The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-11-28
Utilities Commissioners Extract
Little information But i.
Plenty Of Sparks 7
WARREN AND FIELD AGAIN ]
MEET IN WoRDY CLASHlNGS
Attorney For Inter Island Expects
Examination viii Last For
At Least a Month


tricate and marked by rapid fire ex.
changes of personalities, the public utili.
ty commission hearing in the investiga.
ton of the Inter.Island Steam Naviga.
ton Company yesterday reached the
special auditor, by L. j. Warren, com.
pany attorney, on the financial report
of the company compiled by Field. :
Warren had scarcely started his
questioning of Field before the session
settled to basis Of bitterness, continu,
ing thus until adjournment without ad.
vancing the proceedings a step. -
i want you, Mr.. Warren, to be very
careful in your questions to me, i" was
the ultimatum delivered by Field, an
you don't there will be trouble. Tn,
derstand that"
Previously Warren, in discussion of
another part of the report, had referred
to tkeAgures taken from the company 5
books by Field in making his report as
"cribbed." The use of the word
"cribbed" brought Field to his feet
with q blast of indignant protest that
left him feeling like a fighting. cock the
rest of the hearing. The word was
withdrawn and Chairman Forbes stated
that the commission had called for
everything that Field had included in
his report.
Company officials ouizzed
Earlier in the session, after Auditor
Field had ended being examined on his
report by Forbes, J. L. Mclean, vice
president of the company, found him.
self the target of pointed queries from
Commissioners Garden and Forbes. Most
Of the questions f1oundered into mass,
or rather a mess, of figures and accounts
that will require prodigious digging into
back records on the part of Mclean to
supply the answers.
"Thcse questions" said Warren,
"could come better at the time the
Inter Island makes it's showing. 1t is
hardly to be expected that when cues.
tions are picked from the blue sky and
flung at Mr.. Mclean that he can be
, ready with an instant answer.
owe are wading through figures here
day after day without getting any
where. If what the commission wants
to know is placed squarely before us,
we might quickly clear up the issues.
BY the present process we are going
it blind
Chairman Forbes opened the hearing
by recalling the six questions previous.
ly put to Mclean. OF the answers not
formerly supplied Mclean said:
Prom Their Own Earnings
"The ROn-public utility portions of
the Inter Island 5 business were built
up from themselves, out of their own
earnings not from the earnings of the
transportation business. The revenue
to create Goa, merchandise and dry.
dock busi nesses came from general rev.
cnue. The funds came from surplus
| can t say positively whether or not
any part of this surplus came from the
utility earnings of the business.
The cash dividends of the company
from 1908 to 1916 amounted to 81, 90S,.
600 and the stock dividends to 81 500.
0O0."
The debate then turned to an issue
Of whether or not the .drydoek was part
Of the public utility business of the
company. Forbes, maintained that 1t
is public utility and McI,ea held that
it is not az it was established out of
the non-utlity earnings of the company
and is used to doc other than the com.
pany's steamers.
Gross and Net
flcld presented figures comparing the
gross and net earnings of the steamers
for the last three years as follows:
1913, gross earnings $l,34S,32l44, net
earnings $lO,36S,00; 1914, gross earn.
ings 81 ,253,7774l, net earnings $780,
S72.A; 1918, gross earnings $3.50
lO34b, net earnings $l73,996.73. Total.
ing the gross earnings for three years
&,972,2O2.30, and pointing out the
book value of the steamers $l,423,35l..
10, Commissioner Forbes asked Nc
Lean:
- Is such a large operating expense
consistent with the value of the
steRmersR"
NORplussed, Mclean replied that the
question had no bearing on the figures
under discussion end Attorney Warren
interpOsed:
at is impossible TO answer that
question; the question is unintelligible, /"
The answer, if there could have been
'one was lost, in a tangle of argument
over the propriety of the questioning
in which Warren said:
Profits Not Allied To Rates
The position of the company is that
the commission is delving into figures
that do not concern the Investigation
The commission has before 1t the profits
and the rate of profit of the steamers
and it is Of no concern how much of
this profit went to surplus and how
much to dividends. That is not neces-
sary in relation to rates"
Led by Commissioner Garden, the
discussion then digressed onto the com.
pany 5 method of charging coal mer-
chandise and drydoek facilities-the So
called non.utility enterprises-tO the
operating expenses Of the steamers. Car.
den asked:
what is the difference between the
cost of coal to the Inter. Island and the
price Mt which this coal is sold to the
stPamersf What percentage Of the
amount that you have charged to your
steamers for coal Is profit"