The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-03-08
TREASURER AFTER
GREATER REVENUE
Touring Big Island to See Where
More Taxes May Be Fairly
Imposed D z1.l

f..trf .tkE H. ~ aAlS,
(Mail Special TO The Advertiser. y
HILyo, March S. d. L. Conkling,
treasurer of the, Territory; will make a
complete trip around the island, to-
eether with Tax Assessor Forrest, in
erder to look into taxation matters. The
aEst part Of this week he is spending
IN Hilo and the ueighbOTing planta-
sionR
SCI want to see If the Territory can
net raise some money at home instead
Of going East for it," said Mr.. Conk.
ling. ''T feel certain that it Is not get
ting anything like the value it should
frOm taxes, and it is to remedy this
: state of affairs that 1 am doing this
work. The, total assessed value for the
seatire groupis only $3.50, ooO,O 900. That
h for all property. The annual returns
from the sugar industry, alone is $780,.
100000 1t is certainly only reasonable
chat when one industry-though we ad.
init that it is practically the. only
very important one-pays in a year
sone-third of the entire valuation Of all
tho property in the group, that that
valuation is far too low. However, we
do not intend to be radical. We in.
ttsnJ to raise the assessments, Of course,
where such should be raised, but we
will try to avoid friction as much as
I'VE can. On the other hand, where we
flnd that our assessments are too high,
wc will lower them.
Cane Town Lots,
"I was around Puueo yesterday
(Sunday),n continued the treasurer.
"There saw a condition which inter
ested me. There were many acres of
cane land, right in the residence quar-
Ter which are now being taxed only as
cane land, at say $40 an acre, while
right next to it is residence land which
has to pay on a valuation as such, pos
Sibly on several thousand dollars an
acre. Now, if the land which is used
for residence purposes is worth cou-
pie of thousand dollars an acre, the
Land next to it, which is as good for
residences, and which could be dispos.
ed Of for such should be assessed as
much
81 s Vacant Properties.
81 also see that there is much vacant
property abo1t the town, some of which
has in the past been paying taxes on
very low assessments, and this matter
wo will also look into. / think Nj.
Forrest is very efficient and conscien-
tious ASSESSOR, and hope that in this
work he will have the support of the
community, even though some of the
members thereof may get their taxes
raised. All we are trying to- do is to
get q fair valuation for all, and to make
the big fellow pay as much in proper
GIon to his holdings as the small fellow
has to pay for his. The progress of a
community is retarded where the hold
ers of valuable property hold it for q
rise in values, without paying thereon
the tax which the value of such prop
c-ty warrants. In such cases it will be
possible to assess on the unearned in
crement basis.
After More Revenue.
"I intend to make q trip around the
entire island, visiting all the planta-
tions, as well as other property. / will
also take look at the cattle ranches,
for / suspect that some of these are
not paying as high taxes as they should.
SON the whole, while the intention
of this trip is to secure a greater reve-
nue. from taxes, we intend to be as
conservative as we may, and we will
try to avoid antagonism as much as
possible. We will do all we can to be
absolutely fair to every one, and will
be as willing to lower assessments,
where circumstances warrant it, as we
are to raise them. 1 expect that there
will be a number of tax appeals this
year, but l think that it will be rather
a good thing if there are. We intend
to take such cases into the courts, and
to fight them right out there. If we
win, the Territory is that much ahead,
and If we do not, there is nothing more
TO be said"