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January 16, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Universal Remedy

“For ka poʻe kahiko (the people of old) the sea was the remedy upon which all relied, from Hawaiʻi to Kauai.”

“When people took sick with stomach upsets (ʻinoʻino ma ka ʻopu), griping stomach aches (nahu), fever (wela), grayish pallor (hailepo), squeamishness (nanue na ʻopu), nausea (polouea), or dizziness (niua,) …”

“… the usual ailments caused by a change of regular diet from sweet potatoes to taro – or from taro to sweet potatoes – a drink of sea water was the universal remedy employed.”

“Those who live on lands that grow sweet potatoes have foul stools (ua ʻeka ko lakou lepo) when they change to taro lands, and are subject to worms (ua ulu ka ilo maloko.)”

“It is the same with those from lands where taro is grown when they go to lands where sweet potatoes are grown. Their custom therefore was to drink sea water.”

“In the early morning they lighted an imu for sweet potatoes and put them in to bake with a chicken and a dried fish.”

“Then they fetched a large container full of sea water, a container of fresh water to wash away the salty taste, and a bunch of sugar cane.”

“They would drink two to four cupfuls of sea water, then a cupful of fresh water, and then chew the sugar cane.”

“The sea water loosened the bowels, and it kept on working until the yellowish and greenish discharges came forth (puka pu no ka lena a me ke pakaiea.)”

“Then the imu was opened, and the sweet potatoes and other foods eaten (without resulting discomfort.) The stomach felt fine, and the body of the elderly or the aged was made comfortable.”

“Another good use for sea water was to secure forgiveness (huikala.) When someone in the family broke an oath sworn against another (hoʻohiki ʻino) – a man against his wife, a mother against her children, relatives against relatives, “cousins” against “cousins” (hoahanau), and so on …”

“… then the pikai, or sprinkling with salt water, was the remedy to remove (the repercussions from the breaking of the oath.)”

“This is how it was done. A basin or bowl of real sea water, or of water to which salt had been added, in which were laced ʻawa rootlets (huluhulu ʻawa) and olena, was the water to absolve and cleanse (kalahala e huikala) the family for the defilement (haumia) caused by the one who had broken his oath.”

“Any defilement pertaining to the house, to fishing, tapa printing, tapa beating, farming, or wauke cultivation, from which trouble had resulted, could be cleansed with pikai; it purified and caused an end to defilement. Implements of labor could also be cleansed of their defilement by pikai.”

“Another way to purify the family was this. In the evening, after dark, a ‘canoe procession’ was formed (waʻa huakaʻi, in which the participants lined up in single file, as in a canoe.)”

“The person at the head of the procession had a pig, another had tapa garments and ninikea tapas, and another held in his hands bunches of kohekohe grass.”

“The last person in the line offered the prayers for forgiveness and carried the basin for the ritual procession to cleanse the defilement (ka poʻi kaʻi huikala.)”

“The ritual procession (kaʻi) had to be perfect, with the voices responding in unison in the prayers for forgiveness and purification, and their steps exactly alike as they went in the procession and entered the mua, the ‘family chapel.’”

“They lighted the imu for the pig and continued their praying until the pig was cooked and eaten.”

“The rewards (uku) they received were health, blessings, material prosperity, and other benefits of this kind to them all…” (Kamakau)

Seawater is 96.5% water by weight. The remaining 3.5% is composed of salts; there are small amounts of organic material and microorganisms.

It could be classified as a medicinal mineral water due to its content of mineral ions such as Na+, Cl-, Mg++, Ca++, and K+, which are present as salts and attached to organic molecules.

With current technology a total of 95 elements have been found in seawater, including trace elements such as I, Fe, Cu, and Zn. About a third of these elements have also been detected in the human body; regardless of the amount, most of them are essential elements. (Valencia) (The image is Surfer Magazine’s photo of the year, 2011.)

