Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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James Robinson

James Robinson came to the islands from London, his birthplace, arriving here in 1820, before the first missionaries (while rounding Cape Horn his ship passed the “Thaddeus,” which was bringing the first missionaries from New England.)

He was carpenter on the whaling ship “Hermes.”  In 1822, sailing from Honolulu for Japan the Hermes was wrecked on the reef of Holoikauaua (what is now referred to as Pearl and Hermes.)

This seeming disaster turned into a new industry for Honolulu and proved to be the foundation of his subsequent business and of his fortune.

The combined crews (totaling 57) made it safely to one of the small islands and were castaway for months with what meager provisions they could salvage.

He and the crew built a small schooner (the Deliverance) from the wreckage and the survivors of the wreck sailed back to Honolulu to remain permanently.

After his arrival, Robinson was befriended by Kamehameha II and John Young.  He and a ship-mate, Robert Lawrence (a cooper (barrel maker,)) sold the Deliverance for $2,000 and found employment in repairing schooners owned by the king and chiefs.

They received the assistance of Kamehameha II and, in 1827, established their shipyard in Honolulu harbor at Pākākā, or “the Point,” on land obtained from Kalanimoku. They were later joined as a full partner by James Holt, “a very respectable man from Boston.”

In 1840, the Polynesian commended the partners and their shipyard:  “Honest, industrious, economical, temperate, and intelligent, they are living illustrations of what these virtues can secure to men. …”

“Their yard is situated in the most convenient part of the harbor has a stone butment and where two vessels of six hundred tons burthen can be berthed, hove out, and undergo repairs at one and the same time. There is fourteen feet of water along side of the butment.”

“The proprietors generally keep on hand all kinds of material for repairing vessels. Also those things requisite for heaving out, such as blocks, falls, etc. On the establishment are fourteen excellent workmen, among whom are Ship Carpenters, Caulkers and Gravers, Ship Joiners, Block-makers, Spar-makers, Boatbuilders, etc.”

In mid-September 1830, Joseph Elliott moved to The Point to open a hotel with Robinson.  Lawrence and Holt, Robinson’s partners, appear to have specialized in the hotel and liquor business, which also featured a boarding house. The Shipyard Hotel had the advantage of being a “first chance – last chance” operation.

Years rolled on, and the firm of James Robinson & Co. (including Robert Lawrence and Mr. Holt) was a significant success and carried on a business that employed a large number of ship-carpenters and caulkers. More whaling ships were repaired at their establishment than at any other in the Pacific.

This partnership lasted until 1868, when Mr. Lawrence died. For many years their building was one of the sights of the town, being decorated with the figurehead from an old vessel.

Robinson became so wealthy; reportedly, he lent substantial funds to the Hawaiian government during the 1850s and maintained a close relationship with the kingdom’s leaders until his death in 1876.

Hawaiians called him Kimo (James) Pakaka as Honolulu Harbor grew up around his shipyard.

In 1843, James Robinson married Rebecca Prever; they had eight children: Mark, Mary, Victoria, Bathsheba, Matilda, Annie, Lucy and John.

Mr. Robinson died at his residence in Nuʻuanu valley August 8, 1876.  However, his legacy lived on through his children.

His descendants became a well-known island family and his fortune founded the Robinson Estate.  His son, Mark, was a member of Queen Liliʻuokalani’s cabinet (Minister of Foreign Affairs) during the chaotic last months of the monarchy as factional battles separated the royal government.  He was a founder of First National Bank of Hawai’i and First American Savings.

His daughter Lucy married a McWayne (apparently, Robinson’s ship facility eventually became McWayne Marine Supply at Kewalo Basin – some old-timers may remember that later name.)

Daughter Victoria married a Ward.  Their residence was known as Old Plantation, and included the current site of the Neil F. Blaisdell Center.  Her estate, Victoria Ward Ltd, had other significant holdings in Kakaʻako.

Daughter Mary married a Foster.  Her husband Thomas Foster was an initial organizer of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company.  That company founded a subsidiary, Inter-Island Airways, that later changed its name to Hawaiian Airlines.

Foster had also purchased the estate of the renowned botanist William Hillebrand, which was bequeathed to the city as Foster Botanical Garden at the death of his wife Mary.

