The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-11
SENATORS
WORKING
CONTINUED From Page One.)


priation bill.
Senator Smith reported on Bill 80
relative to reports of District and Cir
| cult Court judges as follows:
The judiciary committee has had I'M
der consideration House Bill No. 49,
entitled IAN Act Relating to Reports
| of Circuit and District Courts, amend
| ing Sections 1858 and 1879 of the Re
vised Laws relating to Annual Re-
ports to be rendered by the Circuit
| Judges and District Magistrates, and
recommend the passage of the BILL
| Section 1853 of the Revised Laws re-
lates TO the reports to be made by the
Circuit Judges and defines more fully
| the nature of the reports to be made.
Section 1879 of the Revised Laws pro-
vides that the District Magistrates
should make quarterly reports to the
Circuit Judges and the bill under con-
sideration provides that these reports
be made annually to the Chief Justice.
Both of these changes seem desirable.
Laid on the table to be considered
with the bill.
House Bill No. 80, framed for the
benefit of men who get only moderate
pay as clerks or artizans, had a hard
knock from the hands Of the commit
exemption of fifteen hundred dollars
income instead of thousand as now
provided.
Your Committee on Ways and Means,
to which was referred House Bill No
80, entitled AN Act to Amend Section
1878 of the Revised Laws of Hawaii
Relating to Income Tax as Amended by
Act 81 of the Session Laws of 1906,
begs leave to report as follows:
Your committee has given the bill
its full consideration and finds that the
amendment to Section 1878 of the Re
vised Laws of Hawaii provided in this
bill, far from securing the poor man
any benefits, will work an injustice to
the community, in that it will relieve a
class of taxpayers of a contribution to
the public purse that your committee
feels is fairly and justly imposed, and
a class that would otherwise escape
it's just share of the burden of taxa
ton. A person in receipt of an in
come of $500 per annum surely cam
not be classed as a poor man, and by |
the present law is only assessed 2 per |
cent on his income over $1,000, or, say, /
$40. Many is the young professional |
man who rents his house furnished, !
and also rents his Office, possibly owns
an automobile, earns from $4,000 to
$4,000 annually by his profession, and |
only pays the Territory a property tax
Of h iS
5000 exemption allowed by law. Con-
trast this case with the poor working
man with a family, who earns from
81 to IS a day. pays a 2 per cent tax
on all income over 81, 900, but owns
lot and furnished house worth from
$500 to $1,000, upon which he is assessed
taxes to the full value of the
property, less the $500 allowed by law,
and it will not be difficult to see in
whose interest the amendment to the
present law will work. Designed with
out doubt to aid the poor man, it would
only prove boon to his more FORUM
ate brother who would further escape
4 burden now easy for him to bear.
Furthermore. it is the opinion of your
that no hardship exists in
he imposition of the present income
AK law, and the Territory can i'll af-
'ord the loss Of revenue at the present
lime that would be entailed by the
passage of this bill, and it therefore
recommends it's indefinite postpone
nent
Senator Smith supported the report, |
saying the income tax was the fairest {
hat could be imposed. There are peo- t
pie here, he said, who get good sal
aries but who have no property upon :
which to levy taxes, so they get off {
% reach this class that the tax is i'm 5
posed.
Senator Chillingworth took the other
,ide and cited the case of the con- r
luctors and motormen on the tramways. f
He thought that with the high cost of +
living here and the difficulty met by :
men of small salaries to save money, y
he exemption should be not less than T
fifteen hundred dollars. t
Senator Dowsett opposed the bill and
the committee. His com
oarisOn between the well-to-do clerk
lrawing fifteen hundred dollars year
md the poor laborers getting from two I
20 five dollars day was a little off, t
,or the reason that the poor laborer c
Who gets five dollars day has bet :.
,er income than the fifteen hundred
1ollar clerk. l
There may be a change in the custom |
now but in the days of the late Judge
Estee the income of the federal en- :
ployes IN this Territory was not taxed. :
If that is true today Senator Dowsett I
will see that the best paid employees