Economy | Page 184 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 24, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻIolani Palace ‘Fountain’

Water supply was relatively primitive in the early days of Honolulu. The residents commonly relied on the water from springs and streams, sometimes carrying calabashes of water great distances over rugged terrain.

Wm R Warren reportedly made the earliest attempt to dig a well in Honolulu, around 1820, but failed to find water. The first successful well was dug two years later by Joseph Navarro in his yard near the Bethel.

Visiting Honolulu about the same time, in 1822, Tyerman and Bennet recorded that “good fresh water is obtained from wells sunk eight or ten feet through the coral reef.”

The first unit of a public water system was completed by March 31, 1848, using lead pipe acquired from Ladd & Co. the previous September.

According to the Minister of the Interior, “a water tank, for the convenience of shipping, was placed in the basement of the new Harbor Master and Pilots’ Office, near the wharf (foot of Nu‘uanu street), and it was supplied through a leaden pipe from a reservoir at Pelekane….” (Schmitt)

After the completion of the Bates Street reservoir in 1851, nearby businesses and homes were connected with the main. The system was further expanded in 1860-1861, eventually covering most of the city.

The first artesian well in the Islands was drilled in the summer of 1879 near James Campbell’s ranch house in Ewa and on September 22, a good flow of water was obtained. On April 28, 1880, an artesian well was successfully completed on the land of A. Marques near Punahou. (Schmitt)

To supply water for ʻIolani Palace, Kalākaua authorized a well on Palace grounds. “On Saturday morning (January 27, 1883) at 5 o’clock the water was reached in the well sunk in the Palace yard.”

“No means were available to stop or check the flow, and the whole grounds were soon covered with water. Alakea and Richard streets, from King street to the sea, were flooded all day.” (Daily Bulletin, January 29, 1883)

“Water was struck at the artesian well which is being sunk at the Palace grounds by Messrs McCandless and Braden … an increased flow was struck at a total depth of 760-feet the water rising fully six inches above the top of the 8 3/8 iron pipe.”

“Very little obstruction has been encountered during the sinking of the well, the soil being mostly of a clayey description. The stream whistles which announced the strike of water, both on the morning and evening, sent many people wandering to the wharves to look for the Suez.” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 31, 1883)

However, concern was raised on the impact of the Palace well on the city’s water supply. “During the last three weeks the water in the well in the Palace yard has fallen two inches. That is, it now rises to one foot below the height to which it rose when it was first bored.”

“At this rate it would take less than 10 years to lower the water to such an extent that no Artesian well on the would flow.”

“And that calculation is based on the supposition that no more wells will be bored and that no greater consumption of water will be found during that time than at present.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 13, 1883)

“On Monday the well in the Palace yard was connected with the mains along Hotel street to Nu‘uanu, and up Fort, Richard, and Alakea streets to Beretania, so that we have that additional supply.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 13, 1883)

Later, “During those periods when there was a shortage in the water supply of Honolulu, especially in the hot summer months and at which time the Water Department of the City and County of Honolulu limited the hours in which irrigation was permitted …”

“… the grass and trees in the Capitol (ʻIolani Palace) Grounds suffered and decidedly showed it from lack of sufficient water. For this reason it was deemed advisable to utilize this re-cased artesian well to supply water for irrigating said grounds.”

“As the ordinary pump house seemed rather out of place and would be somewhat of an eyesore to the Capitol Grounds, it was decided to construct the pump house under-ground and make that portion projecting out of the ground a large ornamental flower pot, enclosed in which is located the pressure tank.”

“The pump house will be circular in section measuring 8 ft. inside diameter and 6 ft. high, on top of which is located the pressure tank 6 ft. inside diameter and 3 ft. high, lined with galvanized iron and ornamented and so constructed that ferns or flowers may be planted in same.”

“There will be a small fountain in the top and an iron manhole for access to the pressure chamber. Access to the pump chamber will be by a winding staircase. The entire structure except as noted will be constructed of reinforced concrete.”

“The pressure tank will be connected to a piping system laid around the Capitol Grounds, which has been so laid out that different sections of the grounds may be irrigated independently by operating the proper valves.”

