The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-05-05
RAPID TRANSlPS !.
AMENDEDCHARTER
ALMOST COMPLETE
Final Meeting Will Be Held In
Senate Chamber This
Evening
UTILITIES COMMISSIONERS
THRASHlNG OUT DETAILS
Question Of citys Share and Of
Stock Issues still Are
Unsettled

The final meeting on the proposed
amendments to the Rapid Transit char
ter will be held tonight az half-past
seven O'Clock before the public utili-
ties commission in the senate chamber.
This meeting, as has been all the Others,
will be open for the public which Is In.
vited TO attend. a., "a. .
There was a long conference on the
amendments yesterday afternoon, at
which were present the committee from
the supervisors with the deputy city
attorney, the attorneys for the Rapid
Transit, the public utilities commits
sioners, and their attorney. Chairman.
Forbes, Intercepted, the attorneys for
the railroad and the deputy city attor1
ney on their ideas regarding the pro-
posed amendments. A draft of an
amendment dealing with the power of
the utilities commission to compel ex.
tensions took up a good deal of the
afternoon. ...,.
Pals To Win Approval
The amendment was the work Of the
attorney for the commission, and did
not entirely meet with the approval Of
the attorney for the municipality, who
argued in favor Of the draft made by
himself. Supervisor Hatch who was
present with the committee, suggested
an amendment to the amendment in
which the railroad company would be
virtually guaranteed earnings to make.
an eight per cent dividend possible on
the entire operation Of the road, but
not on any certain extension which,
was put in.
The city attorney doubted If the
amendment showed just what it was
intended to show, and it was decided
that Supervisor Hatch with the attor-
ney for the commission should get to-
gether and redraft the section and
again submit II to the commissi oners
for their consideration.
Attorney Makes Points "
The city attorney had three points
which he brought up for the considera-
tion Of the commissioners. The first
was that the percentage Of the earnings
to be paid to the municipality should,
be on the gross earnings from all sour
ces of income of the railroad, instead
Of from the gross earnings from trans
portation alone. This was fought by
the railroad attorneys, bnt it was ex-'
planned to the commissioners that the
earnings of the company for transpor7
tation might be diverted, if for in
stance there should be another company
started by the Rapid Transit people in
another district than Honolulu. Under
these circumstances the present com
pany would be the owner Of all the
stock of the new company and the
earnings of the new company not being
affected by the terms of the present
proposed charter would be turned into
the Rapid Transit Company as divid.
ends In this way the county would
lose out on its share. In the case of
contract between the Rapid Transit and
the Oahu Railway and Land Company
or any other company for the use by
the Rapid Transit Company of the
tracts of the other, agreements might
be made shutting the city out of it's
share of the earnings Of the Rapid
Transit. ...,-
Limit Stock Issues
The second point which was inquired
into, was the limitation on the power
of the corporation to issue additional
stock. In the opinion of the city at
tOrney this power Affects the per
eentage of income available for de-
vidends, as if the percentage of di-
vidends is low, the company can refuse
to make extensions on the ground that
the dividends. are below the stipulated
eight per cent, and that forcing ex-
tensions would be unreasonable.
The third point made was that unless
the utilities commission is given power
to order an extension whether that
particular extension of itself alone
would be profitable, then the company
could refuse to make that extension.
1t Was shown that the road as q whole
might be paying twenty per cent when
an extension might be ordered. The
extension might be very necessary, but
would not at first pay the eight per
cent wanted by the company. In this
case 1t was suggested by the city at,
tOrney that the new franchise should
be made SO plain that there could be
no doubt that AZ long as the entire
road was paying the eight per cent the
extension must be made II public neees-
sity demanded it; even though it would
not pay at first.
This last objection has in part been
met by the arrangement for a draft of
a section by Supervisor Hatch and the
attorney for the commissioners, in
which the matter will be so plainly
stated that there win be no doubt of
its meaning.