Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-10-07
DrMdgery is as necessary to call out the treas
ures Of the mind, as narrowing anil planting
those of the edrth.-Margaret Fuller. Il
THE TERRITORIAL ROAD THEORY.


The wisdom Of the territorial road scheme
proposed by the Civic Convention is open to
question-not so much because Of its theory
as because practical experience has shown the
difficulty of dividing road construction respon,
sibilities between the territory and the counties
and achieving effective results
The belt-road construction plan evolved in
1911 and put into operation shortly after the
legislative session of that year was splendid
in theory and unfortunate in practice. Some
good roads and some bad roads were built
under this system and in almost every instance
the cost was greater than it would have been
if the authority had been put under an efficient
county organization.
The faults in the belt-road plan of 1911 were
soon discovered by the loan-fund commission
for Oahu, created to look after expenditures
under the special loan-fund. Road construc-
ton was the biggest item entrusted to the re-
sponsibility of these commissions, the building
Of schoolhouses and conrthouses being of minor
financial Importance.
To look after its road construction, the com
mission had to create an entire organization,
ing organization or the department of public
works Overhead expenses at once began to
mount. Nor was the new plan convenient
way Of doing business. The FIVE members of
the Oahu commission included the mayor and
the chairman of the city streets committee,
serving ex-officio, the superintendent of public
works, serving ex-officio, and two members apa
pointed at large by the governor From the
beginning difficulties were met in transactingI
routine business in a businesslike way. Yards
and yards Of red tape surrounded such simple
matters as signing Of contracts and filing of
bonds. The new system soon proved itself
cumbersome and nnwieldy, and worst of all,
il did not guarantee good road construction.
Oahu has secured one fine stretch of road under
this pian-the Kipapa Gulch- Waialua Hill
highway hut the belt~road on windward Oahu,
from one cause or another, not only cost the
contractor big sum, burying his profits out
of sight, but has suffered under heavy traffic
until today it is a mighty poor road to have
cost $4,000 mile.
From the other islands reports came in that
the new system proved costly and cumbersome
and failed by far to build the amount of roads
expected
Such has been Hawaii experience with a
system Of divided authority between the terri
tory and the county in road construction While
the plan proposed at Waikiki is greatly differ
ent from the loan-fund plan, the fundamental
feature of division of authority between the
territory and the county. is similar. We dol
not say that the new plan is i1npracticable; vel
do say that the legislature should not adopt
It without giving it the most careful thought
If the counties are to be given the taxing
power, as is suggested in political platforms
and favored by experienced Legislators, there
will be less call for road construction at the |
expense of the territory. In any event, the
plan for shifting responsibility for new roads
to the territory is not step toward building
up county government in Hawaii.
In this territory each island is a county unto
itself The estate highway" idea, natural
enough where main travelled road runs
through county after county from one boun
Diary of state to the other, is not essentially
applicable here An insistence on efficient
county government will do much to take
Hawaii's road-building out of local politics
which is, after all, at the basis of much of the
territorial highway theory
The ban suddenly placed on all wireless war