Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Free Health Care for Hawaiians?

In King Kamehameha IV’s initial speech to the legislature in 1854, the King voiced his desire to create a hospital for the people of Hawai’i. Queen Emma enthusiastically supported the dream of a hospital, and the two campaigned tirelessly to make it a reality. Hawaiians called the hospital and dispensary Hale Ma‘i o ka Wahine Ali‘i (literally, sick house of the lady chief,) or Hale Ma‘i for short. Opening day was August 1, 1859.

While there was no specific provision in the hospital’s charter for free medical service to native Hawaiians, “all native Hawaiians have been cared for without charge, while for others a charge has been made of from $1 to $3 per day.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 31, 1901) In part, the Hospital was funded with government funds (taxes and appropriations.) (Each passenger arriving from a foreign port paid a tax of $2 to the Collector of Customs for the support of such hospitals.) However, under the provisions of the Organic Act the Legislature has no power to give a subsidy to any institution and funding support stopped.

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

New Guinea

In the mid-18th century Nantucket emerged as the world’s most vigorous whaling port in the colonies, with a substantial fleet dedicated exclusively to pelagic sperm and right whaling on distant grounds. The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void. The first New England Whalers came in 1819.

Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian. As ‘black men,’ Pacific Islanders ashore on Nantucket lived in ‘New Guinea,’ a segregated section of Nantucket where blacks lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. (The label “New Guinea” was used in numerous cities and towns to designate the section in which people of color resided.) At least six sailor boarding houses operated during the 1820 to 1860 period when Native Hawaiian seamen frequented Nantucket. Together William and Maria ran a boarding house for Pacific Islanders on-shore from Nantucket whaling vessels.

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Chinese Wo Hing Society Temple and Cookhouse

Starting in the 1850s, labor shortages in the Islands were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.) The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population; between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai’i increased from 364 to 18,254 (almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu)). Between 1869 and 1910 over thirty secret societies that have their roots in seventeenth century China were established in the Islands, six on Maui. These secret societies were formed to politically re-establish the deposed Ming dynasty.

These local clubs were mutual aid societies which met social and recreational needs of its members providing funeral services and burial, support in times of crisis, protective services and made contributions to their members. The Wo Hing Society – Wo, meaning “peace and harmony” and Hing, meaning “prosperity” was an important aspect of cultural and social life in Lāhainā for its immigrant Chinese. The society provided a fraternal structure which was a substitute for the absent family. In 1912, using private donations, the society built a 2-story temple on Front Street. It is believed that the present building replaced an earlier structure. In 1983, Lahaina Restoration Foundation took steps to restore this valuable site for Lāhainā and manages the site.

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Kidwell’s Mānoa Pineapples

John Kidwell was born January 17, 1849 in the small north Devonshire village of Marwood. At the age of fifteen (in 1864,) he left home to become an apprentice to a second cousin, who was a nurseryman in London. He emigrated to the US in 1872 and became a nurseryman in San Francisco. In 1882, with letters of introduction, Kidwell sailed to Honolulu. At the time, there was great demand for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco.

Kidwell started a pineapple farm with locally available plants at Wailele (where Mid-Pacific Institute is situated). The fruit was of poor quality; so he searched for better cultivars, importing 12 ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants. Kidwell is credited with starting Hawai‘i’s pineapple industry; after his initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations. The commercial Hawaiian pineapple canning industry began in 1889 when Kidwell’s business associate, John Emmeluth, a Honolulu hardware merchant and plumber, produced commercial quantities of canned pineapple.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona Hotel

The Kona Sugar Company started in 1899 with ambitious plans to create a major sugar plantation in Kona. From 1899 to 1926, Hōlualoa was a sugar town; coffee was cut down to make way for fields of sugarcane, which surrounded Hōlualoa. The sugar plantation carried the region’s economy, and Hōlualoa became its commercial center. But water was not sufficient to properly process the cane; in 1903, the company went broke.

Sugar’s collapse spelled economic ruin for many people. Coffee kept Hōlualoa alive, but just barely. Young people looking for employment left North Kona in droves, finding work in Honolulu or the mainland. It was at this time (1926,) when Zentaro and Hatsuyo Inaba opened their 11-room Kona Hotel in 1926, they advertised “Rooms and Meals”. They also welcomed the traveling salesmen and the occasional tourist traveling from Hilo, via Volcano.