The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-05
COUNTY VS..
USURERS
The Employees Will Get
Their Money
Direct.

territory permits warrants Of its EN-
ployees to be assigned to any Tom
Dick or Harry, the government of thu
County of Oahu will establish new
order of things and pay money earned
| by employees directly to them.
| Treasurer Trent is of the opinion
| that custom has had much to do will
the present system of the territory
handling money earned by its workers
and custom has played strongly into
| the hands of the usurers. Treasurer
| Trent does not see that he is bound
| by any rule or any law to recognize
any paper which authorizes him to pay
money earned by a county employee
to any person other than the one whose
name appears on the payroll.
For fear of being sued, the EN-.
ployees of the Territory have in many
instances signed large number of as
signments of salary to the sharks
Whenever an employee fails to dig up,
in goes an assignment to the auditor.
This system has kept some employees
on the verge of poverty for long pc
RODS.
All this treasurer Trent proposes to
do away with. He will pay money di-
rect to employees, and they must make
their own arrangements with the
sharks afterwards. The county, ac-
cording to the treasurer, does not In
tend to burden itself with bookkeep.
ing merely for the benefit of the
money sharks, and will not convert the
treasurer s department into clearing
house for anybody.
The usury law, it is believed, will
prevent the money sharks from going
into court with a case against an en-
ployee, for by so doing, they virtually
admit that they are usurers, and lay
themselves open to prosecution by the
territory.
Much of the burdensome work Of the
territorial auditors department will
not be carried on by the county treas
urer and auditor, if Treasurer Trent
has his way. Hereafter when large
number of men working for wages are
to obtain their money, the head of such
department will enter the names OF
the payroll with the amounts set OPP
posite, and then swear before the traas-
urer that the total amount is correct.
The whole payroll then goes through
the auditors hands for listing and
then to the treasurer, who will make up
the wages Set opposite the names and
the cash for each employee will be
placed in an envelope and sealed. And
the sealed envelope with contents in
tact must go to the employee direct.
If his envelope has been ursealed or
opened in any way, he is entitled to
report the circumstance to the treasur-
er and an investigation will be made
Heretofore, department or bureau
of the government has been treated
in one warrant. That is, the total
amount of the payrolIs has been drawn
in single warrant to the head of the
bureau, VINO caSh21 the warrant and
the money among the en-
ployees, presumably according to pay
roll. That system will not obtain I'M
der the county.
Treasurer Trent does not intend that
all employees shall came to his office
and get the money, for that would
be a hardship on many. For instance,
on pay days, he or his deputy, will
be driven out, say by Sam Johnson,
to where gang is working, and will
pay the men off, the men placing their
signatures to the payroll with foun-
tain pen, and in exchange for their
will receive their wages in
the sealed envelopes.
Much of the foregoing was discussed
at considerable length at Treasurer
Trent's office Monday afternoon
when Supervisor Adams, the treas
urer, county auditor Bicknell and ter !
ritorial auditor Fisher, went over the
whole question,
1t is said that Judge Humphreys has
been retained by one of the usurers to |
proceed against the auditor or en-
ployees for having failed to recognize !
of warrants made during |
the month by certain employees.