The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-10-08
L|L|H|A STREET
TRIAL IS ENDED


suit against the Rapid Transit Com
pany is all finished now except tn,
filing of briefs, the decision of Judg
De Bolt, and the appeal that is sur,
to be taken whichever side wins.
All the testimony on both sides, di
rect and in rebuttal, was in by IFS
O'Clock yesterday forenoon. E. C. Pc
tiers, for the Liliha street people, sug
gested that the argument be by way
of briefs. d. L. Wilmington, for ths
company, said he was ready to pro.
coed with oral argument at once
Judge De Bolt suggested that he was
willing TO sit little later than twelve
o'clock noon. and that he would like
| ii if each side would make oral argu-
ment to the extent of outlining their
! position and their theory of the case,
and then the briefs could be filed
later. This suggestion was accepted,
and about an hour was consumed in
| oral argument. altogether. The last
/ brief is TO be in by Saturday noon
next.
Former Governor Carter was the
leading witness yesterday. He testi-
fled to the meetings and committees in
regard to the proposed change in
schedule with which he was connect
ed. He gave an account of the various
conferences in behalf of the people of
Liliha street, concluding with the one
at the office of Castle & Wilmington,
at which, as a compromise for the fif-
teen-minute schedule, a ten-minute
schedule for the rush hours and a
twenty-minute schedule for the rest
of the time was proposed. Governor
Carter testified that he agreed to that
compromise for himself, and agreed
that he would urge its acceptance by
the people as being the best that could
be done under all the circumstances.
W. L. Howard, F. T. P. Waterhouse
and L. L. McCandless all testified to
the same matters. Their testimony as
to what occurred did not differ mate
rally, though it was clear that there
was considerable difference of opinion
among them as to just what the COM
mittee should do after this conference,
whether to call another meeting to re-
port back, or what. There seems to
ASA'O bOCh SOAlAC SUI VI Oil cISldIlu-
ing that there was to be another con-
ference between representatives of the
people and the company, though this
seems to have been somewhat indefi-
mite. As matter of fact, there was
not another conference. There was a
meeting of the Liliha street people
where il was decided to hire a lawyer
and act on his advice Peters was
hired and his advice was to act quick
ly, before the company acted: and the
injunction suit was the result.
The following are the witnesses who
testified in the case: c. G. Ballentyne,
Alonzo ]. Wilson, E. c. Peters. DR.. C.
B. High, c. V. E. Dove, F. T. P.
Waterhouse, n. E. Gedge, John Akau,
E. A. Berndt, ]. D. McInerny, E. P.
Fogarty, Oliver Stillman, W. H. Nc
Inerny. P. Silva. John C. Lane. ]. o. |
Young, Albert F. Judd, W. w Thayer,
G. L. Samson, C. D. Samson, J. H. |
Schnack. James L. Holt. George R. |
Carter, W. L. Howard and L. L. Nc
Candless.
In presenting his argument and his |
theory of the case, E. c. Peters. for |
the Liliha street people, quoted Section /
Si1 of the Revised Statutes as follows:
THE said association and others shall |
at all times maintain a sufficient num-
Der of cars to be used upon said rail-
way for the carriage of passengers.
as public convenience may require, and
such other cars designed for the car
rage of mails. parcels and goods as
they may deem necessary"
The duty imposed by this was a
'uty measured by public convenience.
That duty could be enforced only by
he Territory, not by individuals AS
| public service corporation, the COM
oany had received an exclusive fran
,hise: 1t owed duties which could be
In this proceeding the pub
ic convenience was a matter of fact
o be established by evidence, and the
violence was uncontradicted that any,
hing less than a ten-minute service
would not meet the public convent
nee.
In reply, D. L. Wilmington argued
hat the company supplied sufficient
ars, as was shown by the fact that
he Liliha street cars had a seating ca
acity of 50, and carried an average
f eight persons as against an average s
f eighteen on the Waialae line. He
ED that the authorities were all to
he effect that the proper remedy in {
ases against public service corpora
ions was mandamus and not injunc-
ion, but that the authorities were
that mandamus would
e against a board of directors to
equire them to change schedules, the
taking of schedules being left by the
Nv to the business purposes of the
1t was also argued that the present
iliha street service was being run at Q
n average cost of 1854 a month and
as taking in an average of about
400 a month.
n