Economy | Page 130 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 27, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi’s Visitor Industry

It is believed that Hawai‘i’s first accommodations for transients were established sometime after 1810, when Don Francisco de Paula Marin “opened his home and table to visitors on a commercial basis …. (in) ‘guest houses’ (for) the ship captains who boarded with him while their vessels were in port.”

In Waikīkī, in 1837, an ad in the Sandwich Island Gazette newspaper extended an invitation to visit the new “Hotel at Waititi” (as Waikīkī was sometimes called) – the exact location of this first hotel was not given, however it remained in business for only a few years.

In the 1870s, another foreign resident, Allen Herbert, turned his home into a family resort. Herbert’s enterprise broadened its appeal by welcoming ladies and children. In 1888, this became Waikīkī’s second hotel – The Park Beach Hotel.

In 1893, the first famous Waikiki hotel opened. George Lycurgus, leased Herbert’s premises, renamed the hotel “Sans Souci” (“without care”) and turned it into an internationally known resort to which visitors like the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson were attracted (the beach, there, is still named for it.)

When Hawaiʻi became a US territory (June 14, 1900,) it was drawing adventuresome cruise ship travelers to the islands. Hotels blossomed, including Waikiki’s oldest surviving hotel, the Moana Hotel, in 1901.

However, the tourists stopped coming – possibly because Honolulu was swept by bubonic plague in 1899 and 1900. There were reports that Los Angeles was anticipating a bumper crop of tourists for the winter of 1902. Competition had already begun.

Over the decades, promotional efforts grew and so did the number of tourists.

In 1917, the Hau Tree was purchased and expanded – the buyers renamed it the Halekulani (“House Befitting Heaven.”) The Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened on February 1, 1927.

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

In 1941, a record year, in which 31,846 visitors arrived, World War II brought an abrupt end to tourism in Hawaiʻi. Three years later, the Chamber of Commerce began bringing it back to life with a Hawaiʻi Travel Bureau (now HVCB.)

An important priority was to get the ocean liner “Lurline” back in the passenger business after her wartime duty. In the spring of 1948, with an enthusiastic welcome by some 150,000 people and an 80 vessel escort, she steamed into Honolulu Harbor to reclaim her title as “glamour girl of the Pacific.”

Also In 1948, American President Lines resumed flying the Pacific and scheduled air service was inaugurated to Hawaiʻi.

1959 brought two significant actions that shaped the present day make-up of Hawai‘i, (1) Statehood and (2) jet-liner service between the mainland US and Honolulu (Pan American Airways Boeing 707.)

These two events helped guide and expand the fledgling visitor industry in the state into the number one industry that it is today.

Tourism exploded. Steadily during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the millions of tourists added up, and Hawai‘i was learning to cope with the problems of success. The yearly visitor arrivals total peaked at nearly 9.4-million people in 2017.

Tourism is the activity most responsible for Hawaiʻi’s current economic growth and standard of living.

Although many emerging industries – such as technology, film, health & wellness, professional services, specialty products and others – show great promise for the future, Hawaiʻi’s economy will likely depend on the activity generated by visitor activity for years to come.

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA) has been adjusting to deal with both the short-term challenges facing Hawai‘i’s tourism industry and the longer-term challenge of achieving a healthy and sustainable industry that provides maximum benefits to Hawai‘i’s community.

I was happy to have served for four years on the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.

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March 23, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

$20,000 as a Guarantee

On July 21, 1838, the French minister of the navy dispatched orders to Captain Cyrille-Pierre-Theodore Laplace, who at the time was already en route to the Pacific on a voyage of circumnavigation. Laplace received these orders, along with supporting documents, at Port Jackson, Australia, in March 1839.

The plight of French Catholics in Hawai‘i being distressingly similar to that of French Catholics in Tahiti, these orders read: “… What the English Methodists are doing in Tahiti, American Calvinist missionaries are doing in the Sandwich Islands.”

“They have incited the king of these islands, or rather those who govern in his name, to actions that apply to all foreigners of the Catholic faith – all designated, intentionally, as ‘Frenchmen.’”

“They found themselves prohibited from practicing their religion, then ignominiously banished from the Island … You will exact, if necessary with all the force that you command, complete reparation for the wrongs that they have committed and you will not leave those shores until you have left an indelible impression.”