The image shows Honolulu Harbor in 1854.  The Robinson facilities are on the right hand side – to the left of the Fort wall (you can see a ship being repaired at the shore.)

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Judd Trail

Road making as practiced in Hawaiʻi in the middle of the 19th-century was a very superficial operation, in most places consisting of little more than clearing a right of way, doing a little rough grading and supplying bridges of a sort where they could not be dispensed with.    (Kuykendall)

The absence of roads in some places and the bad condition of those that did exist were common causes of complaints which found expression in the newspapers. But in spite of the complaints, it is clear that in the 1860s the kingdom had more roads and on the whole better ones than it had twenty or even ten years earlier.  (Kuykendall)

At its May 23, 1849 meeting, the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (a private committee of the King’s closest advisors to give confidential advice on affairs of state) sought to “facilitate communication between Kailua, the seat of the local government, and Hilo, the principal port.”

They resolved “that GP Judd and Kinimaka proceed to Kailua, Hawaiʻi, to explore a route from that place to Hilo direct, and make a road, if practicable, by employing the prisoners on that island and if necessary taking the prisoners from this island (Oʻahu) to assist; the government to bear all expenses”. (Privy Council Minutes, Punawaiola)

(In 1828, Dr Gerrit Parmele Judd came with the Third Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi.  A medical missionary, Judd had originally come to the islands to serve as the missionary physician; by 1842, he left the mission and served in the Hawaiian government.)

(He first served as “translator and recorder,” then member of the “treasury board,” then secretary of state for foreign affairs, minister of the interior and minister of finance (the latter he held until 1853, when by resignation, he terminated his service with the government.))

In planning the road, the words of the Privy Council’s resolution were taken literally, and the route selected ran to the high saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on a practically straight line between the terminal points.

What became known as the “Judd Road” (or “Judd Trail”) was constructed between 1849 and 1859; construction began at the government road in Kailua (what is now known as Aliʻi Drive) and traversed through a general corridor between Hualālai and Mauna Loa.  (Remnants of perimeter walls can still be seen at Aliʻi Drive.)

“This was the road that Dr. Judd … would have built from Kona in a straight line across the island of Hawaii. It was meant, of course, as a road for horsemen and pack animals. In the generation of Dr. Judd it was a great work, and the manner of its building showed that he meant it to be a monument to him for all time.”  (Ford, Mid-Pacific, 1912)

When the road had been built about 12-miles from Kailua into the saddle between Hualālai and Mauna Loa, the project was abandoned – a pāhoehoe lava flow from the 11,000 foot-level of Mauna Loa crossed its path.

Though incomplete (it never reached its final destination in Hilo,) people did use the Judd Road to get into Kona’s mauka countryside.

“Up the long slope of Hualālai we ascended to Kaʻalapuali, following the old Judd trail through fields of green cane, through grass lands, through primeval forests, over fallen monarchs, finally out on that semi-arid upland which lies between Hualālai and Mauna Loa.  Here we turned up the slope of Hualālai, climbing through a forest cover of ʻōhiʻa lehua and sandalwood carpeted with golden-eyed daisies – another picture of Hawaii, never to be forgotten.”

“And then the summit with its eight or more great craters and that strange, so-called bottomless pit, Hualālai, after which the mountain is named, and the battle of the Kona and trade wind clouds over the labyrinthean volcanic pits, gray-white spectres of vapor—all these linger in retrospection as we cast our mind’s eye back to that experience of one year ago.”

“Here on this weird summit, where the sun played hide and seek with the tumultuous clouds, the ʻiʻiwi, ʻelepaio, and ʻamakihi birds flitted and twittered from puʻu kiawe to mamani. Down the long southeast slope, beneath the white vapors, beautifully symmetrical cones arose from slopes, tree-clad and mottled by shifting clouds and sun.”

