Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Kamehameha V Cottage

Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, who later became Kamehameha V, owned a cottage in an area now known as Moanalua Gardens next to a kalo patch, a fishpond and Chinese Hall.  Moanalua Gardens is a 24-acre privately-owned public park in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The cottage, built during the 1850s, is a single-story wooden structure laid out in Hawaiian style with a Victorian motif.

The building is comprised of three separate units: a cooking and eating unit; a living and sleeping unit; and an entertaining pavilion (this third unit is a post-Kamehameha V addition). The units are all attached to each other by a series of roofed lanai.

The exterior wall of the center building is made of clapboard whereas that of the dining and kitchen hall is made of board and batten.

The exterior trim is of Victorian Gingerbread (the cresting), accenting each of the different roof styles of the units (gable, simple shed, hip, and domelike roofs). The single unifying factor of the roof in the overall building is the consistent use of wooden shingles.

The original cottage (the center unit) was very simple with minimal ornamentation. The revival of hula performances may have had some influence on the construction as the original cottage had a lanai that completely surrounded the building where hula could have been performed for invited guests.

In 1856, Prince Lot built the kitchen and dining unit as a separate building using tongue-and-groove material with vertical molded battens over the joints.

Lot Kapuāiwa, four years older than his brother Kamehameha IV, ascended to the throne at his brother’s death in 1863.  Like his brother, he ruled for nine years (1863 to 1872.)

In 1864, when it appeared that a new constitution could not be agreed upon, he declared that the Constitution of 1852 be replaced by one he had written himself.

Kamehameha V (Lot) founded the Royal Order of Kamehameha I on April 11, 1865, in commemoration of his grandfather Kamehameha the Great.

The stated purpose of the order was “to cultivate and develop, among our subjects, the feelings of honor and loyalty to our dynasty and its institutions and … to confer honorary distinctions upon such of our subjects and foreigners as have rendered,  or may hereafter render to our dynasty and people, important services.”

Known as “the bachelor king,” Lot Kamehameha did not name a successor, which led to the invoking of the constitutional provision for electing kings of Hawai`i.

Under the Kingdom’s 1864 constitution, if the king did not appoint a successor, a new king would be elected by the legislature from the eligible Hawaiian royals still alive. William Charles Lunalilo and David Kalākaua were the candidates; Lunalilo was the more popular of the two.

The property was transferred to Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last of the Kamehameha line.  She willed (in 1884) the ahupua‘a (land division) of Moanalua to Samuel Mills Damon.

In the 1900s, Damon renovated the cottage and used it as a residence.  In 1961, lattice work around the building was added, and around 1972-1973, a new shingled roof was installed.

The building has been situated at three different Moanalua sites since its original construction. It was moved to its present location in 1960.

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Hale Ali‘i

When the seat of government was being established in Lāhainā in the 1830s, Hale Piula (iron roofed house,) a large two-story stone building, was built for Kamehameha III to serve as his royal palace.

But, by 1843, the decision was made to permanently place a palace in Honolulu; Hale Piula was then used as a courthouse, until it was destroyed by wind in 1858 – its stones were used to rebuild a courthouse on Wharf Street.

In Honolulu, Kekūanāo‘a (father of two kings, Kamehameha IV and V) was building a house for his daughter (Princess Victoria Kamāmalu.)

The original one story coral block and wooden building called Hanailoia was built in July 1844 on the grounds of the present ‘Iolani Palace.

But, in 1845 Kamehameha III took possession of it as his Palace; from then on, Honolulu remained the official seat of government in Hawai‘i.

At the time when Kekūanāo‘a erected the old Palace, the grounds were not so spacious as they are at present.  On the western corner was Kekūanaō‘a’s house, which he had named Hali‘imaile.

Kekauluohi, a premier, erected her house in the vicinity.  When John Young was premier, he built and lived in Kīna‘u Hale.  Also, on the premises was Pohukaina.

The site of the Palace was once a section of the important heiau (temple,) Ka‘ahaimauli; other heiau were also in the vicinity of the Palace, including Kanela‘au and Mana.

The Palace was used mainly of official events and the structure had mainly offices and reception areas, since smaller buildings on the grounds served as residences for the rulers and their court; it was only one-third the floor area of the present Palace.