In addition to the religious persecution, “Our wines, brandies, fabrics, and luxury goods find ready purchasers in Honolulu as well as in Russian, British, and Mexican settlements; but these articles are imported by American merchants (or replaced by substitutes of American manufacture).”

“French wines and brandies are subject to excessively high duties, on the grounds that bringing them into the Sandwich Islands would be harmful to the morals of the native population. American rum, on the other hand, is brought in – whether legally or illegally, I do not know—and consumed in prodigious quantities.” (Laplace; Birkett)

France, historically a Catholic nation, used its government representatives in Hawaiʻi to protest the mistreatment of Catholic Native Hawaiians. Captain Cyrille-Pierre Théodore Laplace, of the French Navy frigate ‘Artémise’, sailed into Honolulu Harbor in 1839 to convince the Hawaiian leadership to get along with the Catholics – and the French.

Captain Laplace and his fifty-two-gun frigate L’Artemise arrived in the Hawai‘i in July 1839. Laplace was the first Frenchman to visit the Islands with specific instructions from Paris to enter into official diplomatic relations with the Hawaiian government.

“It was my task to end this prohibition so detrimental to our commercial interests. I succeeded in doing so through a convention with the king of the Islands where he agreed that in the future French wines and brandies would be subject to no more than a 6 percent ad valorem duty when imported under the French flag.”

“The American missionaries raged and fumed at me, claiming that I was anti-Christian. They brought down on me all the curses of New and Old World Bible societies, to whom they depicted me as championing drunkenness among their converts …”

“… as if the way in which they were running things allowed these poor people to earn enough to buy Champagne, Bordeaux, or even Cognac brandy. Despite these diatribes, as unjust as they were treacherous, I carried my project to completion.” (Laplace; Birkett)

During the brief conflict, Laplace issued a ‘Manifesto’ “to put an end either by force or by persuasion to the ill-treatment of which the French are the victims at the Sandwich Islands” – Haʻalilio was taken hostage by the French. He was later exchanged for John ʻĪʻi who went on board the L’Artemise.

Item 4 of the Manifesto noted, “That the king of the Sandwich Islands deposit in the hands of the Captain of the l’Artemise the sum of twenty thousand dollars, as a guarantee of his future conduct towards France, which sum the government will restore to him when it shall consider that the accompanying treaty will be faithfully complied with.”

“However harsh the exaction of the $20,000 as a guarantee for the faithful observance by the King and chiefs of the treaty of the 12th July, 1839, the exaction of such pledges, and, even of hostages was a common practice, in remote ages of nations, now the leaders of civilization and the greatest in power.”

“It was the humiliating penalty which strength imposed on doubtful faith, before a higher civilization had rendered it the greatest reproach to a monarch, or the supreme director of a slate, to commit a breach of national faith, or break his word.” (Polynesian, May 12, 1855)

King Kamehameha III feared a French attack on his kingdom and on June 17, 1839 issued the Edict of Toleration (173-years ago today) permitting religious freedom for Catholics in the same way as it had been granted to the Protestants.

The King also donated land where the first permanent Catholic Church would be constructed, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace; the Catholic mission was finally established on May 15, 1840 when the Vicar Apostolic of the Pacific arrived with three other priests – one of whom, Rev. Louis Maigret, had been refused a landing at Honolulu in 1837.

On July 9, 1840, ground was broken for the foundation of the present Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, and schools and churches were erected on other islands to advance the mission.

So, what became of the $20,000? … “The following notice respecting the visit of Rear Admiral Hamelin to these Islands, is taken from the Moniteur of 10th August, 1846:”

“M. le contre Admiral Hamelin, commanding in the Pacific Ocean and on the west coast of America, arrived at the Sandwich Islands in March last, in the frigate Virginie.”