“The work of installing the piping, pump, etc., and placing this system in operation, will be paid for out of funds appropriated by the 1921 Legislature for that purpose. It is hoped that with this system in operation there will be an abundance of water for irrigation purposes even in the driest periods.” (Report of the Superintendent of Public Works, 1921)

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Iolani Palace Artesian Well-Pump-steps

ʻIolani Palace ‘Fountain’

August 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Asked to Come … Then Excluded

Except for the few Chinese adventurers who remained in Hawai’i from the ships of whalers, fur traders and merchants, their numbers did not have a significant impact upon the society of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages in the sugar industry were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

This planned immigration had a strong influence on the growth, size, and composition of the population as well as on sociological change in the young Territory of Hawai’i at the turn of the century. (Nordyke)

The first contract from China came in 1852: 195 workers from the city of Amoy in the Fujian Province. By the 1880s more than 25,000 Chinese immigrants (more than 20% of Hawaii’s population) were working on Hawaii’s sugar plantation. (Jillian)

Because of excellent employment opportunities in Hawaiʻi, as well as the high value placed by Chinese on education (even though most immigrants had little formal schooling,) Chinese parents encouraged their sons to get as much education as possible. (Glick)

This strong emphasis on education resulted in a highly favorable position for Chinese men and women in Hawaiʻi. Nearly three-fourths of them are employed in higher-lever jobs – skilled, clerical and sales, proprietary and managerial, and professional. As a result, the Chinese enjoy the highest median of income of all ethnic groups in Hawaiʻi. (Glick)

On the continent, in the 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to the US, first to work in the gold mines, but also to take agricultural jobs, and factory work, especially in the garment industry. Chinese immigrants were particularly instrumental in building railroads in the American west.

Chinese immigrants worked as domestic servants, laundrymen, miners, road graders, railroad workers, cannery workers, fishermen, cooks, farmers and other occupations that were often shunned by others. (Chin; Organization of Chinese Americans)

Objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the US did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there.

At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could.

Non-Chinese laborers often required much higher wages to support their wives and children in the US, and also generally had a stronger political standing to bargain for higher wages. Therefore many of the non-Chinese workers in the US came to resent the Chinese laborers, who might squeeze them out of their jobs. (State Department)

Competition with American workers and a growing nativism brought pressure for restrictive action. (US Archives) On the continent, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited (1) the immigration of Chinese laborers, (2) denied Chinese of naturalization; (3) and required Chinese laborers already legally present in the US who later wish to reenter to obtain “certificates of return.”

The latter provision was an unprecedented requirement that applied only to Chinese residents. Other Acts were passed and steps taken by the US to extend the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Scott Act (1888) prohibited all Chinese laborers who would choose or had chosen to leave the US from reentering, cancelled all previously issued “certificates of return,” which prevented approximately 20,000 Chinese laborers abroad.

Geary Act (1892) extended the Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 years, required all Chinese persons in the US – but no other race – to register with the federal government in order to obtain “certificates of residence.” In 1898, the US annexed Hawaiʻi and took control of the Philippines, and excluded thousands of Chinese in Hawaii and the Philippines from entering the US mainland.

In 1902, Congress indefinitely extended all laws relating and restricting Chinese immigration and residence. (Chin; Organization of Chinese Americans)

In the Islands, in 1883, the Hawaiian Cabinet Council, concerned that the Chinese had secured too strong a representation in the labor market, passed a resolution to restrict Chinese immigration to 2,400 men a year and to require Chinese leaving the Islands to obtain a passport to prove previous residence if they expected to return.

In 1885, harsher regulations limited passports to Chinese who had been in trade or who had conducted business for at least one year of residence, and no return passports were to be issued to departing laborers.

Further government regulations introduced from 1886 to 1892 virtually ended Chinese contract labor immigration by restricting passports to business people who had resided in the Islands, Chinese women and children and a few persons in China who were specifically invited by the minister of foreign affairs.

A limited number of Chinese laborers were permitted to enter Hawaiʻi under conditional work permits for agricultural purposes, provided that they left the Islands after five years. (Nordyke)

An effort to stabilize the Chinese population was made by a Hawaiian government policy that curtailed Chinese immigration so that the number of arrivals would not exceed departures.

While 5,727 Chinese were employed on sugar plantations in 1888, only 2,617 were reported in that occupation by 1892. Many of these workers migrated to the cities to obtain higher-paying jobs, but some laborers returned to their homeland. Between 1884 and 1890, the Chinese population declined from 18,254 to 16,752 persons. (Nordyke)

The Chinese Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943, and then only in the interests of aiding the morale of a wartime ally during World War II. (State Department)

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August 11, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ford Tough

“When this earth was created, Nature, it seems, was more concerned with things other than road making, as witness the (attached) illustration.”

