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March 2, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Steamer Subsidy

The Airline Deregulation Act, passed in 1978, gave air carriers almost total freedom to determine which markets to serve domestically and what fares to charge for that service.

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program was put into place to guarantee that small communities that were served by certificated air carriers before airline deregulation maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service.

The US Department of Transportation is mandated to provide eligible EAS communities with access to the National Air Transportation System.

This is generally accomplished by subsidizing two round trips a day with 30- to 50-seat aircraft, or additional frequencies with aircraft with 9-seat or fewer, usually to a large- or medium-hub airport. (US DOT)

The program was put into place to guarantee that small communities served by certificated air carriers before airline deregulation maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service. The US Department of Transportation is mandated to provide eligible communities access to air transportation and that is generally accomplished by subsidizing trips. (Jensen)

Transportation subsidies are not new – especially in the Islands.

“The Legislature of this Kingdom has just granted to the California, Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company the sum of $50,000, in consideration of running a steamer every twenty-one days between the port and San Francisco, at a stipulated price for freight and passage, carrying the mail free of charge to the Hawaiian Government.”

“Ben Halliday, Jr, has been here for several weeks piloting the bill through the House, and the skilful engineering displayed in the operation reflects credit on the business capacity of so young a man.”

“The subsidy question created, amongst all classes, a lively interest during its pendency.”

“The press was filled with animated discussion on the part of its enemies and partisans. The latter claimed vast benefit to the kingdom, in perspective, from steam communication with California, while the opposition argued that the Company would find it to their interest to run a steamer in any case …”

“… if not, some other Company would, and by appropriating the $50,000 to local improvements the country would derive a positive and visible benefit.”

“The members seemed to be equally divided, as the result of the vote will show, until the final passage of the bill by a majority of seven votes.” Following are some of the provisions of the steamer subsidy:

“Whereas, The maintenance of frequent and regular communication with San Francisco, by steam, is important to the welfare of this Kingdom; and, whereas, to establish such communication, an outlay is unavoidable at the outset, which cannot be fully remunerated from the business; therefore,”

“Be it enacted, by the King and the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands in the Legislature of the Kingdom assembled:
Section 1. The Minister of the Interior, on behalf of the Government of this kingdom, is hereby authorized to contract with individuals or incorporated companies for running efficient and seaworthy vessels … between Honolulu and San Francisco …”

“… in consideration of which there shall be paid to said individuals or companies, a sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars per year for the term of two years …”

“… provided that … trips shall be regularly run not less frequently than once in twenty one days from each end of the route, that the running the running time shall not be more than twelve days from port to port …”

“Sec 2. In order to carry the provisions of this act into full effect, the Minister of Finance, with the consent of His Majesty the King in Privy Council, is hereby authorized to issue from time to time the bonds of the government …” (Daily Alta California, June 30, 1868)

Back to the airline subsidies … the Airline Deregulation Act made communities receiving scheduled air service from a certificated carrier on October 24, 1978, eligible for EAS benefits.

At that time, there were 746 eligible communities, including 237 in Alaska and nine in Hawai‘i. According to a DOT estimate, fewer than 300 of these 746 communities received subsidized service under EAS at any time between 1979 and 2015. (Tang)

Starting October 1, 2012, no new communities can enter the program should they lose their unsubsidized service. Airports that were formerly eligible but did not receive subsidized service during the specified year are no longer eligible for subsidized service, and may not reenter the program. (Tang)

Communities in Alaska and Hawaii are generally exempt from almost all EAS eligibility requirements, except one measure that directs that no EAS funds “shall be used to enter into a new contract with a community located less than 40 miles from the nearest small hub airport before the Secretary has negotiated with the community over a local cost share.”

This requirement does not affect any Alaska EAS communities, since none is within 40 miles of the nearest small hub airport. However, one community in Hawai‘i, Kamuela, may be affected when its current service agreement expires in 2017, if the cost-sharing requirement for communities within 40 miles of a small hub is adopted in future legislation. (Tang) (Image shows SS California, a representative steam ship of the time)

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March 1, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Blending Traditional and Modern Medicine

In the Islands, “Medicine is generally practiced by the priests (kahuna la‘au lapa‘au,) whose contemplative way of life has led them to acquirement of some knowledge of botany …”

“… they understand the use and application of vomits and clysters, which are drawn from the vegetable reign, and sometimes exhibited with success.”

“Topical bleedings is also in use, but a larger share of priestcraft and mummery enters into their practice. Fortunately the good constitutions and temperance of these islanders prevents their having often occasion for the skill of their physicians.” (Shaler, 1804)

The medical practice in the 1820s and 1830s was not as advanced as many people might assume. The end result of treatments by Western doctors and Hawaiian doctors were the same: purging, vomiting, sweating or managing pain.