“Farther up the Judd trail, we came to that unique “Plain of Numbering”, where King ʻUmi built his heiau over four centuries ago and called his people together from all the Island of Hawaii. There is a romantic glamor hanging around those heaps of rocks which numbered the people who gathered at Ahua ʻUmi that will remain as a fond memory throughout eternity.”  (Thrum, 1924)

(ʻUmi took a census at about 1500; for this census, each inhabitant of the Island of Hawaiʻi was instructed to come to a place called the “Plain of Numbering” to put a rock on the pile representing his own district. The result, still visible today, was a three-dimensional graphic portrayal of population size and distribution.   (Schmitt))

“It is a wonderful setting up there on that arid plateau with Hualālai to the left and Mauna Loa rising majestically and deceptively to the right, with lofty Mauna Kea, snow-patched and beckoning from the distance before us. There is something sublimely massive, rugged, uplifting about that arid, wild region of the “plain of numbering-‘ hidden away from the ordinary walks of men, off to the right and near the end of the old Judd trail.”  (Thrum, 1924)

This road was not the only attempt of linking East and West Hawaiʻi.  About 100-years after the Privy Council’s resolution to connect East with West, the US military completed the link by building a vehicular access route to its Pōhakuloa Training Area during World War II.

Like earlier roads in Hawaiʻi it was not originally designed to State highway standards.  Surfacing and nominal repairs over the subsequent decades left a roadway that island rental car companies banned its customers from use.

Today, route 200, known locally as Saddle Road, traverses the width of the Island of Hawaiʻi, from downtown Hilo to its junction with Hawaii Route 190 near Waimea.  It “represent(s) both literally and symbolically … the physical bridging together of East and West Hawaii and the bridging of the bonds between people.”  (SCR 43, 2013)

Saddle Road is the shortest and most direct route across the island of Hawai‘i, linking the historical main population centers of the island in East Hawai‘i with the growing West side, where the economy is anchored by tourism.

With realignment of portions and reconstruction starting in 2004, in 2013, the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (DOT) opened the last improved segment and renamed the 41-mile upgraded length of Hawaiʻi Saddle Road the Daniel K Inouye Highway (the renaming occurred on Inouye’s birthday, September 7 (Inouye died December 17, 2012.))

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James Colnett

Captain James Cook set sail on three voyages to the South Seas.  His first Pacific voyage (1768-1771) was aboard the Endeavour and began on May 27, 1768. It had three aims; go to Tahiti to record the transit of Venus (when Venus passes between the earth and sun – June 3, 1769;) record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks; and search for the Great South Land.

Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772-1775) aboard Resolution and Adventure aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent, and make astronomical observations.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery.  (State Library, New South Wales)

“Every Fighting Service has, and must have, two main categories – ‘Officers’ and ‘Men.’ The Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was no exception. The distinction existed: was indeed more than ordinarily marked. It was not only a naval distinction, but a sharp social one too.”

“‘Officers’ as contemporary society used that word, came from one walk of life, ‘Men’ from another: and, as it was not easy in Society to pass from a lower stratum to a higher, so in the Navy, it was not easy for a ‘Man’ to become an Officer. But it was possible.” (Captain Cook Society)

“Cook had chosen his subordinates well or had been lucky. The officers of the third voyage were a remarkably intelligent group of men.” (Captain Cook Society)

“All the great remaining voyages of the eighteenth century drew on Cook’s officers. Bligh, Portlock, Vancouver, Colnett, Riou, and Hergest all got their commands and served with great distinction. These men then passed on their skills to a second generation of men such as Flinders and Broughton.”  (Mackay, Captain Cook Society)

James Colnett was born in 1753 at Plymouth, England; the Colnett family was originally from the Stepney district of East London.

His father, James Colnett senior, was in the Royal Navy and this took him and the family to Plymouth and Portsmouth. His father died in 1760.  James Jr’s mother, Sarah, was left to bring up the four children alone.

The younger James began his naval career on June 28, 1770 as an able seaman on the Hazard, a small sloop. On September 4, 1771, he became a midshipman on HMS Scorpion under James Cook and transferred to the Resolution when Cook was readying for his second Pacific voyage.

Colnett served as midshipman throughout Cook’s second voyage from 1772 until 1775. Colnett was the first European to sight New Caledonia, and Cook named Cape Colnett and Mount Colnett commemorated that sighting.

One of his midshipman colleagues, John Elliott, later described Colnett as ‘Clever and Sober’.

After Cook’s voyage, Colnett was appointed to the Juno, a 5th rank, as gunner on January 1, 1776.  He was then appointed master of the Adventure during the War of American Independence before passing for lieutenant on February 4, 1779. Ten days later he was appointed third lieutenant of the Bienfaisant, a 3rd rank, remaining on that ship until 1783.

