by a coal handling plant; 3 are owned and monopolized by the Navy Department; 7 are owned by the railroad company and reserved primarily for ships having business with it. This leaves 10 for use by the regular steam lines, and also by irregular steamers and sailing vessels. While such use is not always continuous, the calls of such vessels are so frequent as to leave little or no leeway for additional vessels.

The daily expense of operation of an ocean-going steamer of the first class is so great that such a thing as waiting for a wharf at which to operate can not be tolerated. Steamers simply will not go to a port where such conditions exist.

There is shore line along the harbor available for the location of a few more wharves, but this slight addition to wharf room will not materially change conditions. Two more berths can be secured by destroying the marine railway and dredging a 500-foot slip in hard coral. Government has 19-year lease. Construction would be expensive. Two berths can also be made by additional dredging between the Matson and Hackfeld Wharves. There is space along harbor entrance south of channel wharf. Used as a depot by the War Department, and therefore not available for commercial use. Two berths for ocean-going steamers can be secured at the foot of Fort Street by replacing the present short wharves by two long bulkhead berths. This will soon be done.

Lack of wharves with adequate fuel-loading facilites, both for coal and oil, has caused construction of lighters for the purpose. Upon many occasions it is too rough outside the harbor for such lighters to be able to furnish fuel to ships anchored in the outer roadstead. The ships should be able to anchor in still water. This can only be done by extending and enlarging the harbor.

There is no doubt that with the opening of the Panama Canal additional shipping will come to Honolulu. It is reasonable and logical to expect that the normal growth of the commerce of Hawaii for the pat ten years will continue, or at least will not retrograde, and that the anticipated stimulating effect upon other Pacific ports occasioned by the opening of the Panama Canal will produce like results upon the business of Honolulu, the most centrally located port of them all.

This is no new project. The improvement under consideration that is desired and needed is simply a moderate extension of the present harbor of Honolulu, a project long considered and contemplated and merely a logical continuation of the harbor improvement that has been going on for the past 20 years.

In support of this point special attention is called to the agreement entered into between the United States Government and the Oahu Railroad & Land Co. and the Dowsett estate in the year 1902, under which agreement the improvement in question was definitely referred to and made the basis of said agreement, which, in effect, was the surrender by said corporations of their claim to 550 acres of land and tide lands, including the location of said proposed extension of Honolulu Harbor, upon condition that when the extension now under consideration was made it should be constructed in the location now proposed.

Lack of storage room is also a difficulty. There may be several wharves at which no ship is lying, this continuing for several days and still there will be no wharfage room available for business. The reason for this is as follows:

Steamers can in one day unload onto these wharves an amount of freight which will take at least three days to segregate and remove from the wharf.

Under the rules of the harbor board all freight arriving from a domestic port (that is, a port within the United States) has to be removed from the wharf within three days if the cargo is 2.000 tons or under; four days for a 3,000-ton cargo, and one day for each additional 1,000 tons.

Even under these circumstances, although the ship may have remained at the wharf only one day, the wharf is unavailable for another ship for two more days for the reason that it is impossible to have a second ship loading and unloading at a wharf while previous freight still remains, and as there is danger of the two freights being mixed.

In the case of foreign freight a serious condition arises for the reason that the freight can not be removed until all customhouse red tape and procedure has been completed. Generally takes about three days which, added to the three days necessary to remove the freight, makes the wharf unavailable for use by a second ship for five or six days. Considerable shipping increase for the last three years has been caused by the increase of the Army at Honolulu. There is no indication of decrease of this business. On the contrary, it is reported that the Army is to be increased in Oahu.

Whereupon, at 3.30 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned.

O

HEARINGS

ON THE SUBJECT
OF THE

IMPROVEMENT OF ALTAMAHA, OCONEE, AND
OCMULGEE RIVERS, GA.

ALTAMAHA, OCONEE, AND OCMULGEE RIVERS, GA.

COMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

January 14, 1916. The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Stephen M. Sparkman presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, this is a hearing on behalf of the representatives of the Altamaha, Oconee, and Ocmulgee River systems, of Georgia.

Mr. Wise, will you kindly state the order in which these gentlemen will make their statements before the committee?

Mr. WISE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, there are a number of gentlemen from Macon who desire to be heard. Before starting, however, I wish to say that Mr. Walker has just informed me that he can not stay here. He is very much interested in this subject, and would like to make a statement. He has to go to the Committee on Foreign Relations. Mr. Crisp also finds it necessary to leave, and he is very much interested in this matter.

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES W. WISE.

Mr. WISE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I do not myself care to be heard at any length on this proposition this morning, because I want these other gentlemen to have as much time as possible. You are very familiar with this subject.

With the permission of the committee I will read a telegram or two which I have received. Here is one from Mr. Thorpe in which he states that he was unavoidably delayed in reaching Washington, and sends his hearty good wishes for a good showing and deserved success. Mr. Thorpe is councilman of the city of Macon, Ga., and it seems that he is prevented from being here by reason of a delayed train.

There is also a telegram from Mr. Gilham, who made a statement at a previous hearing before the committee. He can not be here at this time. I desire to call attention to his statement, made before the committee at a previous hearing.

I desire now to call the attention of the committee to a very interesting telegram, which I am about to read, from Mr. R. C. Corbin, commissioner of transportation, chamber of commerce. His telegram reads as follows:

On behalf of the 186 shippers, members of our organization other than those appearing in person before the Rivers and Harbors Committee to-morrow, we appeal for an appropriation for the permanent improvement and maintenance of the Altamaha system of rivers commensurate with its rapidly increasing value