The Hawaiian gazette., 1917-03-30
|. A. Thurston Appears Before
Committee Of Senate In
Behalf Of Measure
EXPLAINS NEED OF SUCH
ACT FOR ISLAND HIGHWAYS
Sense Of Meeting Appears To Be
In Favor Of Adoption Of the
Principles OF Bill


senator Baldwin's good roads bill
was eIpounded, criticised and defend
ed yesterday afternoon in an open
bearing Of the senate judiciary com
mittee Senator Castle, ehairman), be
fore an audience consisting Of the
mayor, the treasurer of the Territory,
the city engineer, a number of the su'
pervisors, majority. of the senators,
and many interested citizens.
l.. A. Thurston explained the intent
and meaning Of the bill, and Mayor
Lane, Supervisors Hollinger and Logan,
and w. T. Garden, deputy city attor'
ney. inquired into its provisions and
demurred at some Of what they heard
Chairman Castle endeavored to hold
the discussion TO the general principles
involved, leaving the committee TO deal
later with technicalities and details.
On the whole, the sense of the meet
ing seemed to favor the purpose of the
bin, but there was dissent from GER
tain Of its provisions. by several Of
the speakers, particularly from Super
visor Logan and Deputy Garden.
Further hearings will be conducted, to
be announced later. 50,
Thurston Explains ".
MT. Thurston explained how he had
introduced the bill that resulted in the
Volcano road; how he was responible
for the first maeadam road built IN
Kona, Hawaii; how he had watched the
development and disintegration of good
roads over the entire Territory for the
last thirty-fye years; how the present
aim had been shaped by a committee
of the civic convention, consisting OF
the county engineers Of Hawaii and
Mani. Representative Clarence Cooke,
senator Single, and himself; and
what he believed was its central idea
"The central idea animating this
hin he said, els that some roads are
pnrely local and some are essentially
general Take the road that leads ofi
the belt around Hawaii 10 Senator
Kinds house; that is purely local
road; il is travelled only by those that
live on IT,. -
nNext to that road, Senator Hind
probably takes more interest in the
belt road than in any other on the isl
and, yet it may be that he takes no
more interest in 1t than J., who hive
here. 49,. ....
snow. this road of general service
trayerses for long stretches sparsely
settled country, and is in wretched re
pair. You risk broken spring every
time you travel II. Yet il il ever il
10 be repaired II cannot be by the
property owners whose land adjoins it
The money isn't there. IL
Use Volcano Road ~,
stAnother instance. Some time ag'
took the trouble TO count the namei
Of the guests registered at the Volcano
HOUSE from the first of January, 1916
up 20 the week Of my visit, in tn
spring of the same year. There wa
6000 names on the register, and O
those more than half were from Homo
lulu. ] venture to say that we of Ho
nolulu use the Volcano road more thai
any other city save Hilo, yet the traffi
and wear to which it is subjected ar
no heavy that HilO has not the funds t
care for IL and we contribute nOthinI
TO its support. ...&,ri
t'We talk of the terrible storm W
had here a few weeks ago, when THU
teen inches of rain fell in twenty-fou
hours. Why, that s nothing in Hilo, Nv
known IL to rain twenty.four inches 4
twenty.fOur hours in HilO and eight
inches in eight days on the Hamaku
coast Those are the conditions tina
Hilo and Hawaii have to contend wit
in maintaining good roads. ...s IA,
Now if there are these two classe
Of roads, general and local, how are W
10 decide which are local and whic
Reneralf And how shall we decide VIII
shall have the spending of the money
Patterned on Classic Law
f'This bill is patterned on the MAJ
sachusetts statute, a parent law whie
has been followed in principle by ;
other States and adopted by III
Highway u Good !, Roads Association
with Headquarters AT Washington
That bill ahitfuPon, the expedient
allowing the different counties 10 d.
termine for themselves which wei
gene raj and which were local roads,
f'That IL to say, If a county wishe
20 build and maintain all its ow
roads, well and good, but if it sougl
aid from the central government, VIII
then the central government had re-
resentation in the building and mai
fenAnee Of that road. '.
s.FQr the first few years after II
bin plllJ4dl TIE Massac husetts counti
were extremely suspicious, and held 9
from asking for assistance, but now
am told the commission is fair
spamped out with applications.
Such suspicion, the speaker co
tinued, he felt had been inherited no
from the days Of revolt against CO
tralized government. The sentime
for home rule was proper one, j
herent ia the Anglo-Saxon form
government but he believed IL WI
met by the provision of the bill viii,
left the initiative in the hands Of ii
counties. If they didn 7 wish aid,
Was not forthcoming until they ask
IL, but If it was asked, then the