“After being made aware that the treaty of 1839, made by Captain Laplace, had been executed with fidelity, that officer general, by the advice of M. Dudoit, the Consul of Prance, restored, to the Hawaiian Government $20,000, the guarantee of the fulfilment of that treaty.” (Polynesian, May 1, 1847)

“This was effected with all formality, on the 23d of March (1846), the money being delivered in the original cases, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, secured by the seals of the French Royal Navy, and that of the Hawaiian Government, to M. Kekuanaoa, C. Kanaina and Wm. Richards, Esq., as the King’s Commissioners.” (Wyllie; Polynesian, August 22, 1846)

“I saw a couple of handcarts containing several ironbound boxes, and guarded by files of French marines, proceeding up Nuuanu street from the wharf, and on enquiring was told that the boxes contained the twenty thousand dollars …”

“… which was being returned to the Hawaiian Government. The same seals were on the boxes which had been affixed when they were delivered to Captain La Place, seven years before.” (Sheldon)

“The benevolent disposition of the Hawaiian Government towards the Catholics established there, and the protection accorded our missionaries by the authorities of the country, fully justify that measure, which has produced good effect. It has proved the sincerity of the French Government, and we have no doubt, will secure to our compatriots in the Archipelago the protection due to them.”

“Admiral Hamelin and suite visited King Kamehameha, and remitted to him and his Minister a few presents, consisting of firearms, which were received with satisfaction.”

“The King invited Admiral Hamelin and his officers to a dinner, which was followed by a soiree at the Consulate of France. The next morning the King was received on board the frigate where he evidently appreciated the attention shown him by the Admiral.
It is pleasing to know that the transactions in March, 1846, had given satisfaction to the French people in regard to all parties concerned.”

“The protection of the French missionaries has been the award due to their good conduct, and it is their right under the existing laws.”

“The irregularities of 1837 and 1889 have disappeared with the excitements that created them; and the Consul of France may justly boast of having emerged from difficulties unusually great, and gained for himself and compatriots a high measure of popular esteem.” (Polynesian, May 1, 1847)

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March 19, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikīkī Aquarium

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramways was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.) HRT initially operated electrically powered streetcars on tracks through Honolulu streets. Power came from overhead wires.

Its “land” component included investments into the construction and operation of the Honolulu Aquarium (now the Waikīkī Aquarium), a popular attraction at the end of the Waikiki streetcar line.

“The company’s service extends to Waikiki beach, the famous and popular resort of the Hawaiian and tourist, and where the aquarium, the property of the company, is one of the great objects of attraction.”

“Kapiolani Park, the Bishop Museum, the Kahauki Military Post, the Royal Mausoleum, Oahu College and the Manoa and Nuuanu valleys are reached by the lines of this company.” (Overland Monthly, 1909)

The beginnings of aquarium history can be traced back to the 1820s. Through the mid-1800s aquariums displayed rarely exceeded ten gallons, a size used often today in homes and offices. In the United States, the first public aquarium opened in Boston in 1859.

The Waikīkī Aquarium opened on March 19, 1904; it is the third oldest aquarium in the United States. Its adjacent neighbor on Waikīkī Beach is the Natatorium War Memorial.

Then known as the Honolulu Aquarium, it was established as a commercial venture by the Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company, who wished to “show the world the riches of Hawaii’s reefs”.

The Aquarium opened with 35 tanks and 400 marine organisms, and during its first year, the internationally renowned biologist David Starr Jordan proclaimed it as having the finest collection of fishes in the world.

Considered state-of-the-art at that time, the Aquarium also received positive comments from such notable visitors of that era as William Jennings Bryan and Jack London. (Waikiki Aquarium)

For its first 15 years the aquarium operated as a privately financed institution, with display animals collected by local fishermen.

It was also a practical objective of using the Aquarium as a means of enticing passengers to ride to the end of the new trolley line in Kapi‘olani Park, where the Aquarium was located. (The trolley terminus was across Kalākaua Avenue from the Aquarium, near the current tennis courts.)

Many in the community hoped that the Honolulu Aquarium would help develop a flagging tourism industry with the Aquarium serving as a “point of interest.”

Author Jack London called it a “wonderful orgy of color and form” from which he had to tear himself away after each visit.

When the property lease expired in 1919, the Cooke Estate ceded the Aquarium’s property lease to the Territory of Hawai‘i, and the newly formed University of Hawai‘i assumed administration of the Aquarium and the laboratory.

During these early years (1919 – 1973) admissions to the Aquarium were deposited to the State General Fund and did not return to the Aquarium for upkeep.

It was renamed the Waikīkī Aquarium following its reconstruction in 1955.

Compounding the financial and maintenance difficulties was the moving of the research function of the Aquarium to two new University institutions: the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) at Coconut Island in Kāne‘ohe Bay, and the Pacific Biomedical Research Center.