“The pictures shown herewith were taken during one of Professor T. A. Jaggar’s daily trips along one of the stretches which Nature forgot to pave with crushed stone and asphalt.”

“Professor Jaggar, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a noted volcano specialist, and most of his work is done around the craters of the smouldering mountains he studies.”

“As director of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, he has devoted nearly all of his attention to the famous Mauna Loa and Kilauea craters, living right at the scene of his activities and experiments for the past twelve years.”

“Although hazardous, Professor Jaggar makes it his business to get as close as possible to the scenes of eruption and volcanic action in order to obtain first-hand photographs, lava samples, temperature readings, and other valuable scientific data.”

“In this field of work one needs a ‘business car’ just as much as in any other calling, and so the scientist got himself a car that would be not only easy of operation but would stand the terrible strain of volcano climbing as well.”

“The professor bought a Ford and made a few alterations to suit his particular needs, with the result that the machine became more efficient than beautiful.”

“If you will refer to the picture, you will note that the fenders and doors are stripped, and that dual wheels are installed on the rear axle, which enable the car to travel over boulders 10 and 12 inches high with little difficulty, and also to go through deep sand and “aa,” which is the Hawaiian for clinker lava.”

“After having seen about half a dozen years of the most strenuous service imaginable, the car is still ‘going strong.’”

“Mauna Loa is the largest, although not the highest, volcano in the world, being 13,760 feet above sea level ; Kilauea crater is an immense cavity three miles long by two miles wide on the east slope of Mauna Loa.”

“These immense caldrons are reached by means of a very steep, rough trail, which more than proves the marvelous durability of the only car that has ascended it.”

“At the present time nothing but a pack trail leads to the summit of Mauna Loa, and so the Ford cannot be driven to the top, but it has plenty to do in the vicinity of Kilauea and also on the vast flanks of Mauna Loa, where various eruptions have taken place.”

“About a mile distant from Kilauea is a smaller, extinct crater known as ‘Little Kilauea.’ While it is no longer a sea of molten lava, like its near-by active brothers, nevertheless its surface is hot enough in places to be detrimental to the rubber tires on Professor Jaggar’s Ford, and uncomfortable for the feet of his dog.”

“The machine is often ‘cruised’ over freshly flowed lava that is not yet cool in order to make scientific investigations.”

“Professor Jaggar has set up a drilling rig here for the purpose of getting down into the hot lava bed directly beneath the surface to determine the subterranean temperatures and to take samples of gases.”

“The Ford car has been of indispensable assistance in transporting the equipment to and across the terribly rough crater floor; also in carrying the large quantity of water needed when drilling into the hot lava.”

“Heavy photographic equipment is easily taken care of by the car, and specimens are often gathered which have to be taken back to the observatory for study.”

“Because of these and numerous other services rendered by the car, no limit can be placed upon its value to the expedition.”

“At times, the lava in the crater rises rapidly and overflows, spreading destruction on its path. Occurrences like this have been the occasion for several intensive and hazardous expeditions by Professor Jaggar and his party.”

“Professor Jaggar has discovered many facts of scientific importance, and is working on plans for utilizing the heat of the volcano for commercial purposes. He believes that ways can be found to generate a large amount of electricity.”

“First, he hopes that a near-by hotel can be supplied with all the current needed; and eventually, if practical ways are found for harnessing the energy, the entire island will get its power from the volcano.” (This entire post is from Ford News, July 22, 1923.)

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August 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Malia

The Malia is a 6-man Hawaiian racing canoe hewn from a single koa log in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii in 1933. Malia is also part of the National Historic Register of Historic Places.

Her builder, James Takeo Yamasaki, designed her expressly for racing, one of the favorite sports of Hawaiian Royalty, dating back to King Kamehameha V (1863-1872).

She was purchased in 1936 by Dad Center of the Outrigger Canoe Club on O’ahu, but by 1948 became the property of the newly formed Waikiki Surf Club and has remained in their care ever since.

When launched she measured 39′-2″, but over time was modified twice. In 1950 she was lengthened to 39′-6″, and in 1973 she was lengthened to her present racing measure of 40′-1″.

