The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-06-08
THE PosToFFICE QUESTION.

Editor Advertiser: The business men
around town are greatly exercised over
the new talked-of location, on the
Opera House lot, for the proposed
Federal building or postoffice site.
All practical men favored eitLer the
Mahuka lot or the Bishop street lot.
To put myself straight, say that
am a property owner on Hotel street
Naturally, l favored the Bishop street
site: but as the choice lay between the
Mahuka lot as first and the Bishop
street lot as second choice, at d pIhhc
meeting I and many others were e.l-
tirely satisfied, because the location
was central.
1t would certainly be an outrage and
a disregard of the wishes of the busi-
ness people and the public in general
to locate the postoffice on the Opera
House lot This place is too far away
from the business center and not at
all handy for the purpose the future
Federal building should serve.
The postoffice in Honolulu is a some
what different institution than on the
mainland.
On the mainland the location of a
island metropolis.
There, railroad trains with mail ar
rive during all hours of the clock and
mail is distributed continuously. Bus
mess and private people rarely go to
the postoffice for their mail. Here, it
is quite different.
The mail liners from Australia, from
the Orient and the Coast come in long
intervals. The same is true in a
lesser degree with our island boats that
bring weekly mails. AS soon as
steamer enters port here, eager crowds
of all nations, men, women and chill
dren, flock to the postoffice and pa
tiently wait till the general window is
ready to pass out the mail. The busy
merchant and clerk stays by his box
and gathers up the letters as they
drop in.
Most of the people in Honolulu act
Just in that manner. They don't wait
for many hours till the carrier comes
around. maybe next day! If boat ar
rives late in the afternoon. Not much!
This being the condition of our iso-.
lated and infrequent mail service the
public demands and should insist on
as central a location for postoffice
as it is possible to obtain. Honolulu
ought to have influence enough in
Washington by now to get what #
really needs.
It is maintained, as counter argu-
ment by the opposition to the Bishop
street site, that this lot, while it is
long enough, lacks in width.
What in heaven is in the way 70
obtain the proper width for an i'm
posing and central postoffice site? I
say nothing!
If the government needs a few more
feet of land to get the proper official
area on the Eva side of the Bishop
lot, surely our Uncle Sam could con-
denim sufficient space from the ware
houses that abut or even a generous
slice from the good old Arlington Ho-
tel, and would no doubt properly pay
for this action. If the community de-
sires this place, the Bishop street site.
for their postoffice, only needs action.
Honolulu, by it's location and traffic.
should have one of the finest and
most centrally-located Federal build
ings, where the postoffice and other
Federal offices could be housed The
Bishop street site is the most logical
and available site for that purpose.
1t is certainly the most convenient and
central to all, I am sure, Mr.. Editor,
to have voiced the majority of the PEG,
PIE that have business with the post
office
Thanking you for the space granted,
sincerely yours,
JAMES STEINER.
Honolulu, June 7, 1907.