The Hawaiian gazette., 1914-04-10
H4O S0[DNs SEE
NEED Of REFORM
Big Island Lawmakers Seriously
Discuss Necessity Of Reducing
Expense Of Government.
lMaIl speeIal % The Adyertiaer. }

close when this community must take
OF its. collective bonnet In respect for
the beard of supervisors, for the golden
age appears to DO at hand when this
county viii be run as economically II
is possible TO run political organiza
tion. Necessity for economy was the
stern tsaeher, but the supervisors have
taken seriOhsly their task of meeting
the decreased revenue, caused by the
reduction IN the tax income, and they
are well on their way towards devising
q scheme which, while IL viii be hard
on some county employees, will on the
/ whole bring tue county nearer that
business basis, which has seemed nm.
attainabie.
The situation is, briefly, that the
overhead running expenses of the
county, including salaries, court ex-
! pehsos and the like, must be reduced
from about $4,000 month TO about
1 10000 n month. As about $4,000 is
represented by salaries which are fixed
by law and cannot be cut, the problem
/ is TO reduce the total OF $4,000 for the
other salaries to $4,000. In other words
cut Of about $4,000 must be made in
salaries.
Yates to Rescue. M
1t was natural that, while most Of
the supervisors were earnest enough in
their desire TO have the job done, there
was no great eagerness to be the first
TO tackle II. Much credit is therefore
due to Julian Yates, the youngest mem
Der, who volunteered TO tackle the mat
ter Of making an estimate Of cuts, and
who did this single,handed, showing a
courage and attention TO duty which
should be remembered TO his credit for
many years to come.
Yates submitted his scheme to the
supervisors at the Friday afternoon SEES
sion, and moved that IL be taken up
in committee Of the whole.
"But this omits the park keepers,''
said Ewaliko.
eyes, we have to cut them out, as
well as the band, = replied Yates.
| But you must have some \ne to
iook after tho parks, argued Ewaliko.
'You can't cut out the park keepers"
1--WE have lots Of prisoners, retort-
| I'd Yates.
| Ewaliko accused Yates of having cut
he salaries of Hilo police officers more
than those of Kona, but Yates was able
to prove that the cuts had been made
On exactly the same basis everywhere.
:. / am sorry that there should be any
words in this natter said Lyman.
HThe supervisors are not TO blame. We
ave been notified that we win get
100000 less for the next nine months
Than we had estimated. We figured
/ that we will have only 10000 month
or running expenses, and, unfortunate
| ", salaries, court expenses and the
like, which have been fixed by law, and
which we cannot touch, amount to over
$4,000, leaving us less than $4,000 for
The rest of the running expenses. We
must all get together and not accuse
each other Of partiality.p 1889
\ 81 am for retrenehment, said Eva.
hko. But we must have JUSTICE
| The Yates scheme was referred 70 the
finance committee, but the following
morning IL was found that the law
| relating TO the distribution between the
\ Territory and the county of certain
funds was SO complicated that none Of
the wise men could understand its in
| tricacies, 50 the board decided to send
Deputy County Attorney Heen to Homo
lulu to confer with the territorial ah
thoTities relative TO the construction Of
4 the law.
A resolution, by Ewaliko, was adopt
ed providing that all May salaries
should continue on the April basis. The
board will meet when Heen returns
next Saturday, when the cuts will be
effected, but as they will then be foi
eight months instead Of spread over
nine, the size of the cuts must be
larger than ever. tE.NtH... D..
The Yates scheme seems satisfactory
to the other members, or at least 10
| a majority of them, as far as il goes
! Chairman Kauhane of the finance com
] mittee, when asked IL he favored it
Il said that the committee must favor IL
i in the main, as 10 was impossible Il
| get away from the necessity for a sub
stantial cut. There might be some
changes in the minor details, however
\ Further Reductions Necessary.
/ The Yates scheme, sweeping us Il
seems, is, however, far from sweeping
enough, and 1t will be necessary 4
4 make further reductions. Yates has cht
salaries totaling $93O7.4S down Il
S74349s, but it will be necessary Il
lop of about $4,000 more, he says, be
/ fore the salaries will be in proportion
TO the funds with which they are u
be paid. 1t has been suggested by some
Of the supervisors that among the jobs
which can be deleted are those of Doc
tor Potter of Ksu, Of Water Work,
4 Clerk Harry Hapai, whose work of col
lecting water rates will then be trans
ferTed to the treasurer's Office, and
4 some police officers.
] The supervisors last week adopted
several resolutions which will tend to,
wards far better county administration
\ A resolution by Ewaliko provides that
the treasurer and the auditor must com,
pare their reports before each super
visorial meeting. ~ ~:
Their reports will then be more reli,
able, - explained Ewpliko. elm the
past they have not jibed at all, and
the supervisors have never been able TO
| tell how they stood" r&
~ favor the resolution, but we have
passed some like it before, and We have
never been able to get them enforced, "
said Lyman. cat the last meeting a