The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-07-18

No private carriages are allowed upon
the state railways.
con these assets some $115,OO 900
have been expended. The lines meet
every condition. There is uniformity
of charge for every section; there is no
concession for the larger users as
against the smallest We have a pub
licly gazetted tariff and no rebates are
admitted.
ITO show what this means: Suppos-
ing case of rebating being q justi-
fable one, it would require to be put
upon the public estimates of the eX-
penditures of the colony and voted
upon by Parliament of the country The
advantages give the small man an
opportunity of improving his position
and the large man knows none of his
competitors can by any process OBJ
tain an advantage over him.
"Then again, we do not require to
make excessive profits. We can take
without any difficulty Z or 10 per cent
out of our railways, if we choose to
keep up our freight rates and our pas
senger rates, but we believe that it
is in the truest interests of our country
to keep the rates down and we make
concession to all classes of users of
the railways from time to time of all
revenue over 315 per cent and in many
cases 8 per cent.
1T is sound policy to utilize our rail-
ways to help every class to build up
industries; to assist agriculturists 20
ship to and from the seaboard at low
rates and to insure travel at low fares.
Our revenue last year was between SILL
100000 and 81, 100000.
I'VE have spread the functions of
the State materially. In 1895 we
changed the fiscal system; we abolish
ed the system of taxation that re-
lieved those who had considerable in
terest i'm the colony from contributing
their full share of taxation and estab-
lished a graduated land and income
tax.
But a man who had an income up
to $500 paid no income tax, a man
who had an income of $1,000 paid a tax
of 6 pence on the pound and one shill-
ing per pound on any excess of $1,000,
This was intended to relieve the
worker from contributing taxation un-
der this head. 1t is in our country
one of those anomalies of the human
system that the larger families gen.
orally are to be found among those re-
ceiving the smallest incomes, and to
meet this we put it into shape that
relief should be given to the smaller
wage earners.
I'VE exempt all improvements from
taxation. This is an incentive to the
holders Of land to make improvements
and gives a widespread employment. It
has worked well and in building there
has been almost a revolution. Old
places have been pulled down and new
ones have gone up.
1.-THE rate of ordinary land taxation
was a penny a pound and we had a
graduated tax, increasing one-siXteenth
of a penny a pound when the value is
S25, 900 and less than $4,000, and then
that rate increases with the value of
the property with a maximum of 3
pence to the pound, which is payable
when the value is $1,O5O,OOO or exceeds
that sum.
1--WE introduced drastic legislation
governing factories, stipulated for pro-
per sanitary conditions and continuous
inspection.
1--WE fix the number of hours per
week that employees can work, maxi
ing heavy fines for violations. At first
this was opposed by some employers,
but others supported 1t warmly and
every intelligent person recognized that
if all of the factory owners were put
upon the same footing they had an OPP
portunity Of fair competition.