The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-16
Axe Applied to the APP
preparation Bill by
House, in Its Zeal
for Retrenchment.

| The Finance Committee presented
its report yesterday in the House, and
the whole tone of the report is one of
retrenehment. By adopting the report
the House went on record as fayoring
cut of every possible cutable item
out of the current appropriation bill
and saving of $11s,000 from the gem
| eral fund through the transferring of
items to the bill appropriating the
| money to be raised through the spe-
cial immigration tax.
The members were only short time
in putting their axes to work, the
first item to be chopped out being that
of $4,000 for the support of the Pro-
motion Committee for the period.
| Single attacked the item, Rice urged
1 him on, and Cohen fought for not only
the amount in the bill, but one twice
as big On the vote, Single and Ka-
| mahu voted with the majority against
! the other Oahu members. It remains
| to be seen if the economy streak ex-
| tends as well in other directions.
The session yesterday was long
and strenuous one, the House being
at active work for nearly seven hours,
| two of which were in committee of
| the whole. The members started off
the day BY gieefully killing three bills
| known to be backed by the Superin-
i tendent of Public Works. Then they
passed Enabling Act No. on first
reading and sustained the veto of the
| Governor to No. /.
Some new bills came along, one tn
establish system of school banking,
Zone to pay Honolulu road workers two
dollars day, and another to put
special tax on sugar.
The members grew warm over the
resolution that they had to ask the
| Speaker when they wanted to go out,
but cooled off in time to receive and
pass resolutions calling for information
| from the Departments of Public Work
and Education, one of these wanting
| to know where certain money unac-
! counted for had gone.
During the committee of the whole,
Secretary Mott Smith and the Attor-
| ney General were on the carpet and
the target for many pointed questions.
Bring Law Up-t0zdate.
The bill introduced by Correa TO pro-
vide for the redemption of the family
| homestead from forced sale, received
the approval of the Judiciary Commit
tee. report from that committee being
read as the first matter of daily routine
taken up by the House yesterday morn
ing. The report was yolumlnous one,
giving a variety of reasons why the
present law, passed in 1850, should be
j brought up to date and the homestead
exemption raised from $3.50 to $500.
The report was adopted.
Encouragement to Delinquents.
The Public Lands Committee Topped
the heads off of three of Conveys bills
yesterday, these being bills to carry out
the wishes of the Department of Public
| Works to run the waterworks of Homo
! lulu on a business basis. These were
House Bills 10, Ill, and II, making
! rules for the collection of water rates,
allowing the installation of water me-
tiers to check waste and otherwise bring
ing it within the power of the depart
ment to bring up the revenue from
waterworks and improve the service.
The reports from Kaleiopu's commit
tee denounced each of the bills as
i. hardships upon the poor and recon-
mended their tabling. This is con-
sistent carrying out of the policy of
ma iority of the House to make it easy
to avoid the payment of just debts to
the government.
Impounding Fee Bill Passes.
The same committee favored the pas
sage of House Bill 123, KawewehI,
which allows a fee of four bits head
on all cattle impounded II found at
large on the public roads.
Waterworks for Counties.
The Public Lands committee was dis
tinctly in favor of Moanaull s bill to
empower County Boards of Supervisors
to establish and maintain waterWorks
systems. report from the committee
saving that it sis of the opinion as
suggested by Our Honorable Governor s
message to the Legislature, that certain
public utilities should be under
the control and supervision of the sew
eral counties.
Finance Reports.
The Finance Committee presented
two reports, one favoring the passage
of House Bill 1T, which makes 1t OBJ
Hgatorv for all instruments TO be filed
within three months of execution, under
penalty of double stamp duty. Inc