January 15, 2026 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Aiʻenui

“The foreigners came to these resorts to find women”. (Kamakau)

“It had been the custom, from time immemorial, on the death of any great chief, especially of the king, for the people to give themselves up to universal licentiousness; – to the indiscriminate prostitution of females; – to theft and robbery; – to revenge and murder.”

“The first stand against these heathenish practices, was made by Keōpūolani, the first native convert, herself a chief woman of the highest distinction, who, in expectation of her own death, strictly charged her children and attendants to have her funeral conducted upon Christian principles.” (ABCFM Annual Report)

In the early nineteenth century, makaʻāinana women flocked to the European ships and port towns in large numbers to partake in the lucrative trade in sexual services. This was one of the few ways that makaʻāinana could acquire foreign goods since the aliʻi controlled other forms of trade. (Merry)

Many Hawaiian women boarded the ships coming to port here. They did not think that such associations were wrong … The husbands and parents, not knowing that it would bring trouble, permitted such association for foreign men because of the desire for clothing, mirrors, scissors, knives, iron hoops from which to form fishhooks and nails. (ʻIʻi; Merry)

The first attempt to change the sexual behavior of Hawaiian women was an attack on prostitution with European seamen. This endeavor earned the missionaries the undying hostility of the small but growing mercantile community and the visiting shipping community while failing to eliminate the sex trade. (Merry)

“One of the few chiefs who opposed the missionaries and their preaching, Boki fought against Kaʻahumanu’s new laws that prohibited the practice of the old religion”. (Kanahele)

In December, 1827, drafted by Kaʻahumanu and scrutinized for Christian propriety by Hiram Bingham, the crimes proscribed were murder, theft, adultery, prostitution, gambling, and the sale of alcoholic spirits. Boki opposed actively the passage of any such laws.

“Boki’s obstructionism may be traced to the fact that he had something of a vested interest in all but the first two of the offensive activities.” (Daws)

“The latter prohibition especially aggrieved (Boki) because drinking was one of his pleasures and he himself owned and operated several grog shops in Honolulu.” (Kanahele)

“(H)e speculated in local and foreign trade, sugar-making, tavern-keeping, and commercialised prostitution. None of these businesses except the last was profitable.” (Daws)

“By 1828, he had become openly allied to the two chief elements of antagonism to the regent and the missionaries.”

“The leading one of these elements was the combination of lewd and intemperate whites, headed by the British and American consuls, in order to break down the new laws against prostitution and drunkenness.” (Missionary Herald, 1905)

“Boki … became the friend of … foreigners and they would ply him with liquor and when he was intoxicated give him goods on credit.”

“Thus he would buy whole bolts of cloth and boxes of dry goods and present them to the chiefs and favorites among his followers, and these flattered him and called him a generous chief.”

“In this way he became even more heavily indebted to the foreigners for goods than the King (himself, through his) purchases.” (Kamakau)

For a time, Kamehameha I lived at Pulaholaho (later called Charlton Square,) later high chief Boki, built a store through which to sell/trade sandalwood near Pakaka, where Liholiho also built a larger wooden building. (Maly)

“Boki also established several stores in Honolulu where cloth was sold, ‘Deep-in-debt’ (Aiʻenui) they were called because of his heavy debts.”

“At Pakaka was a large wooden building belonging to Liholiho. Boki’s was a smaller building which had been moved and was called ‘Little-scrotum’ (Pulaholaho.)”

“The foreigners, finding Boki friendly and obliging, proposed a more profitable way of making money, and both Boki and Manuia erected buildings for the sale of liquor, Boki’s called Polelewa and Manuia’s Hau‘eka.” Boki’s place was also called the Blonde Hotel.

“Since Liholiho’s sailing to England, lawlessness had been prohibited, but with these saloons and others opened by the foreigners doing business, the old vices appeared and in a form worse than ever.”

“Polelewa became a place where noisy swine gathered. Drunkenness and licentious indulgence became common at night …. The foreigners came to these resorts to find women”.

