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April 7, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lihue Plantation

“(T)he plains of Whymea … are reputed to be very rich and productive, occupying a space of several miles in extent, and winding at the foot of these three lofty mountains far, into the country.”

“In this valley is a great tract of luxuriant, natural pasture, whither all the cattle and sheep imported by me were to be driven, there to roam unrestrained, to ‘increase and multiply.’” (Vancouver, February 1794)

The Waimea of the 1830s and 40s was a busy place. Wild cattle were being caught for hides and beef, tanneries were turning hides into leather, sugar cane was being milled into sugar, and farm products were being grown. In 1835, the Protestant minister, Lorenzo Lyons, wrote to the mission headquarters in Honolulu:

“Waimea ought to be supplied (with more missionaries) for it has become the residence of Governor Adams (Kuakini – brother of Kaʻahumanu) … and many foreigners reside there…” (Lyons, June 25, 1835)

One reason for the presence of so much activity in Waimea was its proximity to the port of Kawaihae, a preferred stopping place for sailing vessels due to its relatively safe anchorage and good provisioning. The ships had access to plentiful supplies of water, salt, beef, pork, sweet potatoes, etc.

On (September 7, 1835) the Diana arrived 92 days from Canton via Bonin Islands. … Brig full of miscellaneous cargo … the principal of the balance to the Chinamen in French’s employ….”

“There were in the brig four Chinese sugar manufacturers with a stone mill and 400 to 600 pots for cloying and 5 cast Iron boilers. They are under control of Atti (Ahtai who was employed by William French) and hopefully can be obtained on fair terms.” (William Hooper, Ladd & Company; Kai)

Besides his interest in sugar, French had a store and a warehouse at Kawaihae as well as a store, a home and a tannery in the uplands at Waimea, Kohala. (Kai)

A visitor to the area in 1839 noted, “I accompanied Mr French on a walk to a place about two miles distant where the business of tanning is being carried on under the direction of Chinamen. The establishment is extensive and the leather exhibited … was of a very superior quality. Besides a saddlemaker close by the tan works, Mr. French has a shoemaker and a carpenter in his employ.” (Olmstead)

Records have not been found giving the names of these Chinese tanners but the names of six other Chinese men who were in the Waimea area during the 1830s and early 1840s are known. These were Ahpong, Ahsam, Ahchow, Aiko (Lum Jo), Lau Ki or Kalauki, and Apokane (Ahsing.) (Kai)

The first sugar mill is described as having been established by a Chinese man named Lau Ki, who had come to Hawai‘i with Captain Joseph Carter, grandfather of AW Carter. The mill was powered by a water wheel using water from Waikoloa Stream. (Stewart)

The sugar plantation was doing business under the name of Achow & Company. (Kai) It was situated in Lihue, an area in Waimea that is generally where the Lālāmilo agricultural subdivision is situated.

Aiko, whose Chinese name was Lum Jo, was listed as one of the six ‘sugar masters’ who came to Hawaiʻi between 1820-1840. He appears to have been one of the principal partners in Lihue Plantation.

Aiko married a Hawaiian woman from the Waimea area in 1835 and they had a daughter, Amelia, born in 1836. Aiko’s wife, Maria Kaʻahuapeʻa, probably from the Waimea area, was baptized a Catholic in 1840. Amelia was their only natural child. They raised other children, hānai and adopted. (Kai)

In 1843, Aiko and his partners sold the Lihue mill, their tools, the cane in the fields and whatever rights they had in their original agreement with Governor Kuakini, to Abraham (Abram) Henry Fayerweather. (Kai)

After selling the plantation Aiko went up to Kohala where he started another plantation in Iole, then came down to Hilo to start another plantation on Ponahawai and he was involved in various businesses including the first bowling alley in Hilo. (Clarry)

Back in Waimea, on December 5, 1843 Fayerweather entered into an agreement with Kuakini. That agreement noted, in part, “Kuakini shall plant sugar cane at Waimea and when the same shall be ripe, shall carry or cause the same to be carried to the sugar mill of AH Fayerweather at Waimea, and shall also furnish men to do all the labour for same including the grinding, and shall furnish firewood for boiling the same.”

“That, AH Fayerweather shall furnish a mill for grinding the aforenamed cane, a sugar maker and all the tools for making the sugar and molasses, and the sugar and molasses, proceeds of the aforenamed cane, shall be shared equally between the said Kuakini and AH Fayerweather, one half each.”

“This agreement is to commence on the first day of January AD one thousand eight hundred and forty four, and is to continue and be binding on the parties, for themselves their heirs and assigns for the term of five years.”

“It is also agreed that the land now planted with cane by the said AH Fayerweather and also heretofore planted by Achow & Co at Waimea, shall be free from taxes of all kinds.” (Kuakini/Fayerweather Agreement)

Although unsuccessful, sugarcane continued to be cultivated in Waimea after George W Macy and James Louzada purchased the mill in 1853. Macy and Louzada leased a large portion of Puʻukapu in 1857 for growing sugarcane. However, cultivation of sugarcane in Puʻukapu was abandoned by 1877. (Kai)

While sugar was out; cattle was in.

Around this time, more lands were converted to pasturage and holding pens; and, according to Lorezo Lyons, Waimea had turned into a “cattle pen” and “(b)y another unfavorable arrangement 2/3 of Waimea have been converted to a pasture for government herds of cattle, sheep, horses, etc.” (MKSWCD)

In 1847, the branding of wild cattle became a government function, overseen by William Beckley. That same year, John Palmer Parker purchased the first acres of land that would become Parker Ranch. (Bergin)

Shortly after, in 1850, the King appointed George Davis Hueu, of Waikoloa, as “Keeper of the Cattle” at Waimea, Mauna Kea and surrounding districts. (MKSWCD)

Likewise, because of the demand for Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes by those in California involved with the Gold Rush, Waimea farmers began to increase their production and shipping of potatoes to California, along with other agricultural products. (Stewart)

(Lihue Plantation Company on Kauai originated in 1849 as a partnership between Charles Reed Bishop, Judge William L. Lee, and Henry A. Pierce of Boston; H Hackfeld & Co. served as agents.)

(The site of the mill was selected in the valley of the Nāwiliwili stream; water power was used to drive the mill rollers, which were iron bound granite crushers brought from China. A centrifugal sugar dryer was installed in 1851. Open kettles provided the means for boiling the syrup.) (HSPA)

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April 6, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Calvin Ellis Stowe was born on April 6, 1802 in Natick, Massachusetts. His father died when he was 6; at 12, he apprenticed as a paper maker. But his passion was books.

Stowe graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, with highest honors; he then entered Andover Theological Seminary in 1825. He completed his theological studies with the Andover Class of 1829.

Stowe taught Greek at Dartmouth College and Biblical Literature at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. At Lane, Stowe met Harriet Elizabeth Beecher, daughter of the school’s renowned president, Lyman Beecher.

Beecher was born on June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut; her mother died when she was 5. She enrolled in the seminary run by her sister Catharine. At the age of 21, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father at the Lane Theological Seminary.

At Lane, Stowe married Beecher.

Harriet’s brother was Henry Ward Beecher, one of the era’s most celebrated clergyman and preachers. Her sister was the writer and reformer Catharine Beecher, a prominent champion for improved education for women and girls.

Convinced of his wife’s own talents, Calvin told Harriet she “must be a literary woman.” He remained one of her greatest supporters.

Starting June 5, 1851, she published installments of a story in the anti-slavery newspaper The National Era; she called it Uncle Tom’s Cabin; it originally had a subtitle “The Man That Was A Thing”, but it was soon changed to “Life Among the Lowly”.

Her writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was precipitated by two events: in 1849 her sixth child, Samuel Charles, died in a cholera epidemic in Cincinnati; then, the year following Charley’s death Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law.

The law required citizens to assist the sheriff in catching runaway slaves, stipulating fines and imprisonment for those who refused – it brought slavery home to the doorsteps of northerners.

Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to encourage citizens to disobey what she took to be an unchristian law and to engage white parents, many of whom, she knew, had lost a child, in the deep question of what a slave parent feels. (Hedrick)

The weekly publications continued to April 1, 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in book form on March 20, 1852, by John P Jewett with an initial print run of 5,000 copies. (People liked it; it sold 300,000 copies in the US in the first year of publication.)

While the book is focused on the slavery issue on the continent, she includes some reminders of her past, as well as passages on the Islands.

As noted, her family, birth and betrothed, come religious education backgrounds; she went to a seminary. Recall that her husband graduated from Andover Theological Seminary.

Dedicated September 28, 1808, the purpose of the Founders for the Seminary, according to their constitution, was to increase “the number of learned and able defenders of the Gospel of Christ, as well as of orthodox, pious, and zealous ministers of the New Testament ; being moved, as we hope, by a principle of gratitude to God and benevolence to man.” (Rowe)

In addition to ministers, the seminary also produced hundreds of missionaries. Two notable graduates were part of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi.)

Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston were classmates at Andover Theological Seminary (completed Seminary courses 1819 – a decade before Stowe’s husband;) they were ordained on September 29, 1819 at Goshen, Connecticut. (Joesting)

Calvin Stowe returned to Andover Theological Seminary in 1852 as professor of sacred literature.

Harriet’s book exposed the brutal reality of slavery in the American South; but it did not leave many of those in the North off the hook.

One character in her writing, Miss Ophelia, “stands as the representative of a numerous class of the very best of Northern people.” (Stowe notes in her ‘Key” to the book.)

“There are in this class of people activity, zeal, unflinching conscientiousness, clear intellectual discriminations between truth and error, and great logical and doctrinal correctness; but there is a want of that spirit of love, without which, in the eye of Christ, the most perfect character is as deficient as a wax flower – wanting in life and perfume.” (Stowe; Key)

“It is, however, but just to our Northern Christians to say that this sin (prejudice) has been committed ignorantly and in unbelief, and that within a few years signs of a much better spirit have begun to manifest themselves.”

Stowe, goes on to note in her Key a link to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and the Islands:

“… many a good Miss Ophelia has opened her eyes in astonishment to find that, while she has been devouring the ‘Missionary Herald,’ and going without butter on her bread and sugar in her tea to send the gospel to the Sandwich Islands, there is a very thriving colony of heathen in her own neighborhood at home …”

(The Missionary Herald, established in 1821 printed reports from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM.) For many Christians in America, the Missionary Herald became prime information for many Americans about foreign lands.)

“… and, true to her own good and honest heart, she has resolved, not to give up her prayers and efforts for the heathen abroad, but to add thereunto labors for the heathen at home.” (Stowe)

When Calvin retired after the war, another of Harriet’s brothers, Charles Beecher, opened a school in Florida to teach newly emancipated slaves. At his urging, Calvin and Harriet joined him each winter, extending their activist partnership well into their golden years. (Andover-Newton)

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April 5, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Soaring, Surfing & Sailing

Born in New York on April 5, 1912, the older of two children, Woodbridge (Woody) Parker Brown came from a very wealthy home, headed by a father with a seat on the Wall Street Stock Exchange. Woody was expected to step into that position.

But he had other ideas and, at the age of 16, walked away from school in favor of hanging out at Long Island airfields, because he was crazy about planes. He learned to fly, and acquired a glider. (Gillette)

He met aviator Charles Lindbergh at Curtis Field on Long Island. Inspired by Lindbergh, Woody learned to fly in a Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny,” an obsolete single-engine trainer used by the US Army Air Service in World War I. (Kampion)

Woody virtually lived at New York’s Curtis Field where he became a protégé of Lindbergh, but Woody soon discovered that his true passion was for the unique world of gliders, soaring silently on invisible currents of air. His goal was to acquire the finely tuned sensitivity required to read the air and wind with nothing to hold him aloft but his own skill. (dlbfilms)

“Soaring appealed to me because it’s like surfing or sailing. It’s working with nature; not ‘Brute Force and Bloody Ignorance.’ You know, you give something enough horse power and no matter what it is it’ll fly.”

“Flying was brand new, then! Every time you took off it was an experiment. You didn’t know what was gonna happen. Every flight was a brand new flight. So, it was real exciting.” (Brown; Gault-Williams)

He soon met Elizabeth (Betty) an Englishwoman and they headed West to San Diego in 1935. The young couple lived at La Jolla, where Woody got into bodysurfing, then surfing.

He built his own board, a hollow plywood “box” that would float him so he could catch waves at Windansea, Bird Rock, and Pacific Beach. His second board – the “snowshoe” – was more refined.

He adapted some of the aerodynamic wisdom he’d acquired to the much denser medium of water. The outline was traced from the fuselage of his glider; it featured a vee bottom and a small skeg.

At nearby Torrey Pines, he was the first to launch a glider from the high bluffs into the vaulting updraft of the onshore breeze. He survived a couple of near-death experiences there and a couple of crashes riding the inland thermals. He became a soaring champion, winning meets around the state and country.

In the midst of “the happiest years of my life” (Kampion,) in 1939, at Wichita Falls, Brown flew his Thunderbird glider 263-miles to national and world records of altitude, distance, maximum time aloft and goal flight. President Herbert Hoover sent him a congratulatory telegram. (Marcus)

He made it home for the birth of his son; unfortunately, his wife, Betty, died in childbirth. Distraught, he left his infant son and all of his possessions in La Jolla and moved to Hawai‘i (he eventually reconciled with his abandoned son, some 60 years after the fact.) (Surfer)

“I left my car, the garage, my home, glider, everything. I don’t know what happened to them. I just walked out and left everything. When you’re off your rocker that way, you know, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

In the early 1940s, Brown joined surfing pioneer Wally Froiseth and began surfing pristine waves in remote places like Mākaha and the North Shore.

Flying was not available in Hawai‘i at the time, so he tried to surf the sadness out of his system. He’d go out in the morning and surf all day long. “I’d be able to sleep a little ‘cause I was so damn tired … I survived. Surfing saved my life.” (Brown; Marcus) In 1943, he married Rachel.

A conscientious objector, during WWII he worked as a surveyor for the Navy on Christmas Island. There, he noticed double-hull canoes.

When he returned to Hawai‘i, Woody and a Hawaiian friend, Alfred Kumalae, went to Bishop Museum and studied all the Polynesian canoes on display. (Gillette)

He teamed with Rudy Choy, Warren Seaman and Alfred Kumalae who started C/S/K Catamarans. They designed and built Manu Kai, a 38-foot double-hulled sailing catamaran (using wooden aircraft construction techniques.)

In 1943, Brown and Dickie Cross got caught in rising surf at Sunset beach and paddled down the coast looking for a lull in the massive waves. They ended up at Waimea, where the bay was closing out with sets as big as 20-30 feet.

Cross went over the falls of one wave and was never seen again. Barely alive, Woody crawled up in the beach in the darkness. Spooked by the disappearance of Cross, big-wave riders would wait a decade before trying to tackle Waimea Bay again. (Coleman)

Brown was one of three surfers photographed charging down a giant Mākaha wave in 1953. The iconic photo, which appeared in newspapers around the world, is credited with triggering a migration of surfers to Hawai‘i.

George Downing, who along with Buzzy Trent, was also on the 20-foot wave. “(Brown) was the only one that made the wave. That was point break at Mākaha. Where Woody was he was on the perfect place on the wave.” (Downing; Star-Bulletin)

During the ’50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Woody continued his carefree life of surfing and sailing; in 1971, Woody, then 59, took a glider to a Hawaiian altitude record of 12,675-feet. Not long after, Woody lost his beloved wife Rachel. (dlbfilms) In 1986, Woody flew off to the Philippines, where he met and married his third wife, a young woman named Macrene.

Woody Brown dedicated the rest of his life, a life which he has always considered to be blessed, to giving as much as he can through service to others. His sense of spirituality mixes elements of the Christian tradition with his lifelong love of nature and his sense of gratitude for the gifts he feels he’s been given.

If you asked him if he’s a Christian, he’d say no. If you asked him who he considers his ultimate role model, he’d say Jesus Christ. Woody marched to his own drummer. (dlbfilms) In 1980, he wrote The Gospel of Love: A Revelation of the Second Coming.

A film of his life, ‘Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown’ premiered to great acclaim at Mountainfilm in Telluride where it won The Inspiration Award. In 2004, the 35-minute version won the “Audience Award for Best Short” at the Maui Film Festival.

Woody Brown died April 16, 2008 on Maui, he was 96. “Woody Brown was one of the first and greatest icons in the history of surfing.”

“He was the essential surfer, an iconoclast: extremely independent, futuristic and, most especially, healthy, which explains why he lived for 96 very productive, wonderful years. And I only hope more of us who call ourselves surfers can live the way Woody lived. Sad as anyone passing is, what a joyous life.” (Fred Hemmings)

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Woody Brown, George Downing and Buzzy Trent at Makaha in 1953

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Woody_Brown-model of Manu Kai

Rudy Choy and Woody Brown-choydesign

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The Gospel of Love-A Revelation of the Second Coming

April 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kīnaʻu

Kīnaʻu was the daughter of Kamehameha and Kalākua Kaheiheimālie (Hoapili Wahine.) She was a niece of Kaʻahumanu. Kīnaʻu was born probably in 1805 at Waikiki.

She was first married to her half-brother Liholiho (1797–1824) who became King Kamehameha II with the death of their father 1819. Liholiho died in London with his favorite wife (Kīna‘u’s sister) Queen Kamāmalu.