Kamehameha III built a home next door (on the western side of the present grounds, near the Kīna‘u gate, opening onto Richards Street;) he called the house “Hoihoikea,” (two authors spell it this way – it may have been spelled Hoihoiea) in honor of his restoration after the Paulet Affair of 1843. (Taylor and Judd)

(In 1843, Paulet had raised the British flag and issued a proclamation annexing Hawai‘i to the British Crown.  This event became known as the Paulet Affair.  Queen Victoria sent Rear Admiral Richard Thomas to restore the Hawaiian Kingdom.  That day is now referred to as Ka La Hoʻihoʻi Ea, Sovereignty Restoration Day.)

“Hoihoikea” was a large, old-fashioned, livable cottage erected on the grounds a little to the west and mauka side of the old Palace.  This served as home to Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V: the Palace being used principally for state purposes. (Taylor)

The palace building was named Hale Ali‘i meaning (House of the Chiefs.)

During the reign of Kamehameha V, cabinet councils were frequently held there.  This was where the council called the Constitutional Convention, the result of which was the abolition of the constitution of 1852 and the creation of a new one.

Hale Ali‘i was renamed ‘Iolani in 1863, at the request of King Kamehameha V (Lot Kapuāiwa.)  The name “‘Iolani” was chosen by King Kamehameha V to honor his deceased brother, the former king, Kamehameha IV (Alexander Liholiho ‘Iolani.)

“‘Io” is the Hawaiian hawk, a bird that flies higher than all the rest, and “lani” denotes heavenly, royal or exalted.

The Palace served as the official state structure for five Kings: Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, Lunalilo and the first part of Kalākaua’s reign.

Theodore Heuck, who had earlier designed the new Mausoleum, designed a building called ‘Iolani Barracks, completed in 1871, to house the royal guards. Over time the various other houses on the grounds were removed and replaced with grass lawns.

Although the old palace was demolished in 1874, the name ʻIolani Palace was retained for the building that stands today.

The construction of the present ‘Iolani Palace began in 1879 and in 1882 ‘Iolani Palace was completed and furnished.

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Privy Council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government.

The word “privy” means “private” or “secret”; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch’s closest advisors to give confidential advice on affairs of state.

As a private council, the Privy Council is distinguished from a modern cabinet of the executive; in the monarchical tradition, a Privy Council lent legislative powers to the monarch and served judicial functions.

The Privy Council is an institution of European monarchies. The English Privy Council developed out of the royal court of ecclesiastics and high officials that advised the Crown.

The Hawaiian government was a constitutional monarchy comprised of three branches: Executive (Monarch and Privy Council), Legislative (House of Nobles and Representatives) and Judicial (Supreme Court and lower courts).

During the Hawaiian monarchy, local affairs were administered through the Privy Council, the Minister of the Interior and the governors appointed by the king for each island.

The adoption of this western institution by the Kingdom of Hawai‘i reflected the effort of the time to conform the organization of the government to the norms of the community of nations with which Hawai‘i was having increasing economic and diplomatic relations.

Every member of the Privy Council of State, before entering upon the discharge of his/her duties as such, takes an oath to support the Constitution, to advise the Monarch honestly, and to observe strict secrecy in regard to matters coming to his/her knowledge as a Privy Counselor.

While the first official record of the Privy Council began in July 1845, the body existed previously as the council of chiefs (the House of Nobles similarly comprised of the members of the council of chiefs.)

Under the leadership of King Kamehameha III, the Privy Council was authorized by the Act to Organize the Executive Ministries on October 29, 1845.

The Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s Privy Council was a body comprised of five ministers and the four governors along with other appointed members that served to advise the King.

With the King in Council, it received foreign policy documents and approved the declaration of embargoes, orders of nobility, cutting of timber and use of coral reefs, prices for the sale and leases of government land, audit of internal taxes, the budget, assessment and minting of coins, regulations, compensation of teachers and diplomatic agents, granting of patents and appointments of the local officials.

The Cabinet Council, by Act I of Kamehameha III in 1845, acted as a consulting body for policies of the executive ministries. It also received and directed the publication of diplomatic correspondence, directed the accreditation of Hawaiian diplomatic agents and commission of consular agents, approved departmental seals.

Kingdom of Hawai‘i Constitution of 1852, Article 49 noted, “There shall continue to be a Council of State for advising the King in the Executive part of the Government, and in directing the affairs of the Kingdom, according to the Constitution and laws of the land, to be called the King’s Privy Council of State.”

Article 41 of the 1864 Constitution, issued during the reign of Kamehameha V, reasserts the continuing need for a Council of State “…for advising the King in all matters for the good of the State …”

“… and for assisting him in administering the Executive affairs of the Government, … which Council shall be called the King’s Privy Council of State, and the members thereof shall be appointed by the King …”

Article 42 of the 1864 Constitution further specifies that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Finance and the Attorney General would be ex officio members of the Privy Council.

