r certain objects that have been pro-
ded for by previous legislatures.
With certain exceptions, not now nee c
sary to be referred to, this claim can Y
admitted, with this proviso, that the c
sislature can withhold an approprta-
N for salary or an object. which is Il
t specifically provided for by exist t
: laws. That is it's privilege and b
thin its power. For example: the II
,islature failed to make an appro- $
alton for an Assistant Superintend- Il
of Public Works during the last six {
nths of 1903. There was no sepa- Z
e law creating this office, and the (
islature, therefore, acted within it's
Ters in failing to appropriate a sal r,
: therefor. Had such office been =
ated by statute. the legislature :
uld not have been justified in failing :.
appropriate salary therefor until it =;
l. first repealed the statute creating -
office. =