“In 1826 the cultivation of sugar was begun in Manoa valley by an Englishman. Boki and Kekuanao‘a were interested in this project and it was perhaps the first cane cultivated to any extent in Hawaii. “

“When the foreigner gave it up Boki bought the field and placed Kinopu in charge. A mill was set up in Honolulu in a lot near where Sumner (Keolaloa) was living.” (Kamakau)

Boki incurred large debts and, in 1829, attempted to cover them by assembling a group of followers and set out for a newly discovered island with sandalwood in the New Hebrides. Boki fitted out two ships, the Kamehameha and the Becket, put on board some five hundred of his followers, and sailed south.

Just prior to Boki’s sailing in search of sandalwood, the lands of Kapunahou and Kukuluaeʻo were transferred to Hiram Bingham for the purpose of establishing a school, later to be known as Oʻahu College (now, Punahou School.)

These lands had first been given to Kameʻeiamoku, a faithful chief serving under Kamehameha, following Kamehameha’s conquest of Oʻahu in 1795. At Kameʻeiamoku’s death in 1802, the land transferred to his son Hoapili, who resided there from 1804 to 1811. Hoapili passed the property to his daughter Kuini Liliha (Boki’s wife.)

Sworn testimony before the Land Commission in 1849, and that body’s ultimate decision, noted that the “land was given by Governor Boki about the year 1829 to Hiram Bingham for the use of the Sandwich Islands Mission.”

The decision was made over the objection from Liliha; however Hoapili confirmed the gift. It was considered to be a gift from Kaʻahumanu, Kuhina Nui or Queen Regent at that time.

Boki and two hundred and fifty of his men apparently died at sea.

January 14, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Victoria Kamāmalu

There were four children of Kīnaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, the highest in rank of any of the women chiefs of her day; these were Moses, Lot (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. (Liliʻuokalani)

“When I was taken from my own parents and adopted by Paki and Konia, or about two months thereafter, a child was born to Kīnaʻu. That little babe was the Princess Victoria, two of whose brothers became sovereigns of the Hawaiian people.”

“While the infant was at its mother’s breast, Kīnaʻu always preferred to take me into her arms to nurse, and would hand her own child to the woman attendant who was there for that purpose.”

“So she frequently declared in the presence of my adopted mother, Konia, that a bond of the closest friendship must always exist between her own baby girl and myself as aikane or foster-children of the same mother, and that all she had would also appertain to me just as if I had been her own child”. (Liliʻuokalani)

Victoria Kamāmalu, the only daughter of Kīnaʻu, Kaʻahumanu II and her third husband Mataio Kekūanāoʻa, was born at the Honolulu Fort, on November 1, 1838.

Through her mother she was granddaughter of King Kamehameha I; she was named after her maternal aunt Queen Kamāmalu, the wife of Kamehameha II, who died in London from the measles.

Kīnaʻu died on April 4, 1839, not long after the birth of her youngest child, Victoria; her father Kekūanāoʻa then raised Victoria. He was the royal governor of Oʻahu. She was educated at Royal School along with all her cousins and brothers.

At the age of 17, Victoria Kamāmalu was appointed Kuhina Nui by her brother Kamehameha IV soon after he ascended the throne in December 1854.

The Kuhina Nui was a unique position in the administration of Hawaiian government and had no specific equivalent in western governments of the day. It has been described in general terms as “Prime Minister,” “Premier” and “Regent.”

The Kuhina Nui held equal authority to the king in all matters of government, including the distribution of land, negotiating treaties and other agreements, and dispensing justice.

Since 1845, by legislative act, the office of Kuhina Nui had been joined with that of the Minister of Interior. Given her young age, it would have been clear to the King, Privy Council and Legislative Council that Victoria was not suited to be Minister of Interior.

Therefore, on January 6, 1855, an act was passed to repeal the earlier legislation. She received her appointment ten days later. (Hawaii State Archives)

Article 45 of the 1852 Constitution of Hawaiian Kingdom stated: “Art. 45. All important business of the kingdom which the King chooses to transact in person, he may do, but not without the approbation of the Kuhina Nui. The King and Kuhina Nui shall have a negative on each other’s public acts.”

