The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-05
MUNICIPAL BILL |GRANTs
LITTLE
Continued from Page one.)

1 k1OulIuueu AFOm rage One.
! sary for the municipality to have to
| look for all its money from another
| body, the Territory. Under the Organic
Act the city could have been given
the power of taxation and independ-
ence, as in every other Territory under
similar Organic Acts these powers had
been conferred on municipalities.
As for the powers Of the Mayor and
the Supervisors, these could be stated
very concisely: The Mayor has the
power of appointment, the Supervisors
. the power of confirming; the Mayor
has the power of presiding and of
vetoing, the Supervisors the power of
legislating and overriding the veto.
In response to the question as to
what ''an officer" of the city might
be, the speaker stated that he had not
gone into the details that far.
Supervisor Logan answered the
question, quoting decision of the Su-
preme Court to the effect that an Off
Ger of a government was one whose
duties were defined by statute. In the
case of the county he supposed the
duties would be defined by ordinance.
Mr.. Logan gave an explanation, as he
, saw it, of the limited power of the
municipality. in the days Of long
ago, he explained. there were three
great subjects in Hawaii; one, to get
street ears in Honolulu, and the other
| two to get county government. 1t
was pretty generally recognized in
| those days, however, even among
| those who talked and wrote most about
! it. that county government, so far, at
! least, as providing for a Mayor of Ho-
/ nolulu was concerned, was a glimmer-
/ ing impossibility because the Mayor
would be bigger man than the King.
| No bigger man was wanted by the
powers that were. With the coming
of annexation, however, the people be-
| gan to feel their oats as American
| citizens and the clamOr for county gov
! eminent was increased. 1t came, but
! with the conditions here differing so
| radically from those elsewhere, and
with the wealth so unevenly distrib-
uted. full county government was
deemed inadvisable, while, in addition,
the old system of centralized govern
ment died hard and relinquished only
what it absolutely had to. There
were good reasons yet why much OF
the power should remain with the cen
trail government, and the fact that to
give the counties the power of taxa
tion and assessment would only dupli-
cate offices, was a good reason for not
giving it.
County government was given as a
test to the electorate, and the munich
pal government now established was
in measure a try-out to test the ca
pacty of the voters. To go slow in
granting powers was a wise and sensi-
BILE course. The present system of tax
alton was working well and that was
the best test.
There was some discussion of the
bonding powers If the counties, it be-
ing stated that the failure of the Maui
issue was due to mistakes on the part
of the Maui Supervisors as much as
anything else. The powers of the
county had not been assailed and Iegis-
lation to give fulfllment of the powers
was possible.
The discussion closed with the
happy remark of Judge Kingsbury
that he saw promise Of a multitude of
lawsuits before the present municipal
act was sifted out into its legal
meaning