fund, to which $5,850,000 was appropriated by the twenty-third legislature, ended the year with a surplus of $5,422,353.57, compared with a deficit of $802,355.59 at the end of the previous fiscal year. No further payments will be required to be made to the sinking fund and all Territorial term bonds will be retired on their earliest callable dates. Bank clearings for the year totalled $1,734,390,481.48 as compared with $1,304,307,386.17 for the previous year. United States Internal Revenue collections in the Territory during the year totalled $172,443,854.23 compared with collections of $149,643,817 in the preceding period. Collections in Hawaii amounted to $360 per capita, a figure which was exceeded by only nine States. The past year's total collections in the Territory exceeded total collections in fourteen other States. Gross postal receipts were $21,521,587.48 which vastly exceeded the previous year's total of $8,673,187.47 and was more than six times the total receipts for the 1943-44 period. ELECTIONS AND LEGISLATION The regular biennial Territorial and county elections were conducted last year without any let-up in the war effort. Tabulations by the secretary of Hawaii and the county clerks showed the largest number of registered voters and the largest vote in the Territory's history, indicating Hawaii's continuing interest in the processes of free democracy. Hawaii's second wartime legislative session resulted in appropriations exceeding anticipated revenues by some $19,000,000 indicating the probable necessity for extensive postwar readjustment of the Territory's fiscal affairs. However, the legislature followed most of the Governor's recommendations and much progressive legislation was enacted and approved by the Governor. In addition to legislation mentioned elsewhere in this report, new laws included requirements for the enrichment of flour, for the regulation of trade and trade practices in connection with the resale of Federal surplus goods and for airport zoning. The uniform Fiduciaries Act was adopted and a community property law, far reaching in its effect, was enacted. Provision was made for the microfilming of public records and the destruction of originals, and the Governor's commercial rent control rules were enacted into law. The burden of financing public tuberculosis hospitals and the circuit courts was transferred from the counties to the Territorial government. Boards and commissions were created and provided with ample funds to undertake broadscale studies of various matters which might be the subject of future proposed legislation. The 30th of January, the birthday of our late President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was established by law as a Territorial holiday. The legislature adopted a revision and compilation of the Territory's laws, the first since 1935, prepared by a commission created in 1943. Bills presented to the Governor under the provisions of the Organic Act totalled 300. Of these, 273 were approved and signed by the Governor, 3 were returned with the Governor's veto, 2 became law without the Governor's signature, and 22, which were neither signed nor vetoed, failed to become law by reason of the legislature's adjournment prior to the expiration of the statutory period. Of the vetoed bills, 2 were passed by the legislature notwithstanding the Governor's veto. Thirteen joint resolutions were presented to the Governor, all of which were approved and signed by him, SELECTIVE SERVICE Regular monthly inductions were first initiated shortly prior to the opening of the past fiscal year and continued throughout the year with the assistance of some 489 public spirited citizens who performed without compensation various tasks connected with the execution of the selective service regulations. As of June 30, 1945, inductions had totalled 21,520 out of a total of 120,763 registrants in the 18 to 45 age group. Voluntary enlistments of registrants totalled 4,095. The record of these men of Hawaii on the fighting fronts of the world is too well known to require repetition here. They earned the undying gratitude of Hawaii and of the Nation. Cases of delinquency under the regulations were negligible and no claims of erroneous induction were taken to the courts. SERVICE PERSONNEL AND VETERANS A Veterans council was established by law and was given a generous appropriation, for the purpose of providing information, counsel, aid and assistance to returning war veterans and their families and dependents and coordinating the efforts of other agencies concerned with veterans' welfare. At the fiscal year's end, the council was functioning, having taken over the work being done by the previously existing Governor's committee on veterans affairs. Advisory boards for vocational and adult education were created with authorization to extend the benefits of these programs to veterans without charge. Banks and other financial institutions subject to governmental regulations were authorized by law to make loans guaranteed by the administrator of veterans affairs. Model laws were enacted providing for conservation of the property of missing service personnel; for proof of death or other status of such persons through findings made pursuant to the Federal Missing Persons Act; for the acceptance by the courts of notarial acts by commissioned officers of the armed forces. CONCLUSION Although Hawaii's citizens, since the outbreak of war, had accepted with restraint and understanding a period of military rule unique in the history of our Nation, there was general satisfaction with the action of our late President, in October of 1944, by which the writ of habeas corpus was definitely restored, military authority over civilian activities was further limited and the trial of civilians in military provost courts was discontinued. However, at the fiscal year's end, the ten o'clock curfew was still in force and civilian mail and radiotelephone communications continued to be subject to military censorship. The question of the legality of the continued imprisonment of civilians serving sentences imposed by the previously existing military courts is pending on appeal before the Supreme Court of the United States. |
