The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-02-21
Governor FFear Will Be
Backed Up in His
Suggestion.
SOME AMENDMENTS
Business Men Want a One
Per Cent Maximum
s s Restriction.

oThereawill be no opposition made by
the merchant bodies of Honolulu to the
principle Of whatever bin may be in.
treduced into the legislature to transfer
tGothe- various counties the assessing
power, the fright to fix tax rates and
the collection. Of taxes, as has been out
lined in an interview with Governor
Frear, published in The Advertiser, and
which has been referred to at some
length in the Governors message. The
business men Of the city and the town
members of the planters association
have been busy discussing the proposed
plan for the past several weeks and
che general opinion is that the Gov
ernor is right in his contention that
to increase the financial responsibilities
of the county governments win be to
increase the efficiency Of those govern
ments.
1t is not officially known as yet what
are to be the terms Of the bill in prepa-
ration to cover the recommendations of
the Governor Is message and the intro
duction of the measure is being looked
forward to with some considerable in
terest by the legislative committees Of
the planters association, the mer-
chants association and the chamber of
commerce, all of which have discussed
the idea Of having the counties do the
taxing on real property. They have dis
cussed it as individual committees, in
Joint committee session and in session
with the parent bodies The result is
as stated, that they stand willing to
back the plan under certain conditions.
In the first place it is thought that
the bill should provide maximum Of
one per cent as the tax rate, with the
privilege given the supervisors of cut
ting under the maximum as many mills
as they can. This is the present terri
torial rate.
Schools First.
Then it is thought that the bill ought
to contain some provisions to put
strings on at least portion of the
money to be collected by the various
counties. The business men would like
to see some certainty of the schools
being provided for, for instance, and
they would have the new tax bill pro-
vide that the first charge on the county
revenue must be that of schools. As
a second fixed charge they would have
it compulsory for the county fathers to
set aside a sum sufficient to meet in
terest and sinking fund on any county
bonds that might happen to be afiOat.
Staggered at First.
When the Governor first suggested
that the right to assess, fix tax rates
and collect taxes be turned over to the
counties, the business men, with very
few exceptions, gasped. On first sight,
to them, the idea seemed preposterous
in the light Of some of the things that
have taken place. Finally, turning
over the arguments made in its favor
by the Governor and applying to the
thing some of the rules of philosophy,
the apparent absurdity faded and the
matter came out in a new light. At the
present time, provided the plan is not
too broad; the business men are inclin-
ed to get in and boost the plan.
For one thing, the idea has grown
that from now on the business men
of the Territory must give more atten.
tion to politics than they heretofore
have. The last election settled what
ever doubts existed regarding the pos
sibility of the business interests get
ting at least q fair share of what they
might 60 out after. When the fight
began, the outlook for Republican sue
cess was very dark and the business
men were ,implored to rally to the sup
port of the g. o. P. They rallied and
stayed in the fight, with the result
that the Republicans swept the Terri
tory.
Nov, the business men are seeing
that If they, had jumped into the fray
before the primaries they could have
done the same sweeping with candi-
dates Of their own choice, not those
for whom at the last of the campaign
they had to fight.
Throwing the taxing power to the
counties, apparently, is going to do
what has heretofore been impossible,
namely, make the business men do their
political duty in precinct and primary
az well As Rt the ballot box.