Between 1952 and 1954 the Malia won fourteen straight Senior Men’s Races, and she has proven a dominant factor in canoe racing since. Her greatest accomplishments were performed in the very popular, highly prestigious, and very difficult 40 mile race from Molokai to O’ahu across the Molokai channel.

From the beginning of the annual Molokai-O‘ahu race in 1952, the Waikiki Surf Club, paddling the Malia, won first place a total of twelve times, six of which were consecutive, (’53, ’55, ‘58-’63, ’66, ’69, ’72 and ‘73). No other single canoe has ever won as often or for such a long continuous stretch.

In the 1960 race, Malia set a record time of 5 hours 29 minutes that was not surpassed by either a koa or a fiberglass canoe until 1981 when a California club, in the koa canoe Mālama, beat Malia’s record by a scant 4 minutes.

In 1959, two Koa outriggers were shipped to North America for the first Catalina Channel Crossing: one hull named, “Malia” (calm waters) and the other named, “Niuhe” (shark).

There were only two official entries in that first Catalina race, and “Malia,” manned by an all-star Hawaiian crew, won the crossing in a time of 5 hours, just eleven minutes ahead of a relatively in-experienced Californian team in the “Niuhe.”

The Malia’s contribution to canoe racing goes well beyond her own accomplishments. In 1959, the first fiberglass mold was made – actually pirated. (NPS)

“This shell, reportedly taken without authorization while she awaited shipment back to Hawaii was later made into a mold. From this mold, and hulls of canoes that came from it, other molds were made. … thus the Malia inadvertently sired a noble fleet of fiberglass-and-resin canoes.” (Holmes; Mancell)

The 1960 Catalina Channel Crossing Race hosted five, fiberglass Malia’s and the following year there were 8. By 1981, Malia mold canoes had achieved a remarkably wide distribution, including: Samoa, Australia, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Hawaii and California.

The first mold, since it had been taken from a hand-crafted Koa hull, had some inconsistencies on its surface so better molds were manufactured as the number of Californian clubs grew and built their fleets of malias. Today, the majority of fiberglass canoes in both Hawai‘i and California are progeny of the Malia mold.

One boat from Hawai‘i inadvertently gave birth to outrigger canoe racing in North America. The malia mold is an integral part of Canadian and North American paddling history. Without the malia mold, outrigger racing in Canada may never have taken hold as early as it did.

From a single hull, there are now enough outrigger canoes to support more than 50 outrigger racing clubs throughout North America. There is still a “Malia Class Race” in Southern California. (Mancell) (Lots of information here is from Holmes, Mancell and NPS.)

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Malia NPS

Abel Gomes shaking hands with another man alongside the Waikiki Surf Club’s canoe, Malia-IanLind

August 9, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Maritime Massachusetts Meets a Man from the Islands

“Massachusetts has a history of many moods, every one of which may be traced in the national character of America. By chance, rather than design, this short strip of uninviting coast-line became the seat of a great experiment in colonization, self-government, and religion.”

“For a generation, Massachusetts shared with her elder sister, Virginia, leadership in the American Revolution. For another generation, with her off spring Connecticut, she opposed a static social system to the ferment of revolutionary France.”

“With the world peace of 1815 she quickened into new life, harnessed her waterfalls to machine industry, bred statesmen, seers, and poets, generated radical and revolutionary thought.”

“For two hundred years the Bible was the spiritual, the sea the material sustenance of Massachusetts. The pulse of her life-story, like the surf on her coast-line, beat once with the nervous crash of storm-driven waves on granite rock; but now with the soothing pour of ground-swell on golden sands.”

Captain John Smith, in 1614, was the first Englishman to examine the Massachusetts coast, and to give it that name. (Morison)

“After Jamestown, Smith pushed the English to settle the northeast, identifying Plymouth as a suitable harbor four years before the Pilgrims landed there. He coined the region ‘New England’ in 1616.” (Smithsonian)

Shortly thereafter (1620,) the Plymouth Colony arrived. “The Pilgrim fathers sailed with high hopes and a burning faith, but with few preparations and no clear idea of how to make a living on the Atlantic coast.” (Morison)

“In 1630, ten years after its settlement, the Plymouth Colony contained but three hundred white people. At that time the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, founded only at the end of 1628, had over two thousand in habitants.”

