Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-12-11
IMPROVERS MEET
FOR DISCUSSION
OF Recent LAWS

Acts 81 and 131 Of 1918, the district
improvement laws, formed the subject
of an informing and lively discussion
at the meeting of Liliuokalani school
assembly hall, Kaimuki, held Jast night
under a call of the local Improvement
club. Probably owing chiefly to show
ers about the hour CT meeting, the at
tendance was not large and would
have been smaller stnl were it not for
the presence Of a delegation from
Manoa, the suburb that has taken the
lead In efforts to bring the street i'm
proyement measure into operation.
President j. H. Fiddes of Waialae,
Kaimuki and Palolo Improvement
Club was in the chair.
R. r. Reidford OF Manoa, the first
speaker, gave concise and lucid ex-
position of Act 18I, saying at the cut
set that the Smeasure had suffered more
in popular Iesteem from being tagged
as the frontage ftRT law than from
any other cause FIr his opinion the
better the law wa aIhfsrstoodS the
more did it win public favor. The as.
sessment OF the property benefited by
street improFemanb;ahea maintained,
was an investment rather than a tax,
and this law gave the speople good
streets wheRs they wanted them and
paid for them. If made under the gem
eral revenue the peoplagMould nave
to pay for them anywaysbut the good
streets would be Aongaaime coming.
He argued i'm ifaysgfnf making the as
ssssments hyi area as theilaWe made
Optional, rather than by frontage. One
reason for, sthe ,,prefanenees was the
peculiarly irregular boundaries Of land
holdings in many sections of Homo
lulu. Mr.. Reidfprd gave /, examples
from personal knowledge of the sue
cess of systems OF assessment OF prop.
erty benefited to pay for its improve
ment in Pacific coast cities.
Daniel Logan, superintendent, CT.
fered some ideas ON the gmethod OF
assessing the property Be14fted. So
as to make the leyies equable ana
meet the difficulty OF treating main
arteries of traffic. He favored area
In preference to frontage assessment.
After giving some data regarding the
good, roads movement on the main
land and in Europe, he appealed to
kaimuki people to take advantage of
the improvement measures in ques-
ton. He pointed out that these laws
had received stronger ratification from
the people than most Innovations ever
enacted in Hawaii. They were in the
platform of the Democratic party
when 1t won its signal victory of two
years ago, and In that of the Republi-
can party when it made its clean
sweep this year-the Democrats on
the latter occasion making a special
issue Of the question by attacking
these laws Of their own creation.
A. +. Clark produced. statistics of
road expenditures. for several years
past and contended for the frontage
against the area tax. saying that the
former had almost universally. dis
placed the latter In mainland cities.
The discussion was continued by
w. L. Howard, Ed Towse, Supervisor
elect William Larsen H. S. Johnson,
OF Manoa, Superintendent of Public
Works G. r. Forbes and L. }. Warren
of Manoa. A. F. Cooke, John F. Grae-
Illus and others added interest to the
debates by apt questions to different
speakers. .-
Mr.. Forbes made diversion by ad-
yocating the delimitation of city bonds
and placing all the roads outside
thereof under the territory. The
trouble with your roads is too much
politics" he said in replying to a ques-