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December 8, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Big 3

In 1953, the Canada Cup golf tournament was founded by Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins, for “the furtherance of good fellowship and better understanding among the nations of the world through the medium of international golf competition” (SI) (It changed its named to the World Cup in 1967).

The tournament traveled the globe and grew to be one of golf’s most prestigious tournaments throughout the 1960s and 1970s. With play starting in Montreal Canada, and later held in England, Ireland, Paris, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Melbourne, in 1964, the Canada Cup was held in Kaanapali, Maui for what was Hawai‘i’s first major sporting event.

At the time, ‘The Big Three’ (Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player) dominated golf. They won four of 10 Vardon Trophies for low scoring average, seven of 10 PGA Tour money titles and 17 of the decade’s 40 majors.

Then, they came to Hawai’i for the Canada Cup on Maui. “Jack Nicklaus surged from behind … and beat out his collapsing team¬mate, Arnold Palmer, for the individual title in the 12th Can¬ada Cup international golf tour¬nament.”

“Nicklaus fired a final 70 for a 72-hole score of 276. Palmer, a front‐runner for’ three days, three‐putted the final two greens for a 78 and a score of 278.”

“Player, starting the final round only three shots back of Palmer, went into a tailspin on the final nine, getting four bogeys in a row for a closing 76.” (NY Times, December 7, 1964)

The team of Nicklaus and Palmer won the tournament team play (with a record score) and Nicklaus the individual prize (Hawai‘i’s Ted Makalena was tied for 3rd with Gary Player)). (Gary Player Golf)

Following the tournament, The Big Three came to the Big Island to open the newly completed Mauna Kea Beach Hotel’s golf course and tackled its Number 3 hole.

The Big Three spent years traveling around the world, playing in exhibition matches and filming for television audiences. It was these years that brought them closest as the golfers and their families spent a lot of time together on these travels.

These matches designed for just The Big Three were unlike other tournaments where plenty of other golfers and their families were present.

Traveling together, rooming together, and even vacationing together and staying in one another’s homes brought the three and their families very close, forming life-long friendships. (Gary Player Golf)

‘Big Three Golf’ was a made-for-television series of golf matches between the three. The first season, in 1964, included four rounds at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Then, the Big Island.

There, Laurance Rockefeller decided to build the world’s finest resort along the Kohala coastline of the then undeveloped Mauna Kea (Hawaiian for White Mountain), he knew he needed a golf course worthy of his vision.

Rockefeller turned to Robert Trent Jones Sr., the preeminent designer of the day and the architect of more than 400 courses around the world.

As they overlooked the panoramic view of Kauna’oa Bay, Jones’ response was a promise that has become a golfing legend. “Mr. Rockefeller, if you allow me to build a golf course here, this’ll be the most beautiful hole in the world.”

On December 8, 1964, for a Skins game broadcast nationwide on NBC, the trio reached No. 3’s tee box it was set back 250 yards from the green – with 170 of those yards over the crashing waters of an inlet. Only Arnold Palmer reached the green.

No. 3 was instantly iconic. (Mauna Kea Living)

The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel opened on July 24, 1965, as the most expensive resort of its time and outranked the family’s Rockefeller Center on the American Institute of Architects awards a year later.

Price tag: $15 million, or roughly $113 million in today’s dollars. Rates started at $43 a night, breakfast and dinner included. (Clark; Daily Herald)

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Number 3-Mauna Kea Living

Number 3-Big Three plaque

Robert Trent Jones Sr., center in jacket, designed the Mauna Kea golf course-Laurance Rockefeller to his right

Mauna-Kea-Golf-Course-Number 3

Mauna-Kea-Golf-Number 3

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player

Palmer, Nicklaus, Player

Palmer, Gerald Ford, Nicklaus, Player

December 7, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Prince Kūhiō’s View on Pearl Harbor

“I shall simply cite some historical facts to show how conclusively and for how long a time the strategic value of Pearl Harbor and the Hawaiian Islands has been officially recognized by the Government of the United States.”

