The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-27

! Mr. Editor.-In last Mondays issue
of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser
| | was quoted in regard to the act max
| ing municipality of the County OF
Oahu. The views then and now pre-
| sented are not offered from a partisan
standpoint,/ but rather from that of a
citizen desiring to see created here an
economical administration of both local
and Territorial affairs.
Under this act the 3s4, 900 acres area
of this island are put under municipal
control, an absurdity which is best
shown by tabulations submitted here
with, and which speak for themselves.
Webster defines municipality as "a
town governed by its own laws" " tof
or pertaining to d city or corporation
having the right of administering local
government, and had Honolulu proper
occupying one thousand aeres-been
so incorporated, there could be no seri-
Gus objection to the plan, providing it
were given the full rights obtaining
elsewhere under municipal<a <aet.
In the modern rapid growth of cities
having tributary territory to draw
business from, the practice has become
common of annexing under one act and
at one time sufficient areas to provide
for increase of population over period
of one or two generations, and in like
manner our city by the sea could be
extended at any future time should
conditions demand, and we would not
be risking the opera bouffe that will
surely result politically If ever we at
tempt to operate under the law as it
now stands.
What would be the result were the
conditions / have outlined d7actually cre-
ated? We would have outside the city
proper rural area whose requirements
would be limited to creating substan-
tial roads and bridges and maintaining
highways in much better condition
than is now being done. In five years
time, with their improvements complet-
ed, maintenance thereof would permit
of cutting the tax rate at least so per
cent, to the manifest benefit of the
agricultural interests.
Every feature of this soealled NUM-
cipal act points the reverse of these con
ditions; says in as plain language as it
can be stated. that we propose to ex-
plot the agricultural resources of this
island to the limit possible in order to
obtain funds to be squandered in the
city proper. "Graft, subtle, insinu-
ating, insistent "graft is written
throughout the act so far as its effect
on the cow countless is concerned.
The enactment of this law stands
unique and solitary in the annals of
self government aas monument to class
legislation of the most vicious kind,
and in my humble opinion the sooner
a Supreme Court decision can be OBJ
tanned on it's legality the better it will
be for the taxpayers.
Its provisions for election of the en-
tire Board of Supervisors sat large
is as unjust to the outer districts, with
their small voting population, as is the
present county law to the city--in ere
ating three outside election districts
for supervisor with respective total
of $50, 35S and 466 voters,
while the $3.50 voters of the city are
obliged to vote - at large" on the three
allotted to them under the law. This
in the County Act would |
never be tolerated in any other COM |
nunity by so large and intelligent body |
of electors as we plume ourselves to be |
in this District of Honolulu.
The following table shows the popu-
lation of the fifteen cities of the |
United States having largest areas: