Peter T Young

March 21, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pūʻali Inuwai

The first whalers (1819) and missionaries (1820) arrived in Hawaiʻi at about the same time. That is about the only thing a lot of them had in common.

One of the areas of the great divide between them had to do with drinking liquor.

The first temperance movement emerged in New England as clergy began to equate drinking alcohol with sins like Sabbath breaking and blasphemy. In 1808, the first temperance society was formed, but it singled-out hard liquor, such as rum, as its only target.

Very early in the temperance movement a Presbyterian minister by the name of Reverend Thomas P Hunt organized a children’s organization called “The Cold Water Army.”

In 1831, the large and influential American Temperance Union urged everyone to only drink cold water (not alcoholic beverages) thereby taking a Cold Water Pledge.

In Hawaiʻi, King Kamehameha III and most of the chiefs pledged themselves to total abstinence, and, in part, became zealous preachers of temperance; the king himself frequently addressing the people on the subject.

Temperance Pledge:
“1. We will not drink ardent spirits for pleasure. 2. We will not deal in ardent spirits for the sake of gain. 3. We will not engage in distilling ardent spirits. 4. We will not treat our relatives, acquaintances, or strangers with ardent spirits. 5. We will not give ardent spirits to workmen on account of their labor.” (Missionary Herald)

King Kamehameha III signed the abstinence pledge in 1842. On putting his name to the pledge, the young king said: “I am one who wish to sign this pledge. I have thought of this before, and the evil of drinking rum was clear to me. I am constituted a father to the people and the kingdom, and it belongs to me to regulate all the other chiefs. I have therefore become really ashamed, and I can no longer persist in rum-drinking. This is the reason why I subscribe my name to this pledge.” (The Friend, 1887)

Although he broke it regularly, he made intermittent appeals for abstinence among his fellows. For some years in the forties, no liquor was served at official functions. (Daws)

On the 1st anniversary of signing the pledge, “When the king signed the pledge, a quantity of rum, brandy, wine, etc, remained in the cellar. After lying there untouched for a year, various casks and bottles containing the poisonous mixtures were brought forth.”

“After discussing for some time the question: ‘What shall be done with them ?’ the king said, ‘Pour them into the sea.’ To this all agreed; the casks were rolled to the seaside, and the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished in the waters.” (The Friend, 1887)

In March 1838, the first license law was enacted, which prohibited all selling of liquors without a license under a fine of fifty dollars for the first offense, to be increased by the addition of fifty dollars for every repetition of the offense. (The Friend, December 1887)

All houses for the sale of liquor were to be closed at ten o’clock at night, and from Saturday night until Monday morning. Drunkenness was prohibited in the licensed houses under a heavy fine to the drinker, and the loss of his license to the seller. (The Friend, December 1887)

Pūʻali Inuwai (“The water drinking host”) was formed on March 15, 1843; the Cold Water Army – Hawaiʻi’s version of the Temperance Movement.

Following the model elsewhere, they first looked to the children, suggesting: if you had 100 drunkards and tried to reform them, you would be lucky to save maybe 10; however, if you had 100 children and taught them temperance from a young age, you could save 90 out of the 100. Hawaiʻi youth were encouraged to join.

“The churches were crowded with willing worshippers. Thousands of children were taught in Sunday schools. The ‘cold water army’ embraced legions of valiant champions, who mustered occasionally in holiday dress, and marched with flaunting standards of ‘Down with Rum!’ ‘Cold water only!’” (Judd, 1840 in The Friend, December 1887)

Thousands of children enlisted in the ‘cold water army.’ Once a year they came together for a celebration. They had a grand time on these anniversary occasions. (Youth’s Day Spring, January 1853)

“Even the kings, despite their tendency to backslide, could be induced to forego alcoholic beverages and otherwise importuned to live exemplary lives. Kamehameha III toasted the King and Queen of France with a glass of water on board Rear Admiral Hamelin’s flagship.” (Meller)

“Three years earlier, in 1843, after the renunciation of sovereignty by Great Britain and the return of the Islands to his control, the King similarly partook in the festivities by drinking cold water.” (Meller)

Interesting … not knowing the actual date, Kauikeaouli selected St Patrick’s Day as his birthday. St Patrick was said to have proclaimed that everyone should have a drop of the “hard stuff” on his feast day after chastising an innkeeper who served a short measure of whiskey. In the custom known as “drowning the shamrock”, the shamrock that has been worn on a lapel or hat is put in the last drink of the evening.

The Cold Water movement apparently saw some early success. “Recruits to strengthen the ranks of the cold water army, adds real force to this nation; and not-only to this nation, but to every other nation where the principles of total abstinence are making progress. Formerly the Sandwich Islanders were a nation of drunkards; but, as a nation, they are now tee-totallers.” (The Friend, 1843)

However, as time went on, prohibition waned. From the 1850s, it was legal to make wine. In 1864-1865, acts were passed permitting legal brewing of beer and distillation of spirits under license at Honolulu. None of these enterprises produced quality products; all were economic failures. (Daws)

Up through the 1870s, Honolulu was the only place in the kingdom where liquor could be sold legally (another instance of the attempt to isolate vice,) but contemporary comment and court reports make it clear that the illegal liquor traffic was brisk everywhere, from Lāhainā and other port towns to the remotest countryside. (Daws)

At a 1910 prohibition rally, HP Baldwin related an early boyhood event at Lāhainā when a band of over 1,000-people, called “Ka Pūʻali Inuwai” paraded the streets singing songs, and gathered at Waineʻe Church where speeches were made against the evils of the use of liquor. Under the Kamehamehas from the earliest times no liquor was allowed to be sold to Hawaiians until 1882, when the law was changed under Kalākaua. (Maui News, 1910)

Honolulu’s The Friend newspaper began as “Temperance Advocate.” Then, it meant to many, moderate-restrained-use of liquor. Not so in all these years. “It meant total abstinence – nay, even prohibition before there was any such term.” (The Friend, 1942)

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March 20, 2020 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hilo Bay and Breakwater

Legendary sources indicate that Hilo (‘to braid’) was, among other things, renowned for its rain and fertility. Hilo is likely to have been one of the first Polynesian settlement areas on Hawai‘i Island; oral history and local legend indicate that Polynesians first settled Hilo Harbor around 1100 AD.

Early settlers would have found a protected bay, surrounded by fertile lands for agriculture, and well watered by regular rainfall and natural springs. Natural waterways and wetlands were modified to create fishponds and planting areas.

Early accounts of Hilo Bay describe a long black sand beach stretching along present day Bay Front from the Wailuku River to the Wailoa River. Coconut Island is just east of the Wailoa River, and Reed’s Bay and Kūhiō Bay are just east of Coconut Island.

“The romantic might easily imagine Hilo to be a very inviting location … on account of the beauty, grandeur, and wonders of nature, which are there so interesting. … even by the sober, pious mind, to be now a desirable residence, because the wonders of nature and the wonders of grace are there united and so distinguished.” (Hiram Bingham)

Hilo was a Royal Center for many of the early chiefs.

When Captain George Vancouver arrived at Hilo Bay in 1794, Kamehameha was living at Waiākea and preparing his fleet of war canoes for his coming conquest of the other Hawaiian Islands, which ultimately led to the consolidation of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Vancouver’s crew surveyed Hilo as a potential anchorage, but found the surf too problematic to effect a landing and declared the bay only marginally sufficient for anchorage.

Missionary William Ellis arrived in Hilo Harbor in 1823, when the main settlement there was called Waiākea. Christian missionaries continued to come to Hilo Harbor until the mid-19th Century. The missionaries were followed by trade ships and whalers that used the Hilo Harbor port.

Hilo Bay is partially protected by a reef located in 10 to 20 feet of water (later named Blonde Reef after Lord Byron’s vessel, HMS Blonde, which successfully anchored there in 1825.) (The Blonde had carried the bodies of Liholiho (who was born in Hilo) and Kamāmalu back from London, where they died from measles during a visit there.)

Between 1824 and 1848 Hilo became a significant center for foreign activities, primarily as a result of the establishment of religious mission stations by American missionaries.

By 1874, Hilo ranked as the second largest population center in the islands, and within a few years shortly thereafter Hilo with its fertile uplands, plentiful water supply, and good port became a major center for sugarcane production and export.

Passengers and cargo landed at Hilo in the surf along the beach until about 1863, when a wharf was constructed at the base of present day Waiānuenue Street.

At one time both cargo and passengers were hoisted in a basket-like sling out to a waiting row boat which took the goods or passengers to the waiting ship. If the weather was rough, landing took place on the beach.

The wooden wharf was replaced by an iron pile wharf in 1865, and was extended between 1889 and 1890. Raw sugar was brought by inter-island steamships from the Hāmākua coast to Hilo before being shipped overseas.

The northern side of the bay became a focal point for the community’s trade and commerce. During this time, Hilo was ranked as the third most frequented port for whaling vessels in need of repair and re-provisioning.

With its foundations in the missionary Hilo Boarding School, commercial sugarcane cultivation and sugar production became the central economic focus for the Hilo area lasting until the 1970s.

The Waiākea Mill Company, in operation between 1879 and 1948, with thousands of acres of cultivated fields, established its mill operation at Wailoa Pond.

The Reciprocity Treaty (1876) between the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the US, along with the increase in commerce associated with the growing sugar industry and improvements in transportation in the Hilo area, prompted the decision that a harbor facility should be built on the calmer Waiākea side of Hilo Harbor. The government wharf at Waiākea was constructed at Kalauokukui Point between 1897 and 1899, and was upgraded in 1902.

Hilo Bay was still unprotected from high winds and storm surges that caused ships to break loose from their moorings and risk grounding.

In the late 19th century, the growing sugar industry in East Hawai’i demanded a better and more protected port, and a breakwater was constructed on Blonde Reef to shield ships from rough waters as they entered Hilo Harbor.

In 1908, construction began on a breakwater along the shallow reef, beginning at the shoreline east of Kūhīo Bay. The breakwater was completed in 1929 and extended roughly halfway across the bay. In 1912, contracts were awarded to construct Kūhiō Wharf, to dredge the approach to the new wharf, and to lay railroad track into the new harbor facility.

Work was completed at Kūhiō Wharf, Pier 1 in 1916. Pier 1 was a 1,400-foot long by 150-foot wide wharf with a wooden storage shed. By 1917, a mechanical conveyor for bagged sugar with derricks for loading ships, was constructed.

In 1923, Pier 2 was constructed just west of Pier 1. Additional dredging was conducted in Kūhiō Bay as part of the construction. By 1927, Pier 3 was added on the west side of Pier 2.

Between 1927 and 1928, the approach to Pier 3 was dredged and the pier was widened. In 1929, the 10,080-foot long rubble mound breakwater was completed.

Contrary to urban legend, the Hilo breakwater was built to dissipate general wave energy and reduce wave action in the protected bay, providing calm water within the bay and protection for mooring and operating in the bay; it was not built as a tsunami protection barrier for Hilo.

In fact, in 1946, Hilo was struck by a tsunami generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands; it was struck again in 1960 by a tsunami generated by the great Chilean earthquake – both tsunami overtopped the breakwater and Hilo sustained significant damage, including to the breakwater.

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March 19, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻIli Lele

Ahupuaʻa are land divisions that served as a means of managing people and taking care of the people who support them, as well as an easy form of collection of tributes by the chiefs. Ultimately, this helped in preserving resources.

A typical ahupuaʻa (what we generally refer to as watersheds, today) was a long strip of land, narrow at its mountain summit top and becoming wider as it ran down a valley into the sea to the outer edge of the reef. If there was no reef then the sea boundary would be one-mile from the shore.

Ahupuaʻa contained nearly all the resources Hawaiians required for survival. Fresh water resources were managed carefully for drinking, bathing and irrigation.

Mauka lands provided food, clothing, household goods, canoes, weapons and countless other useful products. Within the coastal area and valleys, taro was cultivated in lo‘i; sweet potato, coconut, sugar cane and other food sources thrived in these areas. The shore and reefs provided fish, shellfish and seaweed.

In ancient Hawaiian times, relatives and friends exchanged products. The upland dwellers brought poi, taro and other foods to the shore to give to kinsmen there. The shore dweller gave fish and other seafood. Visits were never made empty-handed but always with something from one’s home to give.

Some ahupuaʻa were further subdivided into units (still part of the ahupuaʻa) called ʻili. Some of the smallest ahupuaʻa were not subdivided at all, while the larger ones sometimes contained as many as thirty or forty ʻili, each named with its own individual title and carefully marked out as to boundary.

Occasionally, the ahupuaʻa was divided into ʻili lele or “jumping strips”. The ʻili lele often consisted of several distinct pieces of land at different climatic zones that gave the benefit of the ahupuaʻa land use to the ʻili owner: the shore, open kula lands, wetland kalo land and forested sections.

The gift of land to Hiram Bingham, that later became Punahou School, had additional land beyond the large lot with the spring and kalo patches where the school is situated (Ka Punahou) as part of the initial gift – the land was an ʻili lele.

Punahou included a lot on the beach near the Kakaʻako Salt Works (‘Ili of Kukuluāeʻo;) the large lot with the spring and kalo patches where the school is situated (Kapunahou) and also a forest patch on the steep sides of Manoa Valley (ʻIli of Kolowalu, now known commonly referred to as Woodlawn.) (Congressional Record, 1893-94)

‘Ili of Kukuluāeʻo is an ‘ili lele (before the reclamation of the reefs, it was on the mauka side of the beach trail (now Ala Moana Boulevard) on the Diamond Head side of the Kakaʻako peninsula). Included with this were the fishing rights over the reef fronting the property.

In addition to this makai, coastal property, there was an associated larger lot with a spring and kalo land, and another piece of forest land on the slopes of Mānoa Valley.

In 1829, the land was given to Hiram Bingham – who subsequently gave it to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) – to establish Punahou School.

The ‘Ili of Kukuluāeʻo was bounded on Honolulu side by “Honolulu;” the mauka by “Kewalo;” and “Koula;” the Waikīkī side by “Kālia” and extended seaward out to where the surf breaks (essentially the edge of the reef.) It included fishing grounds, coral flats and salt beds.

The land was owned by the King (Kauikeaouli – King Kamehameha III) and was originally awarded to the King as LCA 387, but he returned it to the government.

It’s not clear how/when the makai land “detached” from the other Punahou School pieces, but it did and was given to the ABCFM (for the pastor of Kawaiaha‘o Church.)

Testimony related to the land noted: “The above land was given by Boki to Mr. Bingham, then a member of the above named Mission and the grant was afterwards confirmed by Kaahumanu.“

“This land was given to Mr. Bingham for the Sandwich Island Mission by Gov. Boki in 1829… From that time to these the S. I. Mission have been the only Possessors and Konohikis of the Land.”

“The name of the Makai part is Kukuluāeʻo. There are several tenants on the land of Punahou whose rights should be respected.”

Interestingly, there are two other ʻili lele, with ʻIli Lele of Kukuluāeʻo, that make up what is now known as Kakaʻako, ‘Ili Lele of Ka‘ākaukukui and ʻIli Lele of Kewalo.

‘Ili Lele of Ka‘ākaukukui was awarded to Victoria Kamāmalu, sister of Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V. This was on the Honolulu side of Kakaʻako and the associated fishing area included in this ʻili makes up most of what is now known as Kakaʻako Makai (the Kakaʻako peninsula.)

Kaʻākaukukui held Fisherman’s Point and the present harbor of Honolulu; then kalo land near the present Kukui street, and a large tract of forest at the head of Pauoa Valley.

ʻIli Lele of Kewalo was awarded to Kamakeʻe Piʻikoi, wife of Jonah Piʻikoi (grandparents of Prince Kūhiō;) the award was shared between husband and wife. The lower land section extended from Kawaiahaʻo Church to Sheridan Street down to the shoreline.