Her second husband was Kauai Governor Kāhalaiʻa Luanuʻu, a grandson of Kamehameha I. Her third husband was O‘ahu Governor Mataio Kekūanāoʻa’s (1791–1868.)

Kīna’u was the highest in rank of any of the women chiefs of her day. With Kekūanāoʻa she had several children, including Lot (afterwards Kamehameha V,) Alexander Liholiho (afterwards Kamehameha IV) and Victoria. (Liliʻuokalani)

Pauahi was born to Pākī and Kōnia and was hānai (adopted) to her aunt, Kīnaʻu. (Bernice Pauahi lived with Kīnaʻu for nearly eight years.) On September 2, 1838, Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha was born to Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea and Analeʻa Keohokālole; Liliʻu was hānai to Pākī and Kōnia (she later became Queen Liliʻuokalani.)

“When I was taken from my own parents and adopted by Pākī and Kōnia, 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, Kōnia, 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)

Kīnaʻu “was sedate, courteous, and reliable, a little haughty in her deportment toward strangers, but a loving, exemplary wife, a tender mother, and a warmhearted, unwavering friend.” (Judd)

“June 5, 1832, was an epoch in the nation’s history, although the death of the Queen Regent (Kaʻahumanu) was not followed by any outbreak or disorder. Kīnaʻu, eldest daughter of Kamehameha I, was publicly recognized as her lawful heir and successor, with the title of Kaahumanu II.” (Judd)

“Hear ye, ye head men, common people, chiefs, and men from foreign countries … The office that was held by my guardian (Kaʻahumanu) until her departure, now belongs to my mother (Kīna’u) from Hawai‘i to Kauai. …”

“We two, who have been too young and unacquainted with the actual transaction of business, now for the first time undertake distinctly to regulate our Kingdom.” (Kauikeaouli; Joint Proclamation by Kamehameha III and Kīna‘u)

“The office which my mother (meaning Kaʻahumanu, actually her aunt) held until her departure is now mine. All her active duties and authority are committed to me.”

“The tabus of the king, and the law of God, are with me, and also the laws of the king. My appointment as chief agent is of long standing, even from our father (Kamehameha) ….” (Kīna‘u, Joint Proclamation by Kamehameha III and Kīna‘u)

She acted as the Regent for her brother Kauikeaouli when he became King Kamehameha III, from June 5, 1832 to March 15, 1833. She was responsible for enforcing Hawaiʻi’s first penal code, proclaimed by the king in 1835.

Her term of office was marked by discord as the young King Kamehameha III, her half-brother, struggled with her and the chiefs for political power. (Archives)

Kīnaʻu soon found herself opposed by Kamehameha III, a still unsettled, self-indulgent eighteen year old. (Kelley) “Kīna‘u stood nobly in defense of virtue, decency, and good order, but the king refused to listen to her advice, and even threatened her with personal violence, if she dared to venture into his presence.” (Judd)

”ln her despondency she made us a visit one day, and said: ‘I am in straits and heavy-hearted, and I have come to tell you my thought. I am quite discouraged, and can not bear this burden any longer. I wish to throw away my rank, and title, and responsibility together, bring my family here, and live with you, or we will take our families and go to America; I have money.’” (Judd)

Mrs Judd referred her to the story of Esther, and pointed out to her the necessity of maintaining her rank and responsibility as the only hope of her people.

Fortunately for the country, she accepted this advice and remained at her post. Like the great queens of England, both she and
Kaʻahumanu displayed much wisdom in their choice of advisers, whose opinions both respected. (Krout)

Kīnaʻu became a Christian in 1830, and was involved in the persecution of Hawaiian Catholics and attempts to expel French priests. This contributed to a diplomatic confrontation with France that threatened Hawaiian sovereignty. (Archives)

Kīnaʻu died on April 4, 1839, not long after the birth of her youngest child, Victoria; her father Kekūanāoʻa then raised Victoria. 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.

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Hale Kauila in Honolulu-meeting of King Kamehameha III and Kinau with the French Captain Du Petit Thouars-(Nahienaena_is_in_attendance)-(WC)-1837

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Proclamation-Kinau-Kuhina Nui-July 5, 1832

April 2, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Experiment Stations

Members of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association were typically sugar plantations or mill companies and individuals who were directly interested in sugar production. HSPA was self-funded by the industry through self-assessments on each ton of sugar produced. Each plantation company contributed based on the tons sugar produced.