“Beginning in 1842, President Tyler gave notice to European nations that the United States would never consent to their occupying the Hawaiian Islands.”

“In 1851, when the French were threatening to occupy Hawaii, Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, wrote: ‘I hope the French will not take possession of Hawaii; but if they do, they will be dislodged, if my advice is taken, if the whole power of the Government is required to do it.’”

“William L. Marcy, when Secretary of State, reiterated the declaration that Hawaii would not be permitted to fall into the hands of any European nation. Up to that time there was no menace of Hawaiian occupation by any nation other than European.”

“Almost a third of a century ago, when King Kalakaua was the reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States, by reciprocity treaty, obtained rights over the waters of Pearl Harbor. This was the first step toward carrying out the policy announced by President Tyler thirty-five years previously.”

“Coming down to the days of Blaine and McKinley, we find those, statesmen repeating the declarations of their predecessors.”

“By the time that President McKinley reached the White House, it had become apparent that the danger of the occupation of Hawaii by a foreign power had been shifted from European nations to those of the Orient.”

“Finally, ten years ago, when the unexpected events of the Spanish-American war thrust a new situation upon this nation, it became apparent that it was necessary for the United States to acquire the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands, both for the protection of the Pacific coast and in order to make it possible to maintain any naval base in the Far East.”

“But although this Government annexed the Hawaiian Islands for the particular value of their strategic location, they have permitted almost ten years to pass without turning a sod or laying one foundation stone toward the actual construction of a naval station at Pearl Harbor.”

“It is true that a magnificent site of over 600 acres of ground has been acquired for this purpose.”

“The 10 square miles of landlocked waters in Pearl Harbor could easily accommodate the combined fleets of this nation and of Great Britain, but that can never give shelter to a battle ship till docks are built and the channel approach is straightened.”

“The importance of Pearl Harbor as a naval and military base has been repeatedly urged by men able and experienced in military and naval science; among them Captain (now Admiral) AT Mahan, who pointed out with unanswerable arguments the commanding importance of Pearl Harbor as the key to the Pacific.”

“Gentlemen of the committee, this Government has for ten years neglected the safeguard of preparing a naval base in the mid-Pacific.”

“Our relations with other nations are such to-day that it would be inexcusable neglect of the responsibility of Congress to the nation to postpone the beginning of this work another year.”

“The Navy Department and the General Board are at last keenly awake to the urgent need of opening Pearl Harbor and building a dry dock there at once. Both these lines of work should be carried on together, and both should be provided for in this bill.”

“I would respectfully suggest that your committee invite Admiral Dewey or some member of the Naval Board to appear before you and state to you personally in an executive session some of their reasons for the urgency of work at Pearl Harbor, which they may not care to transmit to you in writing.”

“The development of Pearl Harbor is not a Hawaiian proposition; it is a national need. But as my nation gave over its sovereignty to this country ten years ago, we have a right to ask, and we do ask that adequate protection be provided for our islands, so that we could not be captured by a single hostile battle ship as could be done to-day.”

“Coast fortifications alone are not sufficient; there must be an operating base for war vessels as well as coast defenses, and the latter are useless without the former.”

“Hawaii should be defended for its own protection; but I repeat that it is far more important for the offensive and defensive plans of the nation as a whole.” (Prince Kūhiō Statement, Committee on Naval Affairs, January 29, 1908)

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U.S.. Naval Station, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, looking North East by East,(NHHC) circa 1918

December 6, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Islanders Fill Labor Demands

As early as 1811, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

“On 21 January 1829 the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner Cadboro, Aemilius Simpson master, arrived at Honolulu from Fort
Vancouver with a small shipment of spars and sawn lumber.” (Spoehr)

The earliest location of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s store appears to have been on the Ewa, or north side of Nu‘uanu street, adjoining the ‘Blonde’ lot (Boki’s bar) cornering on King, premises that became well known as ‘Aienui’ – great debt.