In one of his journals, he provides advice on passage around Cape Horn (south of South America), “I have doubled Cape Horn in different seasons …”

“… but were I to make another voyage to this part of the globe, and could command my time, I would most certainly prefer the beginning of winter, or even winter itself, with moon-light nights; for, in that season, the winds begin to vary to the Eastward; as I found them, and as Captain, now Admiral, Macbride, observed at the Falkland Isles.”

“Another error, which, in my opinion, the commanders of vessels bound round Cape Horn commit, is, by keeping between the Falkland Isles and the main, and through the Straits Le Maire …”

“… which not only lengthens the distance, but subjects them to an heavy, irregular sea, occasioned by the rapidity of the current and tides in that channel, which may be avoided, by passing to the Eastward.”

“At the same time, I would recommend them to keep near the coast of Staten Land, and Terra del Fuego, because the winds are more variable, in with the shore, than at a long offing. …”

“If the navigation round Cape Horn should ever become common, such, a place we must possess; and agreeable to the last convention with Spain, we are entitled to keep possession of it, and apply it to any purpose of peace or war. Great advantages might arise from such a settlement.” (Colnett)

In 1785, a London merchant, Richard Cadman Etches, had formed the King George’s Sound Company to send ships to the Northwest coast of North America to exploit the sea otter pelt trade.

Two ships, the King George and the Queen Charlotte, had already been dispatched in 1785 under the command of Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon and it was now proposed to send another two ships.

Colnett had been in discussions with Etches and, having obtained permission from the Admiralty for extended leave of absence, he took command of the expedition and the Prince of Wales, the larger ship. Charles Duncan was appointed to command the Princess Royal consort vessel.

The ships left Britain in October 1786 and spent the summer of 1787 trading in the Queen Charlotte Islands and the adjacent mainland.   The two ships then sailed in August 1788 for Hawai‘i. The traders had usually wintered at the Hawaiian islands.

It was then, in what appears is the first reference and suggestion that Pacific captains should hire Hawaiians to their crew.  In his journal, Colnett suggested, “If you can procure a hardy willing fellow from Isles [Hawai‘i] to embark with you to increase your strength …”

He also provides other observations about the Hawaiian, “You will in the winter Season send what Vessels you Judge proper to the Sandwich Isles for Provisions …”

“… and in their return we imagine that some of the Natives of those Isles both men and women may be embark’d and transplanted to America and made useful in our employ. This must be done by their own consent and with every precaution with regard to their health as well as happiness.” (Colnett)

Colnett had been away for five and a half years during which time his mother had died in 1790. A codicil to her will was witnessed by Nathaniel Portlock, who had led the other Etches expedition to the Pacific.

The Pacific sperm-whaling industry began with the 1789–90 voyage of the Emelia out of England. Prompted by that voyage’s success, the Emelia’s owners commissioned James Colnett in 1793 to take the Rattler to the Pacific Ocean to discover exactly where and when sperm whales congregated and to discover suitable ports and anchorages that British whalers could use.

Colnett’s narrative of the voyage was published in 1798 together with a series of charts. Colnett’s voyage opened up the South Pacific whale fishery.

Sperm oil, used in lamps, and spermaceti (a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale), used in candles, fueled the eighteenth-century lighting revolution, inside homes and outside on public thoroughfares.

James Colnett died on September 1, 1806, at his lodgings in Great Ormond Street, London.  He was buried on September 6 in St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney.  (Information here is from A Voyage to the South Atlantic and around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, Colnett; New Histories of Pacific Whaling, Jones & Wanhalla; Captain Cook Society)

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Lunalilo’s Crown

William Charles Lunalilo was born on January 31, 1835 in an area known as Pohukaina to High Chiefess Miriam ‘Auhea Kekauluohi (Kuhina Nui, or Premier of the Hawaiian Kingdom and niece of Kamehameha I) and High Chief Charles Kanaʻina.

Lunalilo’s grandparents were Kalaʻimamahu (half-brother of Kamehameha I) and Kalākua (sister to Kaʻahumanu). His great grandfather was Keouakupupailaninui (father of Kamehameha I).

He was declared eligible to succeed by the royal decree of King Kamehameha III and was educated at the Chief’s Children’s School, and at age four became one of its first students.