“This Association shall be known as the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association and shall have for its objects the improvement of the sugar industry, the support of an experimental station and laboratory, the maintenance of a sufficient supply of labor, and the development of agriculture in general.”

“Members of this Association may be Sugar plantations or Mill Companies and individuals who are directly interested in Sugar plantations or Mills, but the Trustees of this Association may at their discretion admit other plantation companies and individuals engaged in other agricultural pursuits.” (The Independent, November 27, 1895)

HSPA’s Experiment Station was founded in the days of the Republic of Hawai‘i on April 2, 1895 (the date that Dr. Walter Maxwell arrived at the port of Honolulu as the first Director of the Station and took up his work in science applied to sugar-cane culture and production.)

The HSPA Experiment Station had its beginnings in an era when farm science was theory, separated from farm practice by a great gulf of unbelief. Truly, the founders of the Experiment Station had a breadth of vision in the necessity for untrammeled research which was extraordinary.

The initial laboratory and office first opened on the ground floor of the Robinson building, corner of Nuʻuanu and King streets. It was later moved to Makiki (on Makiki Street, near Wilder on land leased from the Kapiʻolani Estate.) HSPA later purchased adjoining land from the Lishman family, and acquired the fee of the leased site.

A building was built in 1904 to house offices and laboratories being “ … equipped in modern fashion, with especial regard to the use to which it is to be put. The rooms are large and are provided with sufficient shelves, drawers, etc., the special bug room and the outdoor cages furnish ample facilities for conducting breeding experiments; and, in fact, almost everything in the way of equipment is present that could be desired”. (Grammer)

In 1919, following restructuring after WWI, the Station’s programs of work included: Entomology (focusing on natural enemies of the leafhopper;) Botany and Forestry (focusing on Forestry work, establishment of nurseries and stations on all islands; and pineapple work in accordance with our contract with the Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association) …

… Chemistry (Fertilizer control work, analytical work as needed by the plantations; soil surveys; and research work on Hawaiian soils;) Sugar Technology (Mill inspections and laboratory investigations on mill operations;) and Agriculture (field experimentation on fertilization, cultivation, irrigation, etc., and extension of seedling work.)

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the HSPA Trustees, “resolved, that in light of the existing emergency, The Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association does pledge its fullest cooperation to the Government of the United States and places all its facilities, services and membership at the disposal of our Government.”

The onset of war forced the Station to suspend immediately work on some of its important projects; numerous members of the Station joined the Armed Forces, while other members left to devote their skill to some special phase of the war effort.

When the Honolulu Blood Bank was frantically calling for blood and more blood, the Station not only made its laboratory facilities and apparatus available to the Blood Bank but assigned numerous members of its technical staff to full-time work.

Members of the Chemistry department devoted considerable time and effort to war work, mainly concerned with such matters as chemical surveys, camouflage problems, weed control, soil sterilization, chemical-dipping problems, precautions in handling toxic materials, demolition issues, and gas decontamination problems.

To meet a very obvious need, the Pathology department cultured the penicillin-yielding mold and produced in large quantities products of the highest quality and potency which were made available to local physicians throughout the long and critical period during which penicillin was not available for the treatment of civilians.

The primary object of the Molasses laboratory had been to produce a high-quality yeast for human consumption. After December 7, however, the shortage of bakers’ yeast in Honolulu brought many requests to the Station for aid. It was found that the yeast slurry was excellent for bread making and the Station furnished yeast slurry to numerous bakeries.

One of the most active units of the Station during the war was the Library. It was practically a war-time utility and scarcely a day passed that a group of service men could not be found around the Library tables.

Information was requested on an amazing and endless variety of subjects such as chemistry, ordnance, agricultural crops, rat control, mosquito data and other material pertinent to camp or field work, diversified and soilless agriculture, insects, botany, and so on.

HSPA built its main experiment station and administrative facilities at Makiki (much of its former outplanting area is now the fields of the Makiki District Park;) in the early-1970s HSPA moved to a new facility in Aiea.

In addition to that, HSPA had a large leased area at Waipiʻo, the Helemano Variety Station, the Ewa Variety Station, the Kailua Substation, the Manoa Arboretum (later known as the Lyon Arboretum,) and a few other O‘ahu sites.

On the Island of Hawaii there were four cane variety units (in Hilo, Hāmākua, Kohala and the Hawai‘i Seed Nursery,) as well as other facilities. Kauai had the Kauai Variety Station at Lihue; the Maui substation was at HC&S and Molokai had sugar-cane quarantine facilities.

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