The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-08-08
HAWAII FINANCES
TO Be CURTAILED
MONTHLY HANDOUT SOON TO
END AND COUNTY WILL
GET LUMP SUMS.

mLo, August 2.--The world is full
Of trouble, particularly for the Comfy
Of Hawaii. No sooner has the county
pulled itself out Of the financial mire
caused by the squandering Of former
administrations, before IL finds that
there are still financial problems to be
met, and they are rather big ones, too.
The trouble ahead lies in the fact
that when the present year ends there
will be no more monthly advances made
by the Territory TO the counties. This
is in accordance with law passed by
the last legislature, but apparently
this piece Of legislation had been
slipped across without being noticed by
the men of this island, for when Gov
ernor Frear last week wrote to Chair
man Jim Lewis of the board of super.
visors to trim his financial sails, the
warning came like the proverbial
lightning out of clear sky.
The warning of the Governor did not
come quite apropos of nothing, but was
contained in answer to letter writ
ten by Lewis after the meeting of the
belt road commission had taken place.
Governors Message.
The reply OF the Governor was in its
text much like the ancient fable of
the grasshopper and the ant. The key
note was that the comfy must emu
late the ant and store up supply with
which to tide itself over the lean part
of the year, lest it, grasshopper-like be
caught in most embarrassing situa'
ton. The counties mist all be care
full in their financial management, said
Frear, until next May, for under the
statutes made and provided by the last
session of the legislature the Territory
will cease making its usual monthly
advances after January l.
1t has been the habit of the Terri
tory to advance the County of Hawaii
from $11,00 to $4,000 a month, and
to turn over whatever balance Of the
tax collections remained to the credit
of the county, seml-annlally, these
Jumps generally coming in during July
and January. The Governor added in
his letter that from the taxes which
will be coming in next November the
Territory will retain the advances
which it is making to the county be
tween this time and that, and the
county will have nothing to depend on
with the exception of the balance OF
the November taxes, until the time
when the May taxes come in.
Next May, says the Governor, con
solingly, the counties should be OF
'easy street." but until then, beware
County's Powers.
The Governor answers the question
asked by Lewis in regard to who pos
sesses the authority for expanding the
funds for the repairs and maintenance
of schools, by stating that the county
has this authority, and that it has, as
a matter of fact, already received $40,
600 ON this account, but that all these
SIMS must, of course, be used as 9
special fund for the purpose of repair
ing schoOlhouses only, and must not bt
used for other purposes.
In regard to the county engineer
question, the Governor writes that he
thinks the commission acted very wise
Iy in deciding to send to Washington
for an engineer to take charge of the
belt road work, bit, on the other hand
he believes that the county should re
tain the county engineer, as macl
money in county road and building
construction can without doubt be saw
ed through his assistance.