Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Asked to Come … Then Excluded

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages in the sugar industry were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first contract from China came in 1852. On the continent, in the 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to the US, first to work in the gold mines, but also to take agricultural jobs, and factory work, especially in the garment industry. Chinese immigrants were particularly instrumental in building railroads in the American west.

Objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the US did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could. Competition with American workers and a growing nativism brought pressure for restrictive action. In the Islands, in 1883, the Hawaiian Cabinet Council, concerned that the Chinese had secured too strong a representation in the labor market, passed a resolution to restrict Chinese immigration.

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Big Five (plus 2)

As the sugar industry pushed ahead, something new was introduced into the economic scheme of things. In Honolulu two or three new firms began business solely to handle the affairs of the scattered plantations. They began by acting as selling agents for the planters. Gradually they took over other functions: financing crops, importing labor, purchasing machinery for the planters and serving in all ways as their business agents. The new businesses soon found themselves running the sugar industry.

“By 1941, every time a native Hawaiian switched on his lights, turned on the gas or rode on a street car, he paid a tiny tribute into Big Five coffers.” They were C. Brewer & Co; Theo H. Davies & Co; Amfac; Castle & Cooke: and Alexander & Baldwin. They branched out into other businesses. There were a couple other associated entities that were associated with the Big 5” Dillingham (Benjamin Franklin Dillingham) and Campbell (James Campbell) and their associated companies.

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Ford Tough

“When this earth was created, Nature, it seems, was more concerned with things other than road making, as witness the (attached) illustration. The pictures shown herewith were taken during one of Professor T. A. Jaggar’s daily trips along one of the stretches which Nature forgot to pave with crushed stone and asphalt.”

“Professor Jaggar, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a noted volcano specialist, and most of his work is done around the craters of the smouldering mountains he studies. … The professor bought a Ford and made a few alterations to suit his particular needs, with the result that the machine became more efficient than beautiful. … After having seen about half a dozen years of the most strenuous service imaginable, the car is still ‘going strong.’” (Ford News, July 22, 1923.)

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Malia

The Malia is a 6-man Hawaiian racing canoe hewn from a single koa log in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii in 1933. Malia is also part of the National Historic Register of Historic Places. Her builder, James Takeo Yamasaki, designed her expressly for racing, one of the favorite sports of Hawaiian Royalty, dating back to King Kamehameha V (1863-1872). When launched she measured 39′-2″, but over time was modified twice. In 1950 she was lengthened to 39′-6″, and in 1973 she was lengthened to her present racing measure of 40′-1″.

Between 1952 and 1954 the Malia won fourteen straight Senior Men’s Races, and she has proven a dominant factor in canoe racing since. From the beginning of the annual Molokai-O‘ahu race in 1952, the Waikiki Surf Club, paddling the Malia, won first place a total of twelve times, six of which were consecutive, (’53, ’55, ‘58-’63, ’66, ’69, ’72 and ‘73). No other single canoe has ever won as often or for such a long continuous stretch. The Malia’s contribution to canoe racing goes well beyond her own accomplishments. In 1959, the first fiberglass mold was made.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Maritime Massachusetts Meets a Man from the Islands

Captain John Smith, in 1614, was the first Englishman to examine the Massachusetts coast, and to give it that name. Shortly thereafter (1620,) the Plymouth Colony arrived. “The Pilgrim fathers sailed with high hopes and a burning faith, but with few preparations and no clear idea of how to make a living on the Atlantic coast.” “Massachusetts went to sea, then, not of choice, but of necessity.” “Off the roaring breakers of Cape Horn, in the vast spaces of the Pacific, on savage coasts and islands, and in the teeming marts of the Far East, the intrepid shipmasters and adventurous youth of New England were reclaiming their salt sea heritage. “

One bright summer afternoon in 1790 saw the close of a great adventure. On August 9, Boston town heard a salute of thirteen guns down-harbor. The ship Columbia, Captain Robert Gray, with the first American ensign to girdle the globe snapping at her peak, was greeting the Castle after an absence of three years. … A rumor ran through the narrow streets that a native of ‘Owyhee’ – a Sandwich-Islander – was on board; and before the day was out, curious Boston was gratified with a sight of him, marching after Captain Gray to call on Governor Hancock.” “A vigorous trade with the native chiefs in this fragrant commodity (sandalwood) was started by Boston fur-traders in ‘the Islands’; leading to more Hawaiian visits to New England”.