“On 23 October 1833 the Governor and Committee in London appointed George Pelly the Company agent in Honolulu. … George Pelly arrived in Honolulu from England in August 1834. His instructions from London outlined his duties, paramount of which were the sale of Company produce from the Northwest Coast …”

“… provisioning of Company vessels passing through Honolulu, and providing freight for Company vessels homeward bound to England.” (Spoehr) Between 1829 and 1859, the Hudson’s Bay Company was a leading merchant house in Hawai‘i.

“The ships of the Company engaged in the North-west trade appear to have made Honolulu a port of call en route from London early in its career here, leaving such freight and miscellaneous merchandise as found a ready market, and occasionally so on the homeward voyage.” (Thrum)

Historians suggest “that young Hawaiian males left Hawai’i as workers on whaling ships and traveled to China, Europe, Mexico, and the U.S. mainland. In addition, many ventured into the Pacific Northwest territory, worked in the fur trade, and ended up settling in those areas.” (pbs-org)

The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Hudson’s Bay Company steadily grew. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village at Fort Vancouver led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s.

In an agreement between Kekaunaoa (Governor of Oahu and father of Kamehameha IV & V) and Pelly (agent for Hudson’s Bay Company in Honolulu), notes,

“Kekuanaoa allows Mr. Pelly to take sixty men to the Columbia River, to dwell there three years and at the end of the said term of three years Mr. Pelly agrees to return them to the island of Oahu.”

“And if it shall appear that any of the men have died it is well; but if they have deserted by reason of ill-treatment, or remain for any other cause, then Mr. Pelly will pay twenty dollars for each man [who may be deficient].” (NPS)

The agreement illustrates the common practice for HBC, that drew workers from the Islands and elsewhere. “Delaware and Iriquois Indians mingled with men of the South Seas in its employ, and with Canadian yoyageurs and Scotch factor served out their lot, even if it meant, as it sometimes did, death in the wilderness.” (Blue)

The Islands “furnished valuable recruits to the explorers and traders who followed in Cook’s wake, and to the whalers who followed them.” (Blue)

As the year 1859 started, Pacific whaling entered its decline, the Agency’s competition in the importation of goods increased. Janion Green and Co. (forerunner of Theo H. Davies), Hackfeld and Co. (forerunner of Amfac,) C Brewer, and Castle and Cooke (the beginnings of the Big Five) were established firms.

The Honolulu market was overstocked with goods, and trade was slow. In 1859, HBC decided to close its Hawaiʻi operations; a couple years later, they were gone.

“In the summer of 1865 some Hawaiian fishermen and their “wahine,” who had sailed the placid Pacific in search of new realms for their nomad spirits, arrived in San Francisco bay only to discover that the cool fogs bred dire distress in lungs used to none but the fervid breezes of a tropic sea …”

“… so on they kept until, after a day and night of clear weather, they reached Vernon, a busy farming community on the banks of the Feather river.” (The San Francisco Call – March 26, 1911)

“It was here that San Mahalone and his companions built their huts and that today their children and grandchildren are peopling this colony this begun over 40-years ago …”

“… preserving their individuality and accumulating properties and competencies on the fertile lands of Sutter county.” (The San Francisco Call – March 26, 1911)

“Hawaiians also migrated to Yolo County, California to participate in the Gold Rush and created their own Kanaka Village. There is evidence that Hawaiians settled across California in the late-1800s and even intermarried with Native Americans. “

“Many scholars speculate that Hawaiians migrated to the mainland in order to gain more economic opportunity and to flee from the dramatic Westernization that was changing the face of Hawai’i.” (pbs-org)

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Hudson_Bay_Company,_Honolulu,_by_Paul_Emmert-1853

December 5, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Great Stone Church’

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of the American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i – (two Ordained Preachers, Hiram & Sybil Bingham and Asa and Lucy Thurston; two Teachers, Samuel & Mercy Whitney and Samuel & Mary Ruggles; a Doctor, Thomas & Lucia Holman; a Printer, Elisha & Maria Loomis; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain (and his family.)