Disease was not well understood and was attributed to a mixture of outside influences and physical influences of the afflicted person. Climate, age, temperament, gender, lifestyle, and “constitution” (a subjective idea of how susceptible to disease people were) were thought to cause disease.

Remedies included changes of climate, cupping or bloodletting (in order to weaken the disease you had to weaken the patient), changes in diet, herb or plant based ingestible medications, external topical plasters, and chemicals were all part of the Western pharmacology.

Dr Gerrit P Judd was one of the very few Western doctors in Hawai‘i that was interested in learning about Hawaiian medical practices and remedies. He hired Native Hawaiian assistants and apprentices. (Mission Houses)

Judd’s fairness would not let him condemn everything about the native materia medica. No doubt other haole physicians had indulged a curiosity about kahuna medications, might even have tested or used some of them.

But Dr. Judd was the only haole physician of the 19th century who has left evidence that he knew from personal experience the properties of at least some of the native medicines.

Always inquisitive, always sympathetic to the good things his adopted people could offer, and genuinely fond of them as individuals, Judd investigated their pharmacopoeia very early in his career as a physician among them. (Bushnell)

“It has been an object with me not to oppose the practice of the native physicians in mass, but to endeavor by the best means in my power to correct and modify their practice so that it shall save, not kill, the people.”

“It is my intention, if possible, the coming year to make Ho‘ohano (his assistant) acquainted with the native practices as it now exists and make him the agent for collecting facts on the subject.”

“It is out of the question for us to think of putting down the native practice unless we will attend all the sick ourselves, since it is not human nature to be sick & die without seeking some means of alleviation.”

“The idea of improving the native doctors has therefore suggested itself to me as an exceedingly important one demanding immediate attention.” (Judd, Report to Sandwich Islands Mission, 1839)

“At the commencement of the year (1839) I took a young man who had been at the Seminary six years, with a view to giving him instruction in the Medical art.”

“I commenced the investigation of the native practice and by the aid of these two assistants (Ho‘ohano & Kalili) obtained from several native Drs the various doctrines and practices of the art which have come down through the legalized channels mai ka wa kahiko mai (from ancient times.)”

“These investigations occupied several weeks in the early part of the year and have been continued as opportunity afforded.”

“We also instituted a series of experiments on native medicines which resulted pretty much as all experiments of the kind usually do.”

“We found we could prepare from the native Gourd alone, or combined with Koali (morning glory) or Pipa (Japanese plum) and extract which would physic most delightfully & like Brandreths Pills to any amount which might be desirable.” (Judd, Report to Sandwich Islands Mission, 1839)

Over the years Dr Judd modified his practice to include Native Hawaiian ingredients in his treatments. He also published the first medical textbook in 1838, Anatomia, and founded the first medical school in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1870. (Mission Houses)

Anatomia is the only medical textbook written in the Hawaiian language. Dr Judd, for a time the only medical missionary in the Islands, wrote the text in 1838 to teach basic anatomy to Hawaiians enrolled at the Mission Seminary (Lahainaluna.)

Working from a standard elementary textbook of the time, Judd provided his students with more than a simple, straight translation. He devised a new vocabulary and explained medical functions and practices in words that would be understood by a Hawaiian.

Judd’s use of Hawaiian terms and descriptions gives us insights into native cultural and healing practices in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

Anatomia is a valuable addition to the growing collection of translations on native health and will be greatly appreciated by linguists, historians, and students of Hawaiian language and culture. (Mission Houses) The image shows the Judd Dispensatory at Mission Houses.

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February 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1880s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1880s – Kalākaua goes on his world tour, Matson acquires his first vessel, Pauahi dies, Bayonet Constitution and Pearl Harbor is leased by US Navy. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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Timeline-1880s

February 24, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Church of England Mission

“Polynesian Church (1861) – The committee for promoting the establishment of a Church in Honolulu, in communion with the Churches of England and America …”

“… having taken into consideration the King of Hawai‘i’s desire to receive a mission from the Church of England headed by a Bishop, are of opinion that measures should be taken for fulfilling the desire thus put, we trust, by God into the heart of His Majesty.”

“That having respect to the importance of these Islands as a probable centre of Christian influence in the North Pacific Archipelago, as well as to the immediate needs of the actual population of the Hawaiian group, an earnest appeal for support be made to the Church at home.”