The ʻIli Lele of Kewalo had a lower coastal area adjoining Waikīkī and below the Plain (Kulaokahu‘a) (270+ acres,) a portion makai of Pūowaina (Punchbowl) (50-acres, about one-half of Pūowaina,) a portion in Nuʻuanu (about 8-acres) and kalo loʻi in Pauoa Valley (about 1-acre.)

The image shows the three portions of the ʻili lele initially given to Hiram Bingham; the buff outline notes the present boundaries of the school and the blue background notes the three properties included in the initial gift. This helps to illustrate the nature and benefits of ʻili lele – makai resource land, kalo land with water source and mauka forest land.

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March 18, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kapaʻa Japanese Stone Lantern (Ishidoro)

The first Japanese immigrants to the Islands, like the Chinese, appeared not long after Western contact, but the greatest numbers arrived in the mid-1800s to fill the labor needs of the sugar plantations.

The growth of the sugar industry as the base for the Hawaiian economy in the 1850s gave impetus to an increased demand for imported labor.

Japan was not open to Western recruitment until 1868; that year, the first group of 148 Japanese immigrants included 140 men, six women and two children.

In 1872, Politician Walter Murray Gibson declared to the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaiʻi: “You have considered the races that are desirable, not only to supply your needs of labor but to furnish an increase of population that will assimilate with the Hawaiian. …”

“We must look to races, who whilst being good workers, will not much affect the identity of the Hawaiian, and whose gradual influx will harmonize with, and strengthen, by the infusion of new blood, the native stock.”

“A moderate portion of the Japanese, of the agricultural class, will not conflict with the view that I present, and if they bring their women with them, and settle permanently in the country, they may be counted upon as likely to become desirable Hawaiian subjects.”

King Kalākaua visited Japan for ten days in 1881 while making a global tour. His meeting with Emperor Meiji improved the relationship of the Kingdom with the Japanese government, and an economic depression in Japan served as an impetus for agricultural workers to leave their homeland.

The US Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped the flow of Chinese workers to the Islands; sugar planters turned to Japan. Farmers and peasants from southern Japan (mostly from the areas of Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Kumamoto,) having suffered a series of crop failures at home, filled the Hawaiʻi jobs promising comparatively high wages.

The trickle of workers arriving in 1868 turned to a flood by 1886.

Earlier contracts which provided a wage of $4 a month plus food, housing and medical care were replaced with new arrangements for free steerage passage, wages per month of $9 for men and $6 for women, food allowance, lodging, medical care, fuel, no taxes and a required savings account. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

While only 116-Japanese were reported as residents in the 1884 census of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the Territory of Hawaiʻi recorded 47,508-men and 13,603-women of the Japanese race in 1900. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The Russo-Japanese War (1904 –1905) was “the first great war of the 20th century.” It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea. With Vladivostok only operational during the summer season, Russians sought a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy, as well as for maritime trade.

Japanese residents on Kauaʻi raised funds to support Japan’s war effort. After the Japanese victory, in appreciation of the community’s support, Japan sent money to be used to build monuments honoring the Japanese soldiers who had lost their lives in the war.

In 1915, two such monuments were erected, one in Kapaʻa, the other in Līhuʻe. They were also intended to honor Emperor Taishō’s ascension to the throne that year.

Emperor Taishō was the 123rd Emperor of Japan, reigning from 1912, until his death in 1926. (The Emperor’s personal name was Yoshihito. He was followed by his son Hirohito.)

(A tasty side note: Emperor Taishō was initially exposed to new foods by the Western diplomatic corps. Through this exposure he created beef fried Taishō Tonkatsu. After World War I, his personal chef released this menu publicly. Today, Taishō Tonkatsu is a very popular dish.)

The Kapaʻa monument was a 15-foot Ishidōrō (stone lantern) placed across the dirt highway from Miura Store.

Over the centuries the Ishidōrō evolved and were adapted for the practical purpose of lighting the grounds of religious sites, and have since become popular by placing them (in varying sizes) in the gardens of tea houses and private residences.

