Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-17
ROAD PROBLEM
THRESHED OUT AT
.MAYOR'SBANQUET
Views Exchanged BY Various
County Officials at Get
Together Meeting

Representative of the county gov
ernments OF Hawaii, Maui, Kauai and
Oahu were the guests of Mayor Joseph
J Fern at an informal get-together
banquet at the Young hotel Saturday
evening, the occasion serving as the
official welcome of Mayor Fern to the
visiting officials. lnterspersing the
enjoya Bile dinner practical talks de-
signed TO serve as an exchange OF
views on pertinent topics and prob
lens confronting the counties OF the
territory, were given.
The road problem dominated the
session What the other islands had
done. were tryin- to do and hoped to
was presented in clarifying form.
While far from technical, the discus
sions backed by experience, served
TO throw light on many puzzling ques-
tons.
The keynote OF the discussion
seemed to be that the time had come
when political considerations were to
! be discarded for the more practical
motto OF giving the people their
moneys worth" a sentiment vOuCh-
safed by Supervisor Drummond OF
! Maui and Endorsed by subsequent
speakers, who voiced the hope that
hereafter cooperation on the part OF
supervisors, press and public would
result in material results.
Coming as surprise to the Oahu su.
pervisors was the declaration Of SUI
] pervisor Drummond of Maui, Super
! visor Kauhane and Engineer Nor
agne of Kauai that the Oahu roads
we're not nearly as bad as the other
| island citizens had been led to be-
| lieve by the volubIe expression of
public sentiment to that effect. In
fact, Mr.. Kaunane and Mr.. Moragne
congratulated the Oahu officials on the
success of their tasks in view Of the
conditions that have developed.
In this connection it was brought
out that roads built some 10 years
ago had not been constructed to meet
the heavy traffic as it has developed
today because such traffic then did
not loom up as probability. How
ever, in the light of such experience,
! many valuable lessons had been learn
! ed and with this knowledge as basis
! Oahu was going ahead with its new
road program just as soon as the tax
revenue made possible by the action
of the last legislature would be ap-
pIicable to road improvement which
will be next summer.
Similar ideas were expressed by
Mayor Fern, Supervisors Charles n.
Arnold and Mcclellan.
Mr.. Arnold voiced the belief that If
Oahu is to have perfect roads, the
only step open in regard to certain
highways is their entire reconstruction
with q view to laying a concrete base
heavy enough to Withstand the pres
sure of present day traffic of heavy
trucks and tractors and until the
money for such program was at
hand, only an imperfect effort could
be made to keep them in passable
condition.
w. r. Harrington gave Endorsement
to the necessity of cooperation and
the elimination of partisan politics
that the work Of government should
rebound to the welfare of the public
and the territory.
Other speakers were D. L. Conkling,
city treasurer, who spoke of municipal
finances; Supervisor E. A. Mott-Smith,
good naturally, who cajoled the press
for its criticisms; R. o. Matheson,
editor of the Advertiser.
Others present were Supervisors
Lester Petrie, William AHA, Ben Hol-
linger. Charles H. Bellina, and Sheriff
Charles Rose of Oahu; Supervisor A.
NJ. Cabrinha of Hawaii; Palmer
Woods, secretary to Mayor Fern;
Thomas McVeagh, editor the New
Freedom, and r. A. McNally, city edi-
tor of the Star-Bulletin. ...