He was known as a scholar, a poet and a student with amazing memory for detail. From a very young age, he loved to write, with favorite subjects in school being literature and music.

Kamehameha V had not named a successor to the throne before he died on December 11, 1872. Lunalilo wanted his people to choose their next ruler in a democratic manner and requested a plebiscite to be held on New Year’s Day following the death of Kamehameha V.

He therefore noted, “Whereas, it is desirable that the wishes of the Hawaiian people be consulted as to a successor to the Throne, therefore, notwithstanding that according to the law of inheritance, I am the rightful heir to the Throne, in order to preserve peace, harmony and good order, I desire to submit the decision of my claim to the voice of the people.” (Lunalilo, December 16, 1872)

Kalākaua chose to run against Lunalilo.  The majority of people on every island chose William Charles Lunalilo as King.  At noon on January 8, 1873, the Legislature met, as required by law, in the Courthouse to cast their official ballots of election of the next King.  Lunalilo received all thirty-seven votes.

The coronation of Lunalilo took place at Kawaiahaʻo Church in a simple ceremony on January 9, 1873. Unfortunately, he was to reign for just over a year, succumbing to pulmonary tuberculosis on February 3, 1874.

Upon his passing, the Royal Mausoleum was the temporary resting place for Lunalilo.  By birthright, his remains could have remained there with the other Aliʻi, however, his desire was to be among his people, and in 1875 his remains were moved to their permanent resting place in a tomb built for him and his father, Kanaʻina, on the grounds of Kawaiahaʻo Church.

Then, terrible news hit the papers, “Advices from Key West, Fla., today told of the arrest at the naval station there of two bluejackets, Albert Gerbode and Paul Payne, charged with having broken into the Lunalilo mausoleum and stolen the skull of a Hawaiian king, a silver shield and a silver crown.”  (The Evening Leader, Tartonn Springs, Florida, April 22, 1918)

In follow-up reporting, we learn that, “All that remains intact of the historic crown of King Lunalilo, which was stolen last autumn from the tomb in the Kawaiahao churchyard, is a silver leaf, part of the name plate and the silver ornament which rested on the top of the crown. The rest has been melted down into a single bar of silver.”

“Deputy Sheriff JW Asch returned this morning from Key West, Florida, where he went to recover the crown. His story of the chase, which finally ended in the arrest of Albert Gerbode and Paul Payne, electricians in the submarine flotilla which was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and the recovery of the stolen property, throws much new light on the robbery.”

“Sheriff Asch says that both Gerbode anil Payne absolutely deny taking any of the skulls and bones from the tomb, as was reported at the time of the robbery.”

“He says that both the naval authorities and himself are inclined to believe the two men in this respect, which would make it appear that others entered the tomb and stole the bones.”

“The skull which the two men had was made by themselves of plaster of Paris.”

“According to the confession of Gerbode and Payne, Sheriff Asch says plain robbery was the motive for the theft. They had heard that Hawaiian chiefs were buried with all their jewelry and expected to make a big haul.”

“In the confession the men said that they did not use instruments to enter the tomb, but simply yanked off the padlock, which they said, was so old and worn that it took but little effort to break.”

“The crown was kept intact until the submarine had reached Key West where it was melted down.”

“Another strange feature of the theft was that the two electricians made no attempt to hide the crown and a large number of the crew knew of its existence on board. For this reason, when charged with the robbery, neither Gerbode nor Payne attempted to deny anything but made a full confession.”

“Gerbode and Payne are to be tried by the naval authorities at Key West. They will not be returned to Honolulu as was first reported.”

“It will be possible to some extent to reproduce the original crown from the silver, as the naval authorities made Gerbode and Payne draw pictures and diagrams of the crown with a full description of its appearance. That Sheriff Asch brought back with him.”

“The silver has been sent by registered mail and will probably arrive on the next steamer from San Francisco. – Star-Bulletin.” (Maui News, May 31, 1918)

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No Snakes

“Any person convicted of owning, transporting, or possessing any snake or restricted (without a permit) or prohibited plant, animal, or microorganism may be:

  • fined up to $200,000;
  • imprisoned not more than three years; and
  • pay for all costs relating to the capture or eradication of the pest.” (Hawaii Department of Agriculture)

A headline in the April 11, 1902 issue of Kuokoa read, “Snakes are Allowed to be Imported to Hawaii.”  The article went on to state,

“It was thoroughly believed that a person or persons could not bring in snakes from foreign lands into Hawaii, but the head custom inspector received a letter telling him that there is no law prohibiting the import of this type of animal into Hawaii, and should it be brought in by a person or persons, he has [no] right to prevent the bringing of it ashore.”