With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Humehume. They arrived in Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820. On May 3, 1820, Ruggles and Whitney took Humehume home to Kauai.

“Visited the king (Kaumuali‘i) and read to him in his Bible. He expresses an earnest desire to know all that is contained in the Bible, saying frequently, I want to understand it; and when you learn my language I shall know it.”

“He often says he wants Atooi (Kauai) to be like America. Today he told me he would support all the mission family if they would come to Atooi—that he would build as many school-houses as we wished, and a large meeting-house, and have a sabbath day and have prayers and singing.” (Ruggles, May 16, 1820)

Kaumuali‘i gave land for the first mission building. This land was on the east side of the Waimea River near the Russian Fort and included enough farmland to grow the food needed for sustaining the mission. The first building was a thatched structure.

After ten years of using the thatched structure, Reverend Samuel Whitney constructed a stone and mud building on the present site of the church. Unfortunately, the stone walls were not soundly stacked and the building toppled over and had to be rebuilt. (Waimea UCC)

In 1846 the Reverend George Berkeley Rowell came from the Waioli Mission to rebuild the stone church. He was an architect and cabinetmaker as well as a pastor. He planned for a grand church that would be the most beautiful building on the island.

The lehua timbers for the roof would be cut down with stone adzes from the steep cliffs of Koke’e and floated in the ocean to treat the wood against termites. (Waimea UCC)

The Great Stone Church was constructed of local sandstone. Its simple rectangular plan is capped by a gable roof with returns, surmounted by a truncated steeple. (SAH)

Limestone blocks would be cut from a ledge about a mile away and dragged to the site by oxen. Mortar was made by diving into the sea a dozen fathoms from canoes to bring up coral to be crushed and burned in a limekiln.

The church members earned money by raising and shipping potatoes to people who had come to California to search for gold. With this new source of income, the work on the church continued.

After seven years of planning and labor, the walls went up in 1853. The building was completed in 1854 (except for the floor, added in 1858), and was dedicated with a worship service.

The building was built in Victorian style as can be noted in the large pointed arches of the windows. The coral-colored exterior stood out and could be seen from some distance at sea.

However the church has become more russet colored over time because of the staining effect of the red earth in the area. The completed church attained a bell that had been created in 1836 for the original stone structure and shipped from New England.

The inscription reads from Psalm 100: “E hele mai imua o kona ale me ke oli ana i ike oukou o Jehova oia no ke akua” (Come before His presence with singing that you may know Jehovah is God). (Waimea UCC)

Rowell presided over it until 1865, when he was suspended from the Hawaiian Evangelical Association on account of his suspect theological positions and reports that he had had illicit relations with a Hawaiian woman.

A number of Hawaiians stood by Rowell, and the pastor and his congregation tried to hold control over the stone church. However, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled against them and, in 1867, Rowell and his followers formed the Waimea Hawaiian Church, building a Victorian frame church at the corner of Kaumualii Highway and Halepule Road.

Rowell continued as its pastor until his death in 1884. In 1992 Hurricane Iniki collapsed this charming building; the congregation rebuilt it along the lines of the original.

Following Rowell’s discharge, the Great Stone Church’s congregation greatly declined, and between 1873 and 1889 it had no regular minister. It became the Waimea Foreign Church in 1894.