The duties of the Privy Council lapsed when the monarchical government was repealed by the Proclamation of the Committee of Safety on January 17, 1893.

Act 1 of the Executive and Advisory Councils of the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands (approved on January 20, 1893,) vested the powers and duties of the Cabinet of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the Executive Council of the Provisional Government.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Preparing a Constitution

Collaboration between Ali‘i and the American Protestant missionaries resulted in, among other things, the introduction of Christianity, the creation of the Hawaiian written language, widespread literacy, making Western medicine available, and the evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition with harmony and choral singing.

In addition, the missionaries collaborated with the Chiefs on the promulgation of a constitutional government. Reverend William Richards came to Hawai‘i in 1823 as a member of the Second Company of missionaries sent to the Islands by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; he was instrumental in transforming Hawaiian governance, through a constitution with individual rights.

It was a time of transition. when the Hawaiian people were faced with the difficult task of adjusting themselves to changing conditions. They turned to their teachers, the American missionaries, for guidance along this intricate path.

The king and chiefs, acknowledging their own inexperience, had sought for a man of probity and some legal training who could act as their advisor in matters dealing with other nations and with foreigners within the Islands. (Judd)

Richards “accepted the invitation of the Chiefs to become their teacher, and entered into engagements with them which were signed on the 3d of July (1838). According to those engagements, (he) was to devote (his) time at (his) discretion to the instruction of the King and chiefs, as far as (he) could and remain at Lahaina, and do the public preaching.”

“(He) was also to accompany the King to O‘ahu if important public business called him there. (He) engaged to act as interpreter and translator in government business of a public nature when called to it, and was to receive for (his) services 600 dollars a year, to be paid in quarterly enstalments of 150 dollars each.”

“As soon as the arrangements were completed, (he) commenced the compilation and translation of a work on political economy, following the general plan of Wayland, but consulting Lay, Newman and others, and translating considerable portions from the 1st mentioned work.”

“(He) also met king & chiefs daily when other public business did not prevent, and as fast as (he) could prepare matter read it to them in the form of lectures. (He) endeavored to make the lectures as familiar as possible, by repeating them, and drawing the chiefs into free conversation on the subject of the Lecture.”

“They uniformly manifested a becoming interest in the school thus conducted, and took an active part in the discussion of the various topics introduced in the Lectures. The Lectures themselves were mere outlines of general principles of political economy, which of course could not have been understood except by full illustration drawn from Hawaiian custom and Hawaiian circumstances.”

“In these illustrations (he) endeavored as much as possible to draw their minds to the defects in the Hawaiian government, and Hawaiian practices, and often contrasted them with the government and practices of enlighted nations.”

“The conversation frequently took so wide a range that there was abundant opportunity to refer to any and to every fault of the present system of government. But when the faults of the present system were pointed out & the chiefs felt them & then pressed me with the question, ‘Pehea la e pono ai,’ (How will it be bettered?)”

“During the year (Richards had) been called on to translate various documents and laws, some of which were transmitted to the USA & some were for promulgation at the Islands.”

“(He had) said scarcely nothing to the king and chiefs respecting the existing evils or defects in the government, except as the subject has come up naturally and almost necessarily while discussing established principles of Political Economy.”

“A system of laws has been written out by (Boaz) Mahune, a graduate of the (Lahainaluna) high school, and he was directed by the King to conform them to the principles of Political Economy which they had learned. Those laws are some what extensive and protect all private property.”

“According to this code, no chief has any authority over any man, any farther than it is given him by specific enactment, and no tax can be levied, other than that which is specified in the printed law …”

“… and no chief can act as a judge in a case where he is personally interested, and no man can be dispossessed of land which he has put under cultivation except for crimes specified in the law.” (Richards Report to the Sandwich Islands Mission, May 1, 1839)

No Ke Kālai‘āina (translation of William Richards’ Book)

Classes in political economy were taught by Mr. Richards for the chiefs; these laid the foundation for the political reforms started soon after. Indeed, it can be said that Mr. Richards exercised a profound, though somewhat intangible, influence on Hawaii’s evolution towards a constitution form of government.

Richards translated portions of Dr Francis Wayland’s ‘Elements of Political Economy’ into Hawaiian and organized discussions with the Chiefs on constitutional governance.

The Chiefs proposed themselves to publish the work which I have compiled, & they are to have the Copy Right & defray the expense of the publication.” (The book was known as No ke Kālai‘āina.)

Richards was instrumental in helping to transform Hawai‘i into a modern constitutional state with a bill of rights (1839) and a constitution (1840).