“It is right for us to oppose this with what power we have. There are many pests currently brought into Hawaii, and we do not want to bring in others. Before the arrival to Hawaii nei, there were no mosquitoes here, and they could be up at night without their hands tiring out from constantly waving them off.”

“That isn’t all, there is the mongoose that are eating chicks, and eggs, and we hear that a baby left somewhere by its mother while she was washing clothes, died because it was got by a mongoose which sucked all of its blood.”

“There are also mynah birds, fleas, and many, many other pests brought into Hawaii after the arrival of the enlightened races into Hawaii, and here is another thing that is wanted to be open to a person or persons to bring into Hawaii.”

“If these snakes come into Hawaii nei, and they spread in the forests, we will not be able to let our children go out to those places without facing calamity. Not just the children, but animals will be in danger of being bit by these snakes.”

“If the snakes are allowed, the time will perhaps come when lions and tigers will be imported, and we will be just like most of the lands of the world.”

“We want the beautiful things of the other lands, but the problems are what we don’t want. If they import beneficial things, we will happily take them let them free in our verdant fields of Hawaii nei for them to run about; however, if they are to bring in pests, we will stand and exterminate them when they step within the borders of this Territory.”

Things changed … on May 22, 1902, US Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, sent statement titled, Importation Of Reptiles Into Hawaii.  In it, he stated,

“Washington, DC, May 22, 1902. Under the provisions of section 1 of the act of Congress approved May 25, 1900, entitled ‘An Act to enlarge the powers of the Department of Agriculture, prohibit the transportation by interstate commerce of game killed in violation of local laws, and for other purposes,’ …

“… the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to regulate the introduction of birds and animals in localities where they have not heretofore existed, and to make and publish all needful rules and regulations for carrying out the purposes of the act.”

“In accordance with the authority thus conferred, and for the purpose of preventing the introduction of noxious reptiles into the Territory of Hawaii, the order issued under date of September 13, 1900, extending the list of foreign animals and birds which may be imported without permits (Circular No. 30, Biological Survey) …”

“… is hereby amended so that on and after July 1, 1902, and until further notice, permits will be required for the entry of reptiles at all ports of the Hawaiian Islands.”

“Such permits will be issued by the special inspector of this Department in Honolulu in the same form and subject to the same regulations as those now issued for mammals and birds.”

“But no permits will be issued for the entry of poisonous snakes of any kind. All applications for permits to import reptiles into Hawaii should be addressed to the special inspector of foreign animals and birds, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, H. I.”

“Under the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of June 28, 1900 (Circular No. 101, division of customs), persons who have not already secured permits will be allowed a reasonable time in which to secure them after the arrival of the shipment at the port of entry.”

“In case the application for entry is not granted, or the required permit is not obtained in due time, the reptiles will be immediately exported or destroyed at the expense of the owner or agent.  James Wilson, Secretary.”

That order was later amended by Secretary Wilson on June 19, 1905; it stated, “for the purpose of preventing the introduction of snakes into the Territory of Hawaii, the order issued under date of May 22, 1902 (Circular 36, Biological Survey), is hereby amended so that on and after August 1, 1905, and until further notice, no permits shall be issued for the entry of snakes of any kind at any port of the Hawaiian Islands.”

Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (§150A-6 Soil, plants, animals, etc., importation or possession prohibited) state, “No person shall transport, receive for transport, or cause to be transported to the State, for the purpose of debarkation or entry thereinto, any of the following: (3) Any live snake”.

That law goes on to state, “notwithstanding the list of animals prohibited entry into the State, the department [of Agriculture] may bring into and maintain in the State four live, sterile brown tree snakes of the male sex for the purpose of research or training of snake detector dogs …”

“… and further, that a government agency may bring into and maintain in the State not more than two live, nonvenomous snakes of the male sex solely for the purpose of exhibition in a government zoo”. (HRS §150A-6)

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