The Hawaiian gazette., 1913-07-11
Labor Pay Rolls Furnish Inter
esting Data for Expert
Gooding Field.
(Mail Special to The Adyertiscr.)

Gooding Field.
(Mail Special to The Advertiscr.)
HlL0, July Most tragedies con
tain some element of grim humor, and
the county graft scandal is no exccp.
tion. Last week Expert Gooding Field
unearthed an incident which is dclici.
Gus. Incidentally il is of value as it
shows in the most graphic manner pos.
sible the difference between an ordinary
commercial audit and that conducted
by a municipal expert.
The instance in question owes it orr
gin to North Hilo and concerns the la
Dor pay roll for January for that dis
trict. This pay roll, for the period
from January until January q to be
exact, was ISSUED as per the ."labor
pay roll Demands which were turned
into the county office by Road Super
visor James NATION, and bore the o.
X. of Supervisor John Kealoha.
On the basis of the pay roll, which
was approved by the board of super
visors and passed through the regular
routine in good order, were issued war.
the crucial one in all this road invcsti-
CATION. Every thing in the county of.
flee in this particular connection is, gen
orally speaking, all right. There you
have the labor pay roll, as it was turn
ed in by the road supervisor, and it
can be followed right Through its pro.
gress through the county clerk IS office,
to the board of supervisors, to the fin.
ance committee, back to the supervisors,
to the auditor, through the warrants
Used on the basis of the pay roll by
the auditor.
Books Look Well ON Surface.
Now in the past all audts which
have been made by the county AMI by
the Territory, not excepting the special
audit made through the valuable efforts
of the senate holdover committee, have
satisfied themselves with examining
these records which are on file in the
county Offices. They are in very fine or
der indeed, and they have been given
a clean bill of health.
But here is where the difference be-
tween commercial audit and mum.
cipal audit comes in. Field was not
satisfied with the apparent order which
prevailed. He went back of the official
labor pay roll demands which had been
turned over by the road supervisors.
He went back to the timebooks kept
by the lunas who took the time of the
road laborers. And right there was the
secret of the whole thing. The time
books very often showed less time for
individual men than was credited to
their names on the pay roll. That is the
crux of the situation. Other interesting
factors enter and to some extent com.
plicate it, but that is the kernel
This explanation has seemed noccs-
sary in order to make clear the wonder
of the CLEAN of humor which Field
found in the darksome mass of trouble
in which he was immersed.
He found that the January pay roll
referred to above had been taken by
the officials of the Audit Company OF
Hawaii, while it was conducting its in
vestigation here, and that the officials
of that company had, in propria per
soma, paid Off the laborers from this
pay roll.
Field Makes Inquiries.
Field made inquiries and learned that
the investigating auditor, as well as
County Auditor Mcguire and Treasurer
Swain had made a two day trip into the
country to see just how the road men
were paid. To make certain, they paid
them off themselves, although Swain
claims that he went along merely in
the modest capacity of Hawaiian in.
terpreter.
The pay roll in question contains sew
eral items where the pay given the
men exceeds that which the timebooks
credit them with having earned. As a
matter of fact, Swain has told Field
that some of the laborers said they
were getting more than was coming to
them, and others exhibited very mark.
ed Joy. on receiving the amounts handed
them. He says that this was on the
first day. On the second day the men
took their good fortune more stoically.
Possibly the glad tidings had had time
to spread over the land by that time
That the members of the expedition
had interesting data placed right under
their nose, is shown by the fact that
they made some Illuminating notes
right on the pay roll from which they
were paying of the men.
Thus the pay roll contains the name.
of three men, one right under the 9th
err, and opposite these names is written
in pencil; F" Not signed. Says rate $3.50
per day"
And in spite of that showing the OK
petition merrily insisted on paying
these men the $3.50 a day which tn,
pay roll had them down for.
Outside another of the names on thi,
pay roll is found the note: Says work
ed FIVE days.
And yet the fairy godmother commit
tee insisted on hsnding this modest Ia
borer six days pay, because the pay
roll claimed that he had that much
coming to him.