“Within thirteen years the numbers had reached sixteen thousand, more than the rest of the English colonies combined; and the characteristic maritime activities of Massachusetts – fishing, shipping, and West India trading – were already commenced.”

“God performed no miracle on the New England soil. He gave the sea. … The gravelly, boulder-strewn soil was back-breaking to clear, and afforded small increase to unscientific farmers. No staple of ready sale in England, like Virginia tobacco or Canadian beaver, could be produced or readily obtained.”

“Massachusetts went to sea, then, not of choice, but of necessity.”

“These colonial merchants lived well, with a spacious brick mansion in Boston and a country seat at Milton Hill, Cambridge, or as far afield as Harvard and Hopkinton, where great house parties were given. They were fond of feasts and pageants”.

“The backbone of maritime Massachusetts, however, was its middle class; the captains and mates of vessels, the master builders and shipwrights, the ropemakers, sailmakers, and skilled mechanics of many different trades, without whom the merchants were nothing.”

“Boston became the headquarters of the American Revolution largely because the policy of George III threatened her maritime interests.”

“Then came the worst economic depression Massachusetts has ever known. The double readjustment from a war to a peace basis, and from a colonial to an independent basis, caused hardship throughout the colonies.”

“It worked havoc with the delicate adjustment of fishing, seafaring, and shipbuilding by which Massachusetts was accustomed to gain her living. By 1786, the exports of Virginia had more than regained their pre-Revolutionary figures.”

“At the same date the exports of Massachusetts were only one-fourth of what they had been twelve years earlier. … (However,) By 1787 the West-India trade was in a measure restored.”

“Some subtle instinct, or maybe thwarted desire of Elizabethan ancestors who, seeking in vain the Northwest Passage, founded an empire on the barrier, was pulling the ships of Massachusetts east by west, into seas where no Yankee had ever ventured.”

“Off the roaring breakers of Cape Horn, in the vast spaces of the Pacific, on savage coasts and islands, and in the teeming marts of the Far East, the intrepid shipmasters and adventurous youth of New England were reclaiming their salt sea heritage.”

“One bright summer afternoon in 1790 saw the close of a great adventure. On August 9, Boston town heard a salute of thirteen guns down-harbor. The ship Columbia, Captain Robert Gray, with the first American ensign to girdle the globe snapping at her peak, was greeting the Castle after an absence of three years.”

“Coming to anchor in the inner harbor, she fired another federal salute of thirteen guns, which a ‘great concourse of citizens assembled on the various wharfs returned with three huzzas and a hearty welcome.’”

“A rumor ran through the narrow streets that a native of ‘Owyhee’ – a Sandwich-Islander – was on board; and before the day was out, curious Boston was gratified with a sight of him, marching after Captain Gray to call on Governor Hancock.”

“Clad in a feather cloak of golden suns set in flaming scarlet, that came halfway down his brown legs; crested with a gorgeous feather helmet shaped like a Greek warrior’s, this young Hawaiian moved up State Street like a living flame.”

“The Columbia had logged 41,899 miles since her departure from Boston on September 30, 1787. Her voyage was not remarkable as a feat of navigation; Magellan and Drake had done the trick centuries before, under far more hazardous conditions.”

“It was the practical results that counted. The Columbia’s first voyage began the Northwest fur trade, which enabled the merchant adventurers of Boston to tap the vast reservoir of wealth in China.”

“The most successful vessels in the Northwest fur trade were small, well-built brigs and ships of one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burthen (say sixty- five to ninety feet long), constructed in the ship yards from the Kennebec to Scituate. Larger vessels were too difficult to work through the intricacies of the Northwest Coast.”

To obtain fresh provisions and prevent scurvy, the Nor’west traders broke their voyage at least twice; at the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, sometimes Galapagos for a giant tortoise, and invariably Hawaii.”

“The Sandwich Islands proved an ideal spot to refresh a scorbutic crew, and even to complete the cargo. Captain Kendrick (who plied between Canton and the Coast in the Lady Washington until his death in 1794) discovered sandalwood, an article much in demand at Canton, growing wild on the Island of Kauai.”

“A vigorous trade with the native chiefs in this fragrant commodity was started by Boston fur-traders in ‘the Islands’; leading to more Hawaiian visits to New England”. (Most here is from Morison)

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