A project of the Hawaiian Mission Houses bicentennial commemoration involves translating the Hawaiian text into English and research William Richards and process of constitution in Hawaiian language sources.

Click HERE to view/download Background on Preparing a Constitution

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Baibala

“The BIBLE, I say, the BIBLE only, is the Religion of Protestants!” (William Chillingworth (October 12, 1602 – January 30, 1644); The Religion of Protestants A Safe Way to Salvation)

Missionaries Wanted Hawaiians to Read the Word of God

Every Protestant believer is essentially expected to read scripture directly – not simply listen to teachings from scripture, presented by priests (as done by Catholics). (StackExchange)

“The first object with the missionaries … was to prepare elementary books, and to multiply copies, so that the ability to read intelligibly might become as extensive as possible. Their next object was to translate the Scriptures, and thus put it within the power of the whole population, who would take the trouble to learn, to read the word of God in their own language.” (Christian Observer, June 1832)

“For them, the Bible was the very voice of God, and any manifestation of religion without a Bible to depend on would quickly go astray and soon become only one more man-made religion. Had they converted all Hawaiians, but left them without a Bible, their mission, by their own standards, would have been incomplete and, in the end, doomed to failure.” (Lyon)

Hawaiians were Seeking the ‘New Technology’ of Literacy

“The missionary effort is more successful in Hawai‘i than probably anywhere in the world, in the impact that it has on the character and the form of a nation. And so, that history is incredible; but history gets so blurry …”

“The missionary success cover decades and decades becomes sort of this huge force where people feel like the missionaries got off the boat barking orders … where they just kind of came in and took over. They got off the boat and said ‘stop dancing,’ ‘put on clothes,’ don’t sleep around.’”

“And it’s so not the case ….”

“The missionaries arrived here, and they’re a really remarkable bunch of people. They are scholars, they have got a dignity that goes with religious enterprise that the Hawaiians recognized immediately. …”

“The Hawaiians had been playing with the rest of the world for forty-years by the time the missionaries came here. The missionaries are not the first to the buffet and most people had messed up the food already.”

“(T)hey end up staying and the impact is immediate. They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or the other, get ahold of their goods, their food, or your daughter. … But, they couldn’t get literacy. It was intangible, they wanted to learn to read and write”. (Puakea Nogelmeier)

“I think literacy was … almost like the new technology of the time. And, that was something that was new. … When the missionaries came, there was already contact with the Western world for many years…. But this was the first time that literacy really began to take hold. The missionaries, when they came, they may have been the first group who came with a [united] purpose. They came together as a group and their purpose was to spread the Gospel the teachings of the Bible. …”

“But the missionaries who came, came with a united purpose … and literacy was a big part of that. Literacy was important to them because literacy was what was going to get the Hawaiians to understand the word of the Bible … and the written word became very attractive to the people, and there was a great desire to learn the written word. … Hawai‘i became the most literate nation at one time.” (Jon Yasuda, one of the intern translators who participated in the Ali‘i Letters translation project)

Translation of the Bible

“The Hawaiian translation of the Bible (Baibala in Hawaiian) remains the largest single volume ever printed in Hawaiian, with over 1,400 densely packed pages in its most recent incarnation (2012), slimmed down from an original (and unwieldy) 2,300 pages (1837-1839).” (In making of the Baibala in to the Hawaiian language, they translated the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament – it was not a translation from or to English.)

“It is probably also the largest and most demanding single literary project since Hawaiian became a written language, requiring the active involvement of at least nine regular participants (four American ministers and five Native scholars) and numerous others who contributed to a lesser, but significant, degree over a period of more than ten years.”

“The participants were the elite scholars of their nations: the Americans were the best-educated men of their generation, skilled to a surprising degree in the ancient biblical languages, while the Hawaiians were among the highest-ranking ali‘i ‘chiefs’ and kākā‘ōlelo ‘chiefly advisors’, each one a profound scholar in the language and oral literature of Hawai‘i. The result of their long and fruitful cooperation was a superb Bible translation, far exceeding what either group could have produced on its own.”

“Two of the qualities that mark a good translation are fidelity and readability. The ideal translator has a firm and nuanced command of the source language (in this case, Hebrew, Aramaic, and ancient Greek) and is, ideally, a well-educated native speaker of the target language (here, Hawaiian).”

“Not one of those who worked on the Baibala possessed both of these qualifications. The result of their collaborative efforts is a testament to both.” (Lyon)

This is only a summary; Click HERE to read more on the Baibala.

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