The Constitution of 1852 further clarified some of the office’s responsibilities, including its authority in the event of the King’s death or minority of the heir to the throne. The office of Kuhina Nui functioned from 1819 to 1864, through the reigns of Kamehameha II, III, IV and V.

Kaʻahumanu was such a powerful person and Kuhina Nui that subsequent female Kuhina Nui adopted her name, Kīna‘u (Kaʻahumanu II) (1832-1839,) Kekāuluohi (Kaʻahumanu III) (1839-1845) and Victoria Kamāmalu (Kaʻahumanu IV) (1855-1863.) (Keoni Ana (1845-1855) and Mataio Kekūanāo‘a (1863-1864) were the male Kuhina Nui.)

The Constitution (1852 – Article 47) further stated that the Kuhina Nui (Premier), in absence of a Monarch, would fill the vacant office. “Whenever the throne shall become vacant by reason of the King’s death, or otherwise, and during the minority of any heir to the throne, the Kuhina Nui, for the time being, shall, during such vacancy or minority, perform all the duties incumbent on the King, and shall have and exercise all the powers, which by this Constitution are vested in the King.”

This situation occurred once, when Kuhina Nui Victoria Kamāmalu (Kaʻahumanu IV) assumed the powers of the monarchy – and, was conceptually “Queen” for a day (November 30, 1863) – the first sole-ruling female of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

‘Prince Bill’ (later King Lunalilo) and Victoria Kamāmalu were betrothed to each other in their childhood at the behest of Kamāmalu’s mother Kīna‘u.

The seemingly inevitable marriage was thwarted by Kamehameha IV – Kamāmalu’s brother Alexander Liholiho. The king feared that his own line of succession would be jeopardized by the ardor of prince and princess.

Because he would be outranked by the offspring of their union (as would any children of his own marriage to Emma Rooke), he forced his sister into breaking off her relationship with Lunalilo. (de Silva)

“Kamāmalu died at 10 am on May 29, 1866, at Papakanene house at Mokuʻaikaua… She was in bed for three weeks before she was taken.”

“On Sunday evenings the members of her two churches pleaded with the Lord, but the trouble was too grave for their petitions. The doctors, too, were unable to make her well. The length of her life was 27 years and seven months.” (ʻIʻi; de Silva)

She died without a written will, so her vast landholdings, including much of the original private lands of her mother and Queen Kaʻahumanu, were inherited by her father and eventually passed to her half-sister Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani who willed them to Bernice Pauahi Bishop and where they became part of the Kamehameha Schools.

January 13, 2026 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Ginaca

‘Pineapple’ was given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone. It was first recorded in the Islands in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adviser to King Kamehameha I.

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco; then, canned pineapple.

The pineapple canning industry began in Baltimore in the mid-1860s and used fruit imported from the Caribbean. (Bartholomew)

Commercial pineapple production (which started about 1890 with hand peeling and cutting operations) soon developed a procedure based on classifying the fruit into a number of grades by diameter centering the pineapple on the core axis and cutting fruit cylinders to provide slices to fit the No. 1, 2 and 2-1/2 can sizes. (ASME)

Up to about 1913, various types of hand operated sizing and coring machines were used to perform this operation. The ends of the pineapple were first cut off by hand. The pineapple was then centered on the core and sized.

Production rates were about 10 to 15 pineapples per minute. A large amount of labor was required, and it was not practical to recover the available juice material from the skins. (ASME)

The first profitable lot of canned pineapples was produced by Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1903 and the industry grew rapidly from there. (Bartholomew) In 1907 Hawaiian Pineapple Company opened it cannery in Iwilei.

About 1911, Henry Gabriel Ginaca of the Honolulu Iron Works Company, Honolulu, was engaged by Mr James Dole, founder of Hawaiian Pineapple Company, to develop the machine which made the Hawaiian pineapple industry possible and which bears his name today. (ASME)

The early Ginaca had a production capacity of about 50 pineapples per minute and required from three to five operators depending on how much inspection of the machine product was performed at the machine.

