Whereas by the seventy-third section of an act entitled "An act to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii," approved April 30, 1900, it was, among other things provided as follows: "That, subject to the approval of the President, all sales, grants, leases, and other dispositions of the public domain and agreements concerning the same, and all franchises granted by the Hawaiian government in conformity with the laws of Hawaii between the 7th day of July, 1898 and the 25th day of September, 1899, are hereby ratified and confirmed;" and
Whereas it appears by the certificate of Sanford B. Dole, President of the Republic of Hawaii, which bears date the 23d day of May, A. D., 1900, that the Hilo Railroad Company organized for the purpose of building and operating a Railroad or Railroads between and through the districts of Hilo Puna Hamakua, Kohala, Kona, and Kau, on the Island of Hawaii, Hawaiian Islands, was incorporated on the 28th day of March, A. D., 1899, under a charter of incorporation, a copy whereof is attached to said certificate; and that said corporating and granting of said charter of incorporation were made in conformity with the general incorporating acts of the Republic of Hawaii, and that the granting of the franchise conferred thereby and all acts and proceedings contained in the premises were done and taken in conformity with the laws of the Republic of Hawaii;
Now, therefore, in conformity with the provision of the act aforesaid, the said franchise granted by the Hawaiian government to the Hilo Railroad Company is hereby approved.
WILLIAM MCKINLEY
William McKinley, Executive Order Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/205482