Honolulu Record, August 19, 1948, vol. 1 no. 2, p. 2
The Speed-Up
Like the huge gantry cranes which will soon tower over Hilo's Kuhio Wharf, the specter of mechanization, and the subsequent labor force reduction, was rising in the minds of Hilo longshoremen.
The cranes will be part of the bulk storing and loading plant now approaching completion on the wharf. When it is finished the Hilo Chamber of Commerce will be able to boast that they have the most modern bulk shipping port in the world.
The plant will include four silos of 40,000 ton capacity which are now ready except for painting. The loading and unloading equipment above them is also nearly completed. Still to be installed are the truck loading ramps to the silos, the scale house, and the conveyor belt system. The conveyor system is designed to haul the raw sugar from the loading ramp to the silos and from the silos to the pier edge.
The gantry cranes will be mounted on tracks on the pier apron to lift the sugar into the ships' holds. When they are completed the entire system will be capable of loading the sugar at a guaranteed rate of 500 tons per hour. Its top speed is estimated at 750 tons per hour.
The project is part of a $3,000,000 expenditure by the sugar industry. This sum includes the improving of the bulk plant at Crockett, California, and the conversion of cargo ships to handle raw sugar in bulk form.
Kauai Clean Up
Going from one extreme to the other — geographically speaking — Kauai is looking forward to the arrival of a corp of engineers from Schofield Barracks. They are scheduled to be on the Island August 16. The major task of the engineers will be to remove dud shells in the Waimea artillery range area. But to Kauai swimmers and fishing enthusiasts that will be the least important of their duties. Due to wave and tidal action more and more barbed wire along Kauai's water edge has been exposed to the swimmer's shin and the fisherman's line. The wire was placed along the beaches as entanglements during the war. The engineers plan to inspect Kauai's beaches and to remove the rusting but still entangling wire.
Clear View
While Kauai beach lovers were awaiting these improvements, Waikiki beach lovers were being entertained by the goings on out at Shae's reef stranded barge. There wasn't much to see, but periodically there was much to hear. Last week the barge was gradually being dynamited below the level of Waikiki's rolling surf. Soon it would no longer be the sunset disrupting eyesore which had been distressing residents and tourists alike for the past several months. By week's end Waikiki housewives had suffered through more than 40 blasts involving some 1,600 pounds of powder. Underwater blasting was to begin soon, E. M. Pickop, acting harbor board manager, promised. He estimated that it would be another two or three weeks before Waikiki beach visitors could enjoy the sunset without the ugly distraction of Shae's barge to annoy them.
Phone Rates Up
Meat prices and the high cost of other food items weren't the only price rises Honoluluan had to complain about. Beginning August 11 the privilege of having a private line telephone would cost city residents 25 cents more per month. This rate increase was granted Mutual Telephone Co., along with several other rate hikes, by the public utilities commission last week. Mutual had asked for a 50 cent increase. That was denied by the commission, as was the request for ice. The commission granted six individual line business exchange rate increases, ranging from 25 cents to $1.00. It also granted increases of 25 and 50 cents on seven two party line business exchanges. Mutual had requested a 50 cent increase on eight other business exchanges throughout the islands which was denied by the commission.
The Pay-Off
Eight Honolulu police officers got a lucky break last week. For more than a year they had been suspended from duty under suspicion of taking graft. The officers had been reinstated and returned to active duty after they had been cleared of suspicion by a senior police board. Prior to that the charges had been thrown out by circuit court judge Carrick H. Buck. On that basis the police commission recommended that the accused officers receive back pay for the time they were suspended. The commission then. forwarded a letter to the board of supervisors and to the city-county attorney notifying them of their decision. According to a compilation by Acting Chief Dan Liu the amount of back pay amounts to $41,843.86 — or a little better than $5,230 per suspended policeman.