“That as it appears by letters from the Bishops of California and New York, that there is a readiness on behalf of the American Church to unite in this effort …”

“… the committee hail with gratitude to God such an opening for common missionary action between the two great branches of the Reformed Catholic Church.”

“That the Bishops of California and New York be requested to convey to the Church in America most earnest invitations from this committee to unite in the work.”

“The city of Honolulu contains, besides its native population, European and American residents. The French Roman Catholics possess a cathedral, with a Bishop, clergy, &c., and the American Congregationalists have also places of worship.”

“The King offers on his own behalf and that of his subjects and residents who desire the establishment of the English Church, a yearly payment of £200 and to give the site for a church, parsonage, &c.”

“It is also probable that a grant of land may be made for the future support of the Mission. The resources of the Islands can probably not do much more at present than this, and the committee appeal with earnestness to their fellow Churchmen to assist in sending forth labourers into this part of the Lord’s vineyard.”

“The two venerable Societies, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, immediately signified their approval of the movement by liberal grants in its aid.”

And so was formed the mission of the Church of England (Anglican) to the Islands.

“A farewell service for the Mission party was held in Westminster Abbey, when the Bishop preached, and the Holy Communion was administered to a large number, chiefly the friends and supporters of the undertaking.”

“The Mission party, consisting of the Bishop of Honolulu and family (Right Reverend Thomas Nettleship Staley,) the Rev. G. Mason, M.A., and the Rev. E. Ibbotson, embarked at Southampton for the Isthmus of Panama, on the 17th of August, 1862.”

“The weather was propitious. On the twelfth day of the voyage Molokai and Maui were passed, looking beautiful in the setting sun. In the morning the vessel was off Honolulu.”

“Full of thankfulness and hope, the Bishop and his companions held their last service in their little barque. Scarce had they risen from their knees, than they were greeted with the sad tidings, brought on board by the pilot, ‘The Prince of Hawaii is dead!’” (Prince Albert, son of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma.)

“Every member of the Mission felt this as an almost fatal blow. The baptism of the Prince had been anticipated as the inauguration, so to say, of the work.”

(“It was found on inquiry, that a Congregational minister had been summoned to baptize the little fellow privately, his distracted parents having first sent to the British man-of-war, ‘Termagant,’ which had lately arrived in port, to see if there were a chaplain on board. Alas there was none.”)

“(A) wooden temporary church was erected, to be used until the completion of the cathedral. This structure stands on the land given for the church by Kamehameha IV., one of the very best sites in Honolulu; and near to it are the Clergy House on one side, and the Female Boarding School on the other.”

With Honolulu as the base for the mission, at Lāhainā, “The Female Industrial Boarding School … (also) carries on there an English school for boys, supported mainly by the Board of Education. This is in addition to the spiritual work of the Mission, which with services, as at Honolulu, in both the English and the Hawaiian language”.

In Kona, “The Rev CG Williamson, trained at S. Augustine’s, Canterbury, and ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford, assisted by the Bishop of North Carolina, who was then in England, arrived in the Islands in March, 1867, to take part in the Mission.” Likewise in Wailuku, Maui, “The Rev GB Whipple, brother of the Bishop of Minnesota, opened his station early in 1866”.

“The Church is growing rapidly in the outside districts, such as Kona, Wailuku and Lāhainā. The local judge on Molokai, who is a member of our Church, states that there is a nice opening on that island; and, as the King lives a good deal there, a resident clergyman would not be out of the way.”

Initially the church was called the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church but the name would change in 1870 to the Anglican Church in Hawai‘i. In 1902 it came under the Episcopal Church of the US. (Information is from Project Canterbury.)

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St._Andrew’s_Pro-Cathedral-called the English Church-was the temporary cathedral until the actual cathedral could be finished

February 23, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wilkes Trail

Hawaiians laid out trails and evolved practices which assured availability of shelter, drinking fluids and firewood. (NPS)

In 1840, Lt Charles Wilkes, as part of the US Exploring Expedition, came to Hawai‘i to conduct experiments and make observations, including swinging pendulums on Mauna Loa’s summit to calculate the force of gravity. They hiked from Hilo to the summit.

Wilkes noted, “I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mr. Brinsmade, our worthy consul, and my friend Dr GP Judd, both of whom volunteered to accompany me in the novel and arduous enterprise I was about to undertake.”

They first landed in Hilo, “The scene which the island presents as viewed from the anchorage in Hilo Bay, is both novel and splendid : the shores are studded with extensive groves of cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, interspersed with plantations of sugar-cane …”

“… through these, numerous streams are seen hurrying to the ocean; to this succeeds a belt of some miles in width, free from woods, but clothed in verdure …”

“… beyond is a wider belt of forest, whose trees, as they rise higher and higher from the sea, change their characters from the vegetation of the tropics to that of polar regions ; and above all tower the snow-capped summits of the mountains.”

