Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-07-14

county OF Honolulu, between the
garbage department. In 1906 the sum
of S23, 569 was expended to maintain
this branch of the local government
! against $24,140 in 1913, or an increase
, of only 2 per cent, as against the in
crease in population of Honolulu of
80 per cent. the comparison of op-
Grating expenses of the office Of 'coun-
ty physician, by years, from 1910 to
1918, is difficult one, as number
of duties have been added since the
former year, although it might be
stated that the cost of operation has
been equitably proportioned.
Man With Pick and Shovel Blamed
for Extravaganza.
The statement has been repeatedly
made to me, both on Hawaii and
Oahu, that by far the greater per-
centage of waste in the handling of
our public funds would be found in
road expenditures; that is to say that
the men whal had worked on the
roads had shirked their work to such
an extent that the maintenance and
other road OUTLAWS had brought COM
paratively small returns. This is a
very poor excuse to saddle the bur-
den of waste on the man with the
pick and shovel. The truth of the
matter is that after all claims for
exploiting the. public treasury have
been provided for, the remainder has
been set aside to meet the all-import-
ant question n of road betterments,
and the iaborer is then blamed for
not performing miracles of strategy
at dollar and half to two dollars
a day.. s@ =
loading up Of Overhead Charges.
There is no gainsaying the fact that
dueieto this systematic loading up of
overhead charges, our roads are now
in such a condition that mere patch
ing will not suffice to hold them to-
gether; the result is that we shall be
called upon; sin the very near future,
to replace them with new cOnstruc-
ton at very considerable cost. We
are running our local government on
the hit or miss plan, with the misses
far outnumbering the hits. No at
tempt has been made to compare the
cost of operation of departmental
units with results obtained, and, con.
sequently, there never has been any
equitable distribution Of expenses OF
overhead charges. Those VINO are re-
sponsible for the disbursing of our
public funds are not expected to man.
age the business of the people on Il
dividend paying basis, but the taxpay-
ers, il they appreciate their rights,
should insist on a reasonable return
for expenditures made. Unlike trad
to- Rif RslT lnf
seek remedy in bankruptcy court
for abuses in the management OF
their affairs, and the burden of ex-
trayaeance must inevitably rest on
the shoulders of the taxpayers.
Public Financial and Administrative
Problems Similar.
While the financial problem and
the operative policy of municipal
corporation differ widely from those
of private corporation, the admins
trative problem is the same. The
same sort of judgments must be
made The same considerations are
before the superintendent of mum.
Cipal water works as confront the SUI
perintendent of a private water
works. The same is true of the man
agement of schools, hospitals, fire
stations, repair shops, construction,
the cleaning of Streets, etc, etc. The
heads of departments in our county
governments have been charged with
the executive direction of diverse.
technical and complex branches of
business, with little or NO provision
for current knowledge of detail or OF !
results. Boards have been respon.
sible for granting appropriations |
forming themselves with respect to !
corporate needs. Auditors have been !
auditing claims without evidence !
to prove their business and |
TO supervise the fiscal concerns OF /
our public corporation without the |
of official intelligence ,
which have been found to be absO
lutely necessary TO the, exercise OF !
official discretion in private business.
To make the experience growing out
of the operations OF a municipality !
of the greatest possible value as a
basis for efficient administration, 1t
should be collected. classified and
in such manner that re.
suits may be readily available to a
busy man. We are absolutely with
out any such information in any of
our branches of government in this
territory.
Eanner Year in Hawaii 1907.
In the county of Hawaii, after had
o classified the annual costs of oper- J
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