The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-12-09
WATER PROBLEM
MAY be SOLVED
Possible Way Found to Acquire
Funds for Kainuki
Reservoir.

Acting-Governor Mott-Smith and Su-
perintendent Campbell are trying hard
to find some solution of the Kaimuki
reservoir problem, but as yet they have
not worked out feasible plan for get
ting the $43, 900 needed for the con-
struction of this much needed extern
sion of the waterworks system.
The trouble is that the legislature
tied up the funds so tightly that it
seems almost impossible to pry loose
enough to pay for the construction of
the reservoir for which the residents
of Kaimuki have been praying so long.
And yet, the government is compelled
as things now stand, to keep on paying
for the pumping of water into the old
cracked reservoir, from which much of
it promptly runs into the small lake
that has formed near the reservoir.
Both Mr.. Mott-Smith and Mr.. Camp
bell figure that it would be in the end
cheaper to construct a new reservoir
than to pay for trying to keep the
present structure full.
A construction of the law passed by
the legislature last April has been sug-
gested which may prove to be the solu,
ton Of the problem. Act 105 of the
Session Laws of 1909 provides that the
moneys derived from the Honolulu
waterworks and sewerworks shall be
apportioned, first to the expenses of
maintenance and operation; second to
the payment of interest upon the in
debtedness of the Territory incurred
for the construction, improvement and
extension of the works; third, for the
extension and improvement of the
works, and fourth, for the payment of
the indebtedness, not less than ten per
cent of the gross receipts to be set
aside each year for the last named pur-
pose.
In other words, if there is anything
left after all other expenses have been
met it may be applied to extension and
Improvement. But the trouble is that
there is not enough left to do much
extending, as the law is now construed.
The interests on the bonds eats up
about $4,000 a year.
The question arises, however, as to
whether the interest upon the entire
bonded Indebtedness should come out
of the water and sewerworks receipts,
or whether the system should pay the
interest only on what the system now
actually stands the government in.
In other words, the waterworks sys-
TEN has for years been returning a sur
plus. 1t has partially paid for itself,
and the fact that the bonds are still
outstanding does not mean, some people
hold, that the waterworks system
should be obliged to stand the entire
expense of interest, since the surplus
has gone into general revenues.
If the. surplus thus far turned into
the treasury and applied elsewhere be
deducted from the amount of the total
bonded indebtedness now charged
against the water and sewer works sys-
TEN, the difference in interest charge
able to the waterworks would be about
$4,000 year. Of course, this interest
would have to be paid, but it is held
by some lawyers that it need not, under
that construction of the law, come out
of the revenues Of the waterworks de-
partment. That being the case, the
department would have about $4,000
year more to spend in extension and
improvement of the system.
If this reading of the law be held
correct, it may yet be possible for the
executive and administrative officers of
the government to find the funds with
which to build the much needed Kai-
muki reservoir.