“From Hilo, Mauna Loa looks as if one might walk over its smooth surface without difficulty; there is, indeed, so much optical deception in respect to this mountain, that it served to give us all great encouragement, and we set about making our preparations with a determination to succeed in the attempt to reach its highest summit.”

“Beside about two hundred natives, the party consisted of Lieutenant Budd, Passed Midshipman Eld, Midshipman Elliott, Mr Brinsmade, Dr Pickering, Mr Brackenridge, Dr Judd, myself, and ten men, including our servants from the ship.”

“This was a large party; but when it is considered, that besides our instruments, tents, &c., provisions were to be carried, it will not be considered so disproportionate, especially as it generally requires one-third of the number, if not more, to carry provisions for the rest.” (Wilkes)

Then, the confusion started, “our chief scribe, Kalumo, who had the books containing the lists (of who was to do what,) was missing, and there was an uproar resembling that of Bedlam.”

“In consequence of the absence of Kalumo, the natives had an opportunity of trying the weight of some of the bundles, and before he was forthcoming, many of the lightest loads had very adroitly been carried off. … it was soon found that there would be many loads for which we had no bearers, and these were, of course, all those of bulk and weight”.

Wilkes was forced to hire, at double pay through another chief, a second group of porters to carry the bulky and heavy items … two days later and 30 miles inland … and close to the summit of Kilauea volcano, Wilkes had become increasingly disenchanted … (NPS)

Then, things got worse … Wilkes took the ‘wrong road;’ actually, he ignored references to take traditional trials, and, leading a party of 300 Caucasians and Hawaiians, Wilkes took off on a trackless beeline from Kilauea toward Mauna Loa’s summit, guided by a midshipman holding a compass. (NPS)

Wilkes substituted his own route for the Hawaiian Ainapo trail. Wilkes’ line of march was through wooded country, but without streams or waterholes. Shoes of the Caucasians scuffed and soles abraded on the lava they crossed.

Most of the Hawaiians were barefoot. To mark the path for the straggling porters, Wilkes’ associates built fires and blazed trees. Bushes were broken with their tops laid down to indicate the direction of travel. (NPS)

“Our (first) encampment was called the Sunday Station, on account of our having remained quietly here on that day. The altitude given by the barometer was six thousand and seventy-one feet, at which we found ourselves above the region of clouds, and could look down upon them.” (Wilkes) It ended up being the principal base camp.

Much unnecessary thirst, hunger, cold, altitude sickness, fatigue, and snowblindness were suffered by both Caucasians and Hawaiians of the expedition when Wilkes substituted his own route for the Hawaiian Ainapo trail.

‘Mountain’ sickness, probably caused from the combination of fatigue, dehydration, chill, hunger, and the altitude, was prevalent.

Fuel was scarce to make fires for warmth or cooking, Hawaiians sold water at 50 cents a quart to thirsty sailors and accepted warm clothing if cash was not available.

To the rescue came the Hawaiian guides ‘Ragsdale’ and Keaweehu, a famous bird catcher. Both had apparently been waiting at Kapapala for the expedition to arrive and planned to guide the expedition up the Ainapo trail.

Ragsdale was hired to supply water for the camp. His men delivered it the next day – fifteen gallons carried in open-top vessels over the trackless ten miles of rugged lavas which separated Wilkes’ camp from the Ainapo trail.

At about the same elevation on the Ainapo was a large lava tube with pools of water inside. This tube was used by Hawaiians on the Ainapo trail and was easily supplied with grass (for insulation from the cold ground) and firewood from a point on the trail not far below. (NPS)

Eventually, Wilkes ended up with other camps on the way up to and at the summit area of Mauna Loa: “Recruiting Station” just below the 10,000-foot elevation (used primarily staging & medical care) …

… “Flag Station” between the 12,000- and 13,000-foot elevation (Wilkes “left a flag on a rocky peak near by” and “Pendulum Peak” near the summit where they conducted pendulum and other observations.

After conducting their experiments and observations, “When day broke, on the 13th January, all was bustle on the summit of Mauna Loa.”

“Every one was engaged in taking down and packing up the instruments and equipage, loaded with which the native labourers scampered off. Some of them, indeed, unable to bear the cold any longer, and hoping to obtain loads afterwards, withdrew without burdens.”

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Hawaii-Wilkes-map-1841

Crater of Moku-A-Weo-Weo, Mauna Loa-Wilkes