The Kapaʻa project work was accomplished by JS Teraoka, Masanobu Nitta and Mr. Fujiwara; the Ishidōrō was made of concrete, designs etched in redwood were pressed into the wet concrete. Many plantation workers would stop by after their long work hours to help out. (Inspiration Journal)

For many, the monument represented the Japanese immigrants’ respect for their culture and homeland, and for others, their intention to return to their families and communities in Japan, after saving up money from plantation work on Kauaʻi.

However, as World War II heated up, anti-Japanese sentiments grew, and community pressure built to remove the monument. In April 1943, county work crews toppled and buried the massive structure.

According to The Garden Island newspaper, “The monuments were pulled down by the county in response to numerous protests from civilians who felt that they were inappropriate at this time when Russia is considered an ally of the United States.” A headline from The Garden Island stated, “Reminders of Japanese Victory Removed.” (Inspiration Journal)

Over the decades, the Ishidōrō was long forgotten.

Then, in 1972, some children playing at Kapaʻa Beach Park noticed a metal rod sticking out of the ground and feared people could get injured. The County crews working to remove it soon realized that it was part of the old Ishidōrō monument; Kauaʻi Historical Society stepped in and urged it be removed.

It was later re-erected through a community effort led by Mayor Tony Kunimura, the Kaua’i Historical Society and others. For the next 20 years, the damaged and aged lantern stood supported by steel braces.

In 2008, with funding from the Kauaʻi County/HUD Community Development Block Grant Program, the Ishidōrō was fully restored, through the efforts of the Kapaʻa Business Association and others.

Congratulations to the community and coordinators Larry Dill, Pat Pannell and Rayne Regush of the Kapa‘a Business Association, and Leadership Kaua‘i on earning a ‘2009 Leadership in History Award’ from the ‘American Association for State and Local History’ for the Japanese Stone Lantern Restoration, Kapaʻa, Kaua‘i.

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Restored Japanese Stone Lantern Memorial—Kapaa

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Bronze statue of Japanese sugarcane workers first immigration to Hawaii (Maui) 1885

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March 17, 2020 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kauikeaouli

Kauikeaouli appeared to be stillborn, but was revived. He was the second son of Kamehameha I. His birth site is at the head of Keauhou Bay (the Daughters of Hawaiʻi own and maintain the area.)

His exact birth date is not known; however, the generally accepted date is August 11, 1813. Never-the-less, Kauikeaouli was apparently an admirer of Saint Patrick and chose to celebrate his birthday on March 17.

Kauikeaouli spent the first 5-years of his life with Chief Kaikioʻewa in the ‘O‘oma ahupuaʻa in Kona (the place where he first learned to be a king.)

Other early education the infant Prince received was at Kailua-Kona, from the Rev. Asa Thurston and Thomas Hopu, a native Hawaiian who had been educated on the continent and who came with the first missionaries to Hawaiʻi. In Honolulu, the Prince was the pupil of Rev. Hiram Bingham.

The younger brother of Liholiho, he served as Hawai‘i’s King from 1825 to 1854 – the longest ruling monarch over the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kauikeaouli was a pre-teen when he ascended to the throne; in the early years of his rule, he served under a regency with Kaʻahumanu, his father’s favorite queen, as joint ruler.

During the early- to mid-1800s timeframe, there were significant changes occurring that greatly affected the Hawaiian people:

his mother Keōpūolani and Kaʻahumanu convinced Liholiho to effectively break the Kapu system
the health of many Hawaiians was weakened by exposure to new diseases, common cold, flu, measles, mumps, smallpox and venereal diseases
as more ships came in, many of those who came to Hawaiʻi chose to stay and settle
Hawaiʻi changed from a land of all Hawaiians to a place of mixed cultures, languages and races
many new plants and animals were brought to the islands, both on purpose and by accident
new products by foreign ships were traded
the economy and everyday life was changing from a subsistence way of life to a commodity-based economy that started with barter and trade, that eventually changed to a monetary system
there was growth of business centers, where people ended up living closer to one another, typically surrounding the best seaports for western ships (small towns soon grew into large cities)