The increase in production from 15 to 50 pineapples per minute was enough to reduce the cannery size to economical proportions and made possible the design of efficient preparation lines. Once the new preparation and handling systems were proven the industry grew rapidly.

The term “Ginaca” is now generally applied to a variety of machines which are designed to automatically center the pineapple on the core, cut out a fruit cylinder, eradicate the crushed and juice material from the outer skin, cut off the ends and remove the central fibrous core.

The cored cylinder leaving the Ginaca machine is then passed to a preparation line where each fruit is treated individually to remove cylinder defects or adhering bits of skin. (ASME)

After a number of years of constantly increasing production, a new high-speed machine was designed at the Hawaiian Pineapple Company capable of preparing from 90 to 100 pineapples per minute depending on fruit size.

The Ginaca machine made canning pineapple economically possible. As a result, until the “jet age” Hawaii had an agricultural economy and pineapple was the second largest crop (behind sugar.)

Henry Ginaca was born May 19, 1876. The records are not clear whether he was born in California or in Winnemucca, Nevada, where his father had worked as a civil engineer. His father was Italian, his mother French.

While a teenager, he became an apprentice at the old Union Iron Works in San Francisco. He also took a course in mathematics to enable him to become a mechanical draftsman.

He was hired by the Honolulu Iron Works and came to Honolulu, apparently to work on engine designs. Dole later hired Ginaca to work specifically on a mechanical fruit peeling and coring machine.

He joined Hawaiian Pineapple Co in March, 1911, at a salary of $300 per month, a substantial wage in those days. Ginaca was 35 years old.

In the first year of Ginaca’s employment he came up with the initial design for his machine. From then until 1914 he added improvements and refinements to it.

Though many “bugs” had to be worked out, Ginaca’s machine was a success from the beginning. The machine was awarded a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

In 1914 Ginaca and his two brothers decided to return to the mainland and try their hand at mining. The mining ventures of the three brothers were failures.

For Henry Ginaca, a productive career came to an untimely end on October 19, 1918, when he died of influenza and pneumonia at the old Mother Lode mining camp of Hornitos. He was only 42. (ASME)

Dole bought the island of Lānaʻi and established a vast 200,000-acre pineapple plantation to meet the growing demands. Lānaʻi throughout the entire 20th century produced more than 75% of world’s total pineapple.

By 1930 Hawai‘i led the world in the production of canned pineapple and had the world’s largest canneries. Production and sale of canned pineapple fell sharply during the world depression that began in 1929, but rapid growth in the volume of canned juice after 1933 restored industry profitability.

But establishment of plantations and canneries in the Philippines in 1964 and in Thailand in 1972, led to a decline in Hawai‘i (mainly because foreign-based canneries had labor costs approximately one-tenth those in Hawai‘i.) As the Hawaii canneries closed, the industry gradually shifted to the production of fresh pineapples. (Bartholomew)

In 1991, the Dole Cannery closed. Today, Dole Food Company, headquartered on the continent, is a well-established name in the field of growing and packaging food products such as pineapples, bananas, strawberries, grapes and many others.

The Dole Plantation tourist attraction, established in 1950 as a small fruit stand but greatly expanded in 1989 serves as a living museum and historical archive of Dole and pineapple in Hawai‘i.

January 12, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bill Anderson

‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson, a silent screen actor, was the first western film hero and star in The Great Train Robbery (1903.) He later played in over 300 short films.

Wait … this summary is not about that actor, this is about Bill Anderson (another actor,) born September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington, to parents Otto and Audrey Anderson.

He was raised on the family farm. When his parents divorced (when he was 15,) he moved with his mother and his younger brother, John, to Seattle. He was torn between being a farmer like his father or pursue art, which his mother (a concert pianist, singer and artist) had been unable to do.

He attended Walla Walla High School during his freshman and sophomore years, and later enrolled in Lakeside School in Seattle and graduated in 1946.

