The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-04-11

!. IN LIMELIGHT.
FAIRCHuD LEADS ATTACK IN
SENATE ON LAND AND
WATER POLICY.

(From Sundays Advertiser.)
Riparian rights and r6munerations
formed little bombshell dropped IN
expeetedly into the deliberations of the
senate yesterday morning, when Fair
child led bitter but brilliant hght
against the land policies of the Terri !
tory and what at present appears to be
an extremely foolish, If not worse,
handling of the water properties Of the
people.
tairchild has long been looking for
opportunity to enter the wedge with
w'lieh he intends to reopen the entire
land question and impress on the public
what he believes to be a ''blufiH on
the part of the government and others
concerning homesteading and relative
matters. This opportunity he seized
yesterday, when kaleiopu moved an APP
parently irrelevant amendment to the
appropriation bill which was at that
moment under discussion, preliminary
to passing it at third reading.
Kaleiopu IS motion was to cut down
the expense allowance of the public
lands department from over twenty
thousand to $4,000, this amendment
in turn being amended by Quinn to
read $4,000. The money thus saved
was quickly moved by Hewitt to be
added to the expense allowance of the
surveyors department. The chair, be-
ing presented with three motions to
put, never got chance to put any of
them, but will find them still before it
tomorrow morning.
After discussion on this point had
waxed to healthy dimensions, President
Knudsen sent the sergeant-at-arms after
Surveyor Wall, and Wallis appearance
was afterwards followed by that of the
superintendent of public works, who,
however, did not arrive in time to take
part in the discussion.
Hewitt asked the surveyor if it was
not true that he was compelled to lay
1 aside large quantity of work for rea-
son of a lack of funds, and Wall stated
that in some cases it was. Fairchild
then arose, and remarking that his COM
ing question was probably not ger
main, asked Wall if his department
had ever measured the water flow of
streams.
Wall answered that his department
had several times done so at the re.
quest Of the superintendent of public
works, but that it was not practise
He added that the department was
qualified to do so if it became neces'
sary.
Lack of Data.
Fairchild then spoke angrily on the
lack of information and data in the
government archives relating to the
flow and measurement of waters being
leased from the Territory. He stated
that Of the twenty-five or more water
leases at present in existence the gov
ernment did not have any knowledge
! of any one of them. He called atten
! ton further to the fact that these
water rights, which were being peddleC
out to plantations, were the most val
liable assets of the Territory, and thai
it had never taken the trouble to place
the distribution of its waters on {
lbusinesslike basis, being content to give
them all to the corporate interests foi
the asking, without troubling itself Il
determine their value.
He stated that he was in favor o.
giving the surveyor all the money tha'
was needed, and would vote for any
; sum, providing it was found that it wa
needed, but that he did not see VIII,
the senate or the legislature as a who'll
should give anybody any money jus
: because he happened to ask for it. HI
r added that he considered the body o.
r which he was member the director
! of a corporation, upon which rested tn,
) obligation Of seeing that for all tn,
money which was expended the Terri
} tory got an equitable return.
Although his argument was neve
: permitted to get to the point wheri
/. he demanded that the intended increas,
r of the surveyors allowance should b,
granted on condition that it was to bt
> expended in large part in measuring
the flow of streams, his entire argumen
r was for that purpose.
The Homestead ''Fake."
Afterwards he branched off bitterI,
! into the homestead question, which h,
referred to as "fake.p
He is planning his fight in the senate
, which is 10 come ON his land bill, on til,
, basis of a claim that the Territor,
must either go to Washington now aul
admit that its homesteading f'gabb @. f,
as he referred TO it yesterday, was
bluff. or ii would have to 90 late
: to make The confession.
"Roundabout Grabbing"
In an interview he claimed that thu
Opposition on the part of number O.
/, the planters already manifested to
wards his land bill is the result of
: tortuous policy to obtain land at rat,
: they believed would be far cheaper thar
! a direct acquisition. He referred to tn,
notorious habit of homesteading for til,
sake of selling the land 80 secured Il
the plantations, he commencing his at
tack on this procedure yesterday OF
I the floor Of the senate when he referred
to Hawaii's fake homestead gable. ,
Those planters, he asserts who hav,
come out directly for the bill. are thos,
| who have realized that the plantation
could do better bY the more open AM