The church was remodeled around 1920, with the belfry being rebuilt and the openings given shallow Gothic arches. Hurricane Iniki decimated the roof and, in turn, the interior, leading to its restoration in 1993. (SAH)

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Waimea UCC

Waimea UCC-AlanRichards

December 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Thrift Stamps

“Department of the treasury officials are planning a campaign beginning December 3 (1917) to raise $2,000,000,000 in small savings through the sale of thrift-stamps, war-savings stamps and war-savings certificate.” (Star Bulleting, November 14, 1917)

“If you own a Thrift Stamp, it means that you want to help Win the War that you belong to the big, invincible Army of Thrift which is standing like a human wall behind that other Army, the Army of our fathers and brothers, and all the men we are so proud of ‘Over there.’”

“It doesn’t take much to buy a Thrift Stamp save up the nickles and see! When you have bought one Thrift Stamp, it doesn’t take long to fill up your card and get a War Savings Stamp and with every Stamp you buy, you are helping the Flag to go forward. Don’t forget that!” (Thrift Stamp Advertisement, The Garden Island, May 28, 1918)

“The war stamp drive begins next Tuesday. Everybody – old and young – are expected to sign a pledge agreeing to buy a certain number of thrift stamps every week for the remainder of the year.” (Maui News, May 17, 1917)

“Details on the war savings certificates, war-savings stamps and thrift stamps campaign to be opened by the United States department of the treasury on December 1, have been received by Robert F. Stever, general executive secretary of the local liberty loan committee during the recent campaign.”

“The sale of the war savings certificates will give the citizens of small means an opportunity to make investments in government securities.”

“The war-savings campaign will be in line with the general movement towards economy which has been inaugurated through the United States and its territories.”

“The war-savings certificate will be worth $100, when it matures on January 1, 1923. The war-savings stamp will have a maturity value of $5 in five years. A thrift stamp will be valued at 25 cents at the time purchased.”

“The plan makes it feasible for anyone to buy a $100 certificate in instalments of 25 cents. A thrift card will be provided and every time one has 25 cents to spare a thrift stamp can be purchased.”

“When the sixteen spaces on the thrift card are all filled with ‘two-bits’ thrift stamps the card is worth $4. It is then turned in together with the difference between $4 and the current price of a war-savings stamp. The war-savings stamp will be issued for $4.12 with a maturity value of $5 in 1923.”

“So that when a thrift card is filled, it can be turned in together with 12 cents for a war-savings stamp which has a par of $5 in five years. With the purchase of a war-savings stamp a $100 war-savings certificate with 20 blank spaces to which war-savings stamps may be affixed will be given.”

“When the holder of the certificate has finally filled the document with 20 war-savings stamps he will have a government paper that will be worth $100 in 1923, but which has cost him $82.40 to get.” (Star Bulletin, November 24, 1917)

“Chairman R. A. Wadsworth states that he expects Maui to average $20 per capita. This should be entirely feasible. It means the saving of only about 70 cents per week per person.”

“Of course there are many who will not be able to do this well, but there are also a great many others who should do so very much better that it will bring up the average.”

“A big corps of workers have been appointed for the different districts and they will begin having pledge cards signed up on next Tuesday. When a solicitor gives you a card fill it in for every cent you believe you can spare each week and then keep your promise.”

“Don’t forget that while you are helping Uncle Sam by lending him your money, you are also saving the money for your self and getting good interest for it. You will be glad to have a nice little next egg at the end of the year.” (Maui News, May 17, 1917)

“A small-sums war thrift plan has been organized by the Federal government to go into operation Dec. 3, probably somewhat later here.”

“Twenty-five, cent thrift stamps are being issued to be sold by the post office and various other agencies.”

“These stamps are to be affixed to a card, and when this card, which will hold 16 stamps, is full, it can be exchanged for a War Saving $4 stamp which will bear interest at 4%, compounded quarterly.”

“These stamps in turn will be exchanged, when they amount to that much, for US $100 certificates, which will finally be redeemed in 1923.”

“Having the entire wealth of the United States back of them, and being redeemable as above stated, there is no danger of any depreciation in value of the certificates.” (Garden Island, December 4, 1917)

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