The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-11-14


Public Utilities Commission and to
Define its Powers and Duties.
The Public Utilities Commission OF
tn" Territory Of Hawaii yesterday aft.
crnOon, in direct violation Of the laws
OF the Territory, conducted a secret
meeting to consider evidence and hear
testimony regularly introduced in an
announced hearing on a public investi
CATION. The star.chamber session was
held $50 that the subject considered
would not be made matter of public
record"
The hearing was part of the commits,
sion investigation of the Inter Island
steam Navigation COmpany's rates.
me commission conducted its secret
proceedings with the deliberate purpose
or suppressing certain portions of the
report Of the commission 8 specially
employed auditor, H. Gooding Field, on
tn" financial status and methods Of the
company. The result of the executive
session from which the public was
barred was that certain pages of the
financial report were "expunged and
d"lctcd, according to the commission.
crs own statements. In addition, the
report in its entirety was withheld
from the public and placed on secret
file. although the document was later
submitted in evidence and considered
m the taking of testimony
Facts Are Suppressed
The facts suppressed by the commits
SION, the contents Of Auditor Field g
report on which the commission "cov-
cred up, were, as matter of fact,
inadvertently exposed during the pub
lie hearing that followed the secret
session. In n sense, the censored pages
~ the report are practically public
property in so far as interested parties
are concerned.
The commissioners, however, chose to
ignore the third sentence of section five
of Act 80 of the Legislature of 1913,
creating the commission, which reads:
All hearings conducted by the com.
mission shall be open to the public"
Forbes Calls Secret Session
Charles X. Forbes, chairman of the
commission, with the agreement of his
fellow A. j. Gignoux
and William r. Garden, called the Sc
crct session at half past two O'Clock
after the commission had been in pub.
he session. The public hearing was
regularly called to order in the com
mission s board room with l.. j. War
rem, attorney for the Inter Island com
pany; J. l.. Mclean, vice president Of
the company, and Norman r. Gpdge
assistant manager, present as well as
Paul R. Bartlett, attorney for protes-
tants in the proceedings
After a discussion Of figures submit.
ted to show cattle shipments on the
Inter Island steamers, the commission
started to take up the report of Mr..
Field, document for which the tax
payers of Hawaii paid $500 two weeks
ago when the commission voted to nav
t1Cld for eight days work compiling
tn" report. Strenuous objections were
Immediately made by Attorney Warren
t" the consideration of the report. War
rem protested against certain portions
of tn" report being made public.
I'VE have gone over the report"
said Warren, "and there are certtin
matters in il which should not be made
public as they are outside the scope
cannot even refer to these sections of
the report without their being made
public and I would like to 90 over the
matter with the commission informally
before the report is considered pub
hrly.'
Most Important Sections
How far outside the scope of the com.
mission, the subject WAS NAV be qlean.
ed from the fact that in public discus
sion held after the star-chamber seS-
sion, everyone present swerved back
to the "dclrted pages" and all admit.
ted that the "expunged" sections of
the report were the issue on which the
whole subject rcvolved.
"I'll tell you what We II do" said
Chairman Forbes, owe II call half
hour recess Then we can talk over
the matter Of Mr.. Field report in
formally with the Inter Island represeu.
t"tIVes and if we deem it improper TO
make public the report we can with.
hold it,"
so half hour recess was called by
Forbes with the consent of Commits
""n"rs Garden and Gignoux The com
mlssIoners arose, directed their court |
reporter to come along, invited Attor- !
nry Bartlett to accompany them and |
with Mr.. Mclean, Attorney Warren and
Mr.. Gcdge of the Inter Island company
walked ten feet away, sat down to an
other table and resumed their hearing. |
Secret Proceedings On
The star.chamber proceedings were
on. Under the guise of "haIf hour
recess for an informal talk" the pub
lie utilities commission was in secret |
session. There was no attempt TO con
ce"l the fact that the meeting was in |
every way regular hearing, with the
public barred. The court reporter re-.
corded every word of the proceedings,
Mr.. Mclean was the witness; Mr.. |
Field submitted his report. Tho re