There is scarcely in history, ancient or modem, any King to whom so many public reforms and benefits can be ascribed, as the achievements of his reign. Yet what King has had to contend with so many difficulties as King Kamehameha III? (The Polynesian, 1855)

“That the existence of the King, chiefs and the natives, can only be preserved by having a government efficient for the administration of enlightened justice, both to natives and the subjects of foreign powers residing in the islands, and that chiefly through missionary efforts the natives have made such progress in education and knowledge, as to justify the belief that by further training, they may be rendered capable of conducting efficiently the affairs of government; but that they are not at present so far advanced.” (Kamehameha IV, In Obituary to the departed King)

In private life, Kamehameha III was mild, kind, affable, generous and forgiving. He was never more happy than when free from the cares and trappings of state. He could enjoy himself sociably with his friends, who were much attached to him. (The Polynesian, 1855)

Having associated much, while a boy, with foreigners, he continued to the last to be fond of their company. Without his personal influence, the law to allow them to hold lands in fee simple could never have been enacted; neither could conflicting claims to land have been settled and registered by that most useful institution, the Board of Land Commissioners. (The Polynesian, 1855)

It is hardly possible to conceive any King more generally beloved than was Kamehameha III; more universally obeyed, or more completely sovereign in the essential respect of independent sovereignty, that of governing his subjects free from any influence or control coming from beyond the limits of his own jurisdiction. (The Polynesian, 1855)

Under his leadership, Hawaiʻi changed from an isolated island kingdom to a recognized member of the modem world. Many of the things he did as king still influence life in Hawaiʻi today. (Kamehameha Schools Press)

The following are only some of the many accomplishments of Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli:)

On June 6, 1825, Kauikeaouli was proclaimed king of Hawaiʻi. To the people he said, “Where are you, chiefs, guardians, commoners? I greet you. Hear what I say! My kingdom I give to God. The righteous chief shall be my chief, the children of the commoners who do you right shall be my people, my kingdom shall be one of letters.” (Kamakau – Kamehameha Schools Press)
June 7, 1839, he signed the Declaration of Rights (called Hawai‘i’s Magna Charta) that, in part, noted, “God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth, in unity and blessedness. God has also bestowed certain rights alike on all men and all chiefs, and all people of all lands.”
June 17, 1839 he issued the Edict of Toleration permitting religious freedom for Catholics in the same way as it had been granted to the Protestants.
June 28, 1839 he founded Chief’s Children’s School (The Royal School;) the main goal of this school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chiefs’ children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaiʻi’s Kingdom. (Missionaries Amos and Juliette Cooke were selected to teach the 16 royal children and run the school.)
October 8, 1840 (the King was about 27-years-old) he enacted the Constitution of 1840 that, in part, changed the government from one of an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. It provided for a separation of powers between three branches of government, with executive power in the hands of the king, the kuhina nui (similar to a prime minister) and four governors; a bicameral legislative body consisting of a house of nobles and a house of representatives, with the house of representatives elected by the people; and a judiciary system, including a supreme court.
April 27, 1846 he declared that “the forests and timber growing therein shall be considered government property, and under the special care of the Minister of the Interior …;” effectively starting the process of protecting our mauka watersheds.
January 27, 1848 through March 7, 1848 he participated in what we refer to as the “Great Māhele” that was a reformation of the land system in Hawaiʻi and allowed private ownership
June 14, 1852 he enacted the Constitution of 1852 that expanded on the Declaration of Rights, granted universal (adult male) voting rights for the first time and changed the House of Nobles from a hereditary body to one where members served by appointment by the King. It also institutionalized the three branches of government and defined powers along the lines of the American Constitution.
Toward the end of Kauikeaouli’s reign there were 423 schools in Hawaiʻi with an enrollment of over twelve-thousand-students. Most of the schools were elementary schools using Hawaiian as the language of instruction.

Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) died December 15, 1854 (at the age of 41.)

Happy Birthday and Cheers to Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III. I think I’ll have a Guinness (or two) tonight in his honor. (Happy St Patrick’s Day.)

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