A childhood and college buddy was Carl Hebenstreit. Bill and Carl both went to Whitman College in Walla Walla and graduated in 1951. Anderson played water polo, ran track, skied and swam at Whitman College.

Anderson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and a minor in Psychology; he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and participated in the speech and debate team. (Patalon)

His interest in entertainment was evident while he was at college, where he was involved in the launch of a television station, as well as working as a disc jockey.

After graduating, he got a job as a DJ at a local radio station; then enrolled at Stanford for post-graduate courses. Drafted into the military, he spent the next 2 years starting military TV stations, first at San Luis Obispo, CA, then at Fort Monmouth, NJ. Afterwards, he and his wife (Billie Lou) toured Europe, visiting Germany, Switzerland and Italy’s Isle of Capri.

Then, the money ran out.

It was 1955 … he met up with his old friend, Carl Hebenstreit, who encouraged Bill to come to Hawai‘i. Carl just previously made Hawai‘i television history when at shortly after 5 pm, December 1, 1952, he uttered, “Hello Everybody. Welcome to the first official broadcast of KGMB-TV.” It was the pioneer broadcast in the Islands.

Carl had been starring in a children’s program in Hawai‘i called ‘The Kini Popo Show’ (the first morning television show in Hawai‘i) and asked Bill to work with him on the show. (Carl took the stage name ‘Kini Popo.’)

“I started at CBS in Honolulu, and the guy who was the first big TV personality on the islands, Kini Popo, was an old school friend. He decided to go south to New Zealand, and I was picked to take his place. And that’s what started it all for me. It was like two hours every morning, doing whatever I could to be entertaining.” (Anderson; AVClub)

In 1956, he divorced Billie Lou, and while in the Islands met and married an attractive Tahitian Princess Ngatokoruaimatauaia called Frisbie Dawson, whom he calls ‘Nga.’

That year he made his film debut occurs in the film “Voodoo Island” starring Boris Karloff who happened to be filming in the Islands at the time. To make ends meet he also worked as a tour guide.

He moved to Hollywood and did some other films with supporting roles with the Three Stooges, Paul Newman and Spaghetti and local Westerns.

Still a relatively unknown, his break came after filming a TV commercial for Nestle’s Quik chocolate mix, playing a comical spy in a deadpan manner. Here’s a link to the commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNcoJtsZhg

By then, Bill Anderson was using the stage name, ‘Adam West.’

“My agent told me that 20th Century Fox and ABC were impressed by commercial I did for Nestle, and I now need to start a new project … Batman.” (West; Batmania)

Finally the day of the debut comes a January 12, 1966, with thousands of watching what was advertised as a feat of special effects never seen colors and foremost a totally modern and renovated hero television viewers.

“I was going to my house when I stopped at a supermarket to step to buy some things, and people who were in the boxes rebuked him to the cashier: ‘Hurry up, fast please, that is Batman started,’ I was really moved by all the expectations that had been generated in the people and that he could not experience by being locked in studies in recent weeks.” (West; Batmania)

Though he has over 60-movies and over 80-TV guest appearance credits, “Batman” is what the fans remember him for. The series, which lasted three seasons, made him not just nationally but internationally famous.

The movie version, Batman: The Movie (1966) earned Adam the “Most Promising New Star” award in 1967. The downside was that the “Batman” fame was partly responsible for ruining his marriage, and he would be typecast and almost unemployable for a while after the series ended (he did nothing but personal appearances for 2 years). (IMDb)

West married his first wife, Billie Lou Yeager, in 1950, only to divorce in 1956. His second marriage to Nga Dawson, a Hawaiian Dancer, resulted in two children. In 1970 he married his present wife, Marcelle Lear, with whom he now has four children.

Adam West is the author of two books, ‘Back to the Batcave’ and ‘Climbing the Walls.’ More than 50 years after starting his career in Hollywood, Adam West continues to work consistently in TV and film. (AdamWest) (Carl Hebenstreit was president and CEO of Trade Publishing, which produces magazines and newsletters.) (Lots of information here is from Batmania, IMDb, SoylentComm and AdamWest-com.)