The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-08
CHANCE FOR kUHIO
To MAKE A HIT
Being BOmbarded With Letters
in Regard to Fees and
Per Diem.

| Delegate Kuhio will get nearly hun
bred letters on one subject by the mai
which leaves here tomorrow by tn,
Siberia
There is a bill in Congress to increast
the pay and mileage of jurors and wit
nesses in United States Courts in tns
States of Wyoming, Montana, Washing,
ton, Oregon, California, Nevada, idaho
Colorado, and Utah, and the TeFritorie:
of Arizona and New Mexico. The bill
makes the per diem of jurors and wit
nesses So a day instead of $50 a day
as now, and makes it cever the time
necessarily consumed in going to and
from the courts, instea4 of as now only
from the time they arrive in Honolulu.
The mileage is also increased from five
cents mile each say, to ifteen cents
mile for every mile necessarily trav-
eled by stage or by private conveyance,
and five cents mile for distances trav-
eled by railroad.
There is :. movement to get Hawaii
included in the amendment, so that wit
nesses AMI jurors here will get the in
creased per diem and mileage. To this
end Delegate Kuhio s attention is being
,ealleI to the bill and to the fact that
it enly requires that the name of Ha-
ws.ii be added to the list of Territories
affected by the bin to get the benefit
of the increase, if the bill passes, which
there is every reason to believe will be
the fact. Every witness in the United
States Courts has been provided with
typewriter statement of the matter
and asked to sign it and send it to the
Delegate. They are all doing it. Judge
Dole has written to the Department of
Justice, pointing out the need of this
amendment in this Territory, where the
mileage at present allowed by law does
not pay the actual steamboat fare wit
nesses have to pay in coming from the
other Islands.
For instance, the mileage from Hilo
~ I1OnOiuiu anu dA4OAc0 ullQSI
the law as it stands amounts to $22.90,
while the steamship fare for the round
trip is $25. The mileage from Kahului
to SO, while the steamship fare
is $12. From practically all ports on
the other Islands the mileage allowed
by law is about So short of the actual
fare.
Per diem also is not allowed until
after arrival at the court, though wit
nesses and jurors often have to start
from home several days before their
mileage begins.
United States Marshal Hendry has
taken the matter up on behalf of the
jurors and witnesses, and has had pre-
pared an extract from the Congressional
Record of January 81, 1908, in regard
to the status of the matter, a copy of
which each juror and witness interested
is asked to send to Delegate Kuhio, call
ing his attention to the bill and to the |
need of an amendment including Ha-
wall. The following is the quotation !
from the Congressional Record which is |
being sent:
FEES OF JURORS AND WITNESSES
The bin Is 597) amending the Act of /
August 8, 1892, clause 361, entitled IAN |
Act fixing the fees of Jurors and wit I
lesses in the United States courts in /
certain States and Territories (27 Stat. |
Z. D. BAD, was considered as in Com
nittee of the Whole. 1t proposes to :
amend the Act of August 3. 1892, clause |
;61, q Statutes At Large, page SAT, en- |
titled AN Act fixing the fees of jurors /
ind witnesses III the United States
courts in certain States and Terri
cries. so as to read:
That Jurors and witnesses in the Uni t
ed States courts, including commits /
'ioners' courts, in the States of Wyom-
ng, Montana, Washington, Oregon, /
California, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and I
Utah, and in the Territories of New /
Mexico and Arizona, Hawaii shall be /
entitled to receive for actual attend
lnce at any court or courts, including /
courts and for the time /
occupied in going to and |
returning from the same, SO day dur
ng such attendance and Is cents for /
Zach mile necessarily travelled over any /
stage line, or by private conveyance, |
md cents for each mile over any rail-
way, in going to and returning from |
'aid courts: Provided, That no con-
'tructive or double mileage fees shall /
De allowed by reason of any. person be- |
ng summoned as both witness and |
Juror, or as a witness in two or more |
Eases pending in the same court and !
riable at the same term thereof.