The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-01-10
.GERE IN CHARGE
OF ROAD WORK
Supervisors Refuse to Confirm
WilsOn-Warm Tits With
Mayor.
FrOm saturdays Advertiser,

i With the non-confrmation of John
II. Wilson, the mayors appointee as
road supervisor, came the announce.
ment at last night s session of the
board of supervisors that the road work
all over the island will be handled in
future under the direction of the city
engineer, Giles H. Gere, just appointed
as such by the mayor and approved by
the board.
The announcement came after sharp
tilt between II. h. Murray, leader Of
the Republican wing on one side, and
the mayor and Supervisor Mcclellan on
the other. The Republican delegation
of six voted against the confirmation
of Wilson, and the work, as far as the
board is concerned, will be placed under
the department headed by Mr.. Gere.
The meeting was conducted with snap
and businesslike methods and all work
was finished by nine o clock. This in
cluded the passage of three months
budget amounting to $136.9S6.5O, the
complete report being published in the
''By Authority column of this issue.
This passed unanimously.
The Real Interest.
The unfinished business, which COM
prised the real interest of the meeting,
was brought up with Mayor Fern s APP
pointments of the road supervisor for
Honolulu and the road overseers for the
outer districts.
Murray moved that the appointment
of John II. Wilson as road supervisor
be not confirmed.
The mayor asked if there was any
reason why Wilson should not be con-
firmed. He considered him eminently
fitted to hold the job. Murray felt
that the position should be in the hands
of some one more responsible and that
it should be in the hands of the city
engineer.
Mcclellan said that one of the Re-
publican members said the non-confrm-
alton was due to a desire for economy.
He said he believed it was politics.
That was the whole thing in nutshell.
There had always been a road super.
visor and an engineer for five years.
He did not believe there had ever been
3 conflict of authority between the su
pervisOr and the engineer. The only
conflict came from the former chairman
of the road committee, who had butted
in on the road supervisors IS work and
hampered his duties. Gere had all the
work he could attend to on the rest of
the island, and had the care of schools
besides.
"This is being done to pay a political
debit said Mcclellan, who announced
that he did not propose to be a party
to any such move.
Wilson Turned Down.
Low was rather surprised at the at
titude of Mr. Mcclellan when he said
there was politics in the motion not to
confirm. If that was the case then the
mayor and Mcclellan should cut out
Wilson at once. Gere did not play
politics. He was an efficient man. 1t
was a mistake to charge the Repub-
licans with dabbling in politics.
The mayor had a few more words to
say in defense of his appointment, but
the supervisors failed to confirm on a
vote of six to one.
| The same action was moved in the
appointment of John De Fries as road
overseer for EVA Murray moved it
ON the ground that the mayor had re-
moved Travis, an efficient man. The
mayor said things had been going on
with the former man (Travis), and that
was his reason for removing him.
Murray replied that the supervisors
had .looked into the matter very thor
oughly, and Low then asked; "What
things have been going on9" If there
was any inefficiency, then he would vote
to have a man out.
Some of the ''Things,"
The mayor then stated that among
some of the "things" was one incident
when Travis had used the government
mules to bring voters from Kipapa to
Pearl City and take them back again,
the occasion being political meeting.
4 He said he had spoken to Travis about
it and Travis retorted.
Il Murray retorted by calling attention
to Wilson attending political meetings
and having his men in tOrchlight pro-
cessions. That also was politics, when
it came down to cases. However, the
matter was deferred until the next
meeting to investigate the mayor IS
charges.
r. L. Gilliland, for Waianae; r. w.
Holt, for Waialua, and Moses Akawa,
for KoolaupoBo, were not confirmed as
, road overseers. Andrew Adams for
\ KoOlauloa and George Chalmers for
j, Waimanalo were confirmed These lat
ter two serve without pay, and both
, are managers of plantations.
Action on all the parkkeepers and
school ianitors was deferred.
n On motion of Murray the clerk was
/, instructed to call for three months ten