In 1975, when Dr. Leighton Taylor was appointed the third Director many positive changes came to the Aquarium and is credited for saving the aquarium from closing.

The logo, Education Department, Volunteer Program, library, research facility, gift shop, Friends of the Waikīkī Aquarium support organization and the first Exhibits Master Plan (1978) all came into being during his tenure.

By accepting donations, memberships and grants, the Aquarium was able to fund increased services and to renovate exhibits.

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Waikiki_Aquarium (Courtesy Waikiki Aquarium)

March 18, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Bob Crosby

Born George Robert Crosby in Spokane, Washington, on August. 25, 1913, he was the youngest of seven children: five boys, Larry, Everett, Ted, Harry and Bob; and two girls, Catherine and Mary Rose.

His parents were English-American bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Irish-American Catherine Harrigan, the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland.

Bob Crosby’s roller-coaster career began, like his brother’s when he came out of Gonzaga University in show business. With his big brother Bing’s (Harry) urging, he started with bandleader Anson Weeks.

“Bob’s big chance came about when established bandleader Ben Pollack began devoting more energy to romancing and building the career of his singer Doris Robbins, than to his orchestra.”

The band broke up and eventually they thought Bob – young, pleasant and connected – the most promising. The job called for him to stand out front, smile, sing and make introductions. (Gaddins)

“This, of course, can either be the makings of the younger brother, or perhaps complete anhilization of the younger crooner’s career.” (Crosby; Gaddins)

“But the idea worked like a charm. Fans came to gawk at the new Cosby and stayed to enjoy his cordial demeanor and swinging band … though Bob felt they never accepted him as his own man. ‘They wanted to see what Bing’s kid brother looked like.’” (Gaddins)

“Best known as the easygoing front man for Bob Crosby’s Bobcats, a rollicking octet that was the cornerstone of a larger Dixieland band, Crosby sought during his career to distinguish himself from his older brother.”

“While Bing Crosby made a fortune crooning, for example, Bob rarely sang and once described himself in self-deprecating humor as ‘the only guy in the business who made it without talent.’” (LA Times)

Crosby led big bands from 1935 to 1942, starting the Bob Cats, an eight-piece band-within-the-band, during that time. He sang but did not play an instrument. His bands were known for swing and Dixieland sounds.

When World War II began, the band broke up; Crosby joined the Marines. Lt. Bob Crosby and other Marines in his band put on shows in Hawaii that were seen as morale boosters.

The Marine Corps organized a 5th Marine Division Show for a tour of a Pacific bases in the war zone Crosby spent 18-months with the Marines, touring with bands throughout the Pacific. (NY Times)

“They would respond to anything,” Marine corporal Max Berg (and comedian/impersonator who traveled with Crosby). “We all just got so much back from the crowds. They were so happy to have people come out there and play to them.”

“We went to islands where they wouldn’t let the regulars go, half-occupied by Japanese. They were not even secure. We had to be careful we didn’t get knocked off by snipers.”

At the tour’s end, arriving at Honolulu, the entertainers discovered that their unit shipped out without them. “We were all sad we couldn’t go but it was too late,” Berg recalls.

The 5th Marine Division was off to invade one of Japan’s last island bastions in the Pacific, heavily fortified Iwo Jima. It proves to be one of America’s costliest victories of the war. Navy corpsmen are in vital demand.

“We had four Navy corpsmen they took,” Berg says. “They flew them out special, and within (a few) weeks they were dead. I lost so many of my buddies in my division. I don’t like to think about it. I wouldn’t be here talking to you. I always wondered why did I get to come back, when so many other people lost their lives?” (Berg)

For a time Crosby appeared in such films as the 1944 “The Singing Sheriff,” before joining the U.S. Marines, where he served with distinction, leading a service band in the Pacific.

After the war, he worked mainly as a daytime radio host, moving in the 1950s to daytime television. He headlined an Australian nighttime talk show, tried the car-rental business in Hawaii. (LA Times) “I went into the car rental business in Hawaii, managed to lose $75,000 and go broke in eight months.” (Crosby)

Crosby enjoyed popularity as a daytime radio entertainer for several years. But he was unable to attract a nighttime sponsor and retired to Hawai‘i where he took occasional assignments as a disc jockey. (UPI)

On heading back to Las Vegas, Crosby to the Commanding Officer of the USS Providence, “Have to go to hell so I can afford to live in paradise” [Hawaii]. (Crosby)

But Crosby’s career was often overshadowed by his older brother’s and he readily acknowledged that he had no special talent. His warm personality and natural flair for leadership, however, helped him attract excellent musicians. (UPI) Bob Crosby was inducted to the Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960 with 2 stars (television & radio). He died March 3, 1993.

