The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-12

Governor Frear. Yes; but only a
small portion of it is of that value. ONLY
a small portion is arabic, and much of
| that IS worth not over $50 an acre.
Some good arabic land is worth only a
few dollars an acre. because of the ex-
pense of clearing it of forest, or its
distance from good roads.
The Chairman. I was going to ask
You about how much of that land is
valuable.
Governor FreaT. There are about
100000 acres of it in forest. of which
$4,000 acres have been set aside for
| forest reservations. and it is expected
that other lands will be set aside for
that purpose, so as to aggregate 750. 900
acres. Much of the other land is too
rocky or dry or preeipitous or high to
be cultivated.
The Chairman. That is a pretty gen.
erous reservation.
| Governor Frear. I was going to say
that only about 20 per cent of the for
est reservations are public lands. The
rest are private lands. That being a
subtropieal country, water is all Im-
portant and forests are necessary to
insure constant supply, for withoet
the forests the water would quickly run
off, owing to the fact that the water
sheds are short and steep.
The. Chairman. What kind of timber
is there in those forest reservations?
Governor Frear. Mainly two kinds
of commercial value-the koa, which re-.
sembles mahogany and is a cabinet
wood, and the ohia, which is a very
hard wood and is used principally for
railway ties. A contract was made
about year ago for selling two and
a half million ties of that wood to the
Santa F'e Railway.
Senator Flint They have commenced
to ship ties to the Santa Fe railroads
Governor Frear. Yes; they began
recently, within the last month.
Receipts and Expenditures.
The Chairman. What have the rev.
enues been amounting to annually
from government lands disposed of by
4 the governments
Governor Frear. It amounts to $25,
600 or 10000 a year from sales and
about $4,000 year from rents.
The Chairman. And you still have
, an income tax there2
Il Governor Frear. Yes.
,
keeping up with your expenditures?
t Governor Frear No; we are not
Five years ago the Territory got be
g hind about 100000, when a specia
I session of the Legislature was Gale,
5 to cut down expenses. They cut dow
? the school teachers 20 per cent, VIII
u were paid little enough anyway, an
e so all around This went on until tn
:. last session of the Legislature, whe
/; the Territory had recovered and ha
e accumulated a surplus of $313,00'
r. Since then we have been running b.
f hind. This last year our expenditure
r exceeded our receipts by STAT, 900 an
A by the 1st of next February we wi
not have cent in the treasury.
Ie The Chairman. Was that caused b
n an increase in expenditures or fal
a. ing off of revenue?
la Governor Frear No; simply IL
| last Legislature restored the expend
< lures to where they. were four yea
O. ago.
The Chairman. And of course TIL
.. increase of expenditures put you b
hind again?
II Governor Frear. Yes.
i. Senator Flint. Why was it nece
sary to make such a radical change
as one session from a condition of affai
~ where you had a surplus to a cond
at ton of affairs where you had such 6
a enormous deficit2
as Governor Frear. Well, one reasc
to why an increase was desirable, if
" could be afforded, was because the a
ID preparations had previously been CT
of "
l. owing to lack of funds. There W;
i. also another reason. The Legislatu
o. there does not always hold itself dow
s. to the estimated revenues. 1t has f,
II wears been in the habit of appropria
# ing considerably more than the est
t. mated revenues, with the result tn;
g the executive is obliged to select b
e, tween appropriations as to what sha
r be spent. But in the case of salari
the executive can not cut down. Whe
lie it comes to other expenses we CT
o. what we can.
The Chairman Can the Governc
e veto an item in an appropriation bi
and let the bill stand?
g Governor Frear. He can veto sp
cific items But an item to which
is objects can be passed over his veto b
Is two-thirds vote.
The Chairman. All your customs r
1T ceipts are paid into the United Stat
W Treasury?
2 Governor Frear. Yes.
/ The Chairman. What do the
1T amount to-
70 The Governor Last year the
amounted to $1,550,000.
c. The Chairman. | refer now to tari
j. duties on importations into Hawaii.
Governor Frear. Yes.
Ut The Chairman. They amounted
how much2
lg Governor Frear. Last year thu
amounted to over million and a ha
dollars. That is besides internal re
w enue. For the eight years under lie
as ritorial government the customs ]
n ceipts have amounted to ten and
quarter million dollars.
~, The Chairman. That have been pa
ny here into our Treasurys
Governor Frear. Paid into
ar United States Treasury.
The Chairman. In addition to t
internal revenue that has been cole
set ed7
Governor Frear. Yes.
The Chairman. What do the int
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