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Al Caiola, Bob Crosby and Tubby Oliver

Lt. Bob Crosby signs autographs while visiting with patients

March 13, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Wellington

“Soon after James Cook’s visit to Vancouver Island in 1778, non-Natives began fur trading in the Northwest. Trade ships, after stopping in Hawaii, sailed to Vancouver Island to trade manufactured goods for sea otter pelts. … Besides sea otter there were beaver and other furs.” (Holton)

“It did not take long for the Northwest Coast fur traders to discover at Hawaii a new medium for the Canton market. That market was, of course, the prime object of our Northwest fur trade.”

“China took nothing that the United States produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent eighteen months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter skins, highly esteemed by the mandarins.” (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation.

Edmond Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator, made history in 1819 when they became the first American whalers to visit the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i.)

A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. His find was widely publicized in New England, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area.

These ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. So when Captain Allen befriended the missionaries at Honolulu and Lahaina, he helped establish these areas as the major ports of call for whalers. (NPS)

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour ‘on Japan,’ ‘on the Northwest,’ or into the Arctic.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands. Starting with Cook’s arrival, his crew and later the whalers sought and received other pleasures.

Whales were not hunted for food, but primarily for their blubber; the thick layer of fat under their skins that protected them from the freezing cold waters of the far north seas.

Oil could be extracted from the blubber and used to make candles or for burning in oil lamps in the days before electric lights. Whale oil was very valuable and some whale ship owners made huge fortunes from selling the oil.

When the whale was caught it was towed back to the ship where it was “flensed” (cutting away the blubber.) The blubber was hoisted onto the ship’s deck where it was put into barrels and then stored away in the hold.

In 1826, the Wellington, reportedly a British whaling or trading ship, arrived at Lahaina, Maui from San Blas, Mexico. Seeking fresh water, the crew dumped the water they had in a river and refilled the barrels.

Then, “(missionary William) Richards was returning home to Lahaina one evening about dusk and met a native who informed him that there was a new ‘fly’ in the place.”

“He described it as being a very peculiar ‘fly’ that made its presence known by ‘a singing in the ear.’” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

Later, “(missionary) Dr. Judd was called upon to treat a hitherto unknown kind of itch, inflicted by a new kind of nolo (fly) described as ‘singing in the ear.’”

“The itch had first been reported early in 1827 by Hawaiians who lived near pools of standing water and along streams back of Lahaina [Maui].” (Warner)

“To the Reverend William Richards, their descriptions of the flies suggested a pestiferous insect, from which heretofore the Islands were fortunately free. Inspection confirmed his fears. The mosquito had arrived!”

“Investigation back-tracked the trail to the previous year and the ship Wellington, whose watering party had drained dregs alive with wrigglers into a pure stream, and thereby to blot one more blessing from the Hawai‘i that had been Eden.”

“Apparently no attempt was made to isolate and destroy the hatchery, nor to prevent spread of the pest throughout the archipelago. The pioneer was Culex quinquefasciatus, the night mosquito. (Warner)

“All evidence pointed to the ship ‘Wellington’ as the carrier of the pest. This story was later corroborated by Mr. Henry A. Pierce, late US Minister to Hawaii in the seventies.”

“Furthermore, up to the year 1826 there was no word In the Hawaiian language for mosquito. The native name for mosquito is makika, a corruption of the name mosquito.” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

The rest is history – so has it been for Hawaiʻi’s native birds.

Sure, mosquitoes are annoying to us (and they can be vectors for things like dengue and other diseases that affect humans.)

But, they are devastating to Hawaiʻi’s native birds.

Introduced mosquito-transmitted diseases, avian malaria and avian pox, are thought to be one of the main factors driving loss of native forest birds.

Many of Hawaii’s native birds suffered drastic population declines once introduced mosquitoes began transmitting avian malaria between birds.

Look closely at the picture of the ʻApapane bird – there is a mosquito on the upper-right side of its eye (not a good thing.)

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Mosquito-Apapane with mosquito

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