Economy | Page 30 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 6, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

From Ocean to Plate

“Hawaii’s longline fishery traces its roots back to 1917 when Japanese immigrants introduced ‘flagline’ fishing to Hawaii. Flaglining involved a long mainline made of sections of tarred rope set horizontally in the water, with multiple leaders and baited hooks, suspended by multiple floats with flags; hence the name ‘flagline’.”

Eventually, “the flagline vessels converted to modern monofilament mainline, line setters and large hydraulically powered reels. The fishery became known as ‘longline.’” (HawaiiSeafood)

The Hawaii longline fleet is comprised of about 150 vessels that target pelagic fish; they may go about 1,000 nautical miles from Honolulu to fish.

Pelagic is derived from Ancient Greek πέλαγος (pélagos) ‘open sea’; it refers to the open, free waters away from the shore, where marine life can swim freely in any direction unhindered by topographical constraints.

The longliners are typically targeting the pelagic bigeye and yellowfin tuna (ahi) (with deep sets – ie hooks are set deeper in the water) and swordfish/marlin (shallow-set).

“Primarily due to catch from Hawaiʻi pelagic fisheries, Honolulu consistently ranked in the top 12 US ports for revenue from 2010 to 2019, ranking 9th in 2019. It is the center of the Hawaiʻi commercial fishing and seafood industry.” (NOAA)

“The pelagic fishery is the largest of Hawaiʻi commercial fisheries. From 2008 to 2019, pelagic species accounted for approximately 84% of the total value and 66% of the total volume of the Hawaiʻi seafood market.” (NOAA)

“‘The commercial fishing industry is the largest food producer in the state,’ says [Frank] Goto [of United Fishing Agency]. ‘We’re really 80%-90% of the local production of food in the state, so if we’re talking about food security, we’re the most important industry. Fresh fish is not only a cultural staple here,’ he adds, ‘it’s also an economic necessity.’” (Mossman)

“Hawaiʻi contributed between 30% and 47% of national tuna landings and accounted for 49% to 63% of national tuna revenue. Hawaiʻi produced between 86% and 95% of national bigeye tuna landings and revenue from 2008 to 2019, respectively.”

“Hawaiʻi contributed between 38% and 67% of national yellowfin tuna landings over the study period and accounted for 38% to 76% of national yellowfin tuna revenue. Hawaiʻi also provided between 22% and 48% of the nation’s swordfish landings and between 20% and 41% of the national swordfish revenue from 2008 to 2019.”

“Hawaiʻi residents consume two to three times more seafood per capita than the continental U.S. population, mostly as fresh and frozen finfish.” (NOAA)

“Our results show that Hawaiʻi exports a low share of its pelagic landings, indicating that the primary market is domestic. The majority of pelagic landings seem to be consumed locally, while the relatively lower unit prices of imports and higher unit prices of exports reveal that Hawaiʻi is able to maximize its potential earnings from pelagic landings to further support its economy.” (NOAA)

“In other parts of the world, fishermen sell their fish to wholesalers who generally dictate prices. The United Fishing Agency came up with a better way that allows the independent fishermen to sell their catch at a fair price …”

“… and, in turn, enables auction buyers representing the wholesale, retail and restaurant sectors to get the freshest fish. Open competitive bidding rewards higher quality fish with higher prices.” (HawaiiSeafood)

“Wholesalers and retailers bid against each other at these auctions. Often street truck-peddlers will form a hui to buy one 150-200-pound fish which they split later.” (SB, Dec 11, 1954)

“‘The commercial fishing industry is the largest food producer in the state,’ says Goto, who also serves as assistant vice president of United Fishing Agency, the entity that runs the auction and is celebrating its 70th year in business.”

“The majority of fish are sold individually. This competition continues until all the fish are sold. Up to 100,000 pounds of fish can be auctioned in a day. Buyers are invoiced for their purchases by United Fishing Agency and fishermen are paid that day for their fish.” (HawaiiSeafood)

About 80% of the Hawai‘i Longline fleet’s fish are sold locally, 18% is sold on the continent and about 2% is exported. (Hawai‘i Longline Assn)

When I was at DLNR, I had the opportunity to experience the fish auction firsthand. A couple owners of several longline boats wanted me to have a firsthand experience. It was memorable. What happened next was unexpected, but it helped illustrate the diversity of local fish marketing and distribution.

We left the auction and went to a non-descript multi-story building in lower Kalihi. They wanted me to see how some of the auctioned fish make it onto plates in restaurants on the continent.

We entered to see a phonebank of folks on phones. As the auction was taking place, this company’s buyer representative messaged to this phone crew details of what he bought. These folks were calling their restaurants customers they deal with on the continent to let them know what was available.

The restaurants customized their orders (by fish kind and weight the needed). In another room in the building some of the day’s auction purchases had already arrived and workers were cutting and packaging the custom orders. Then, they were air shipped out.

When dinner time came, customers at the mainland restaurant, oblivious to the timing, coordination and logistics of making it happen, ordered the ‘fresh catch’ and it was prepared and plated. (It is an interesting process that allows folks to experience the fresh fish of the Islands.)

Speaking of pelagic fisheries, I was honored when President Bush appointed me to serve as one of the five US Commissioners to represent the US interests on the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), an international fisheries Commission that seeks to manage highly migratory fish stocks (tuna, billfish, marlin …) in the western and central Pacific.

I was also honored to serve as a member of Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council (WESPAC) – initially, representing the State of Hawai‘i, then, a term as an at-large member on the Council. WESPAC, one of eight US Regional Councils, is charged to manage fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ – generally 3- to 200-miles offshore) of US interests.

June 29, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

The Perfect Nut

If you have every watched the game being played, your first thought (question) is if there really are any rules associated with it.

The first publicly recorded Australian Football match took place between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar on the rolling paddocks next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1858.

Each team selected its own umpire. Scotch College chose Dr John Macadam, Melbourne Grammar School Tom Wills. What qualifications Macadam had for the post, we don’t know. After three playing days, the game ended in a draw with each team kicking one goal. (University of Melbourne)

No, that is the basis of this story.

How about? … John Macadam, the man who on March 3, 1862 delivered the first-ever lecture at the Melbourne University Medical School and who went on to become Professor of Theoretical and Practical Chemistry at Melbourne University in 1865.

No, that’s not it either.

However, it’s the same John Macadam in each story … as well as the story that follows.

Given the variety above, it shouldn’t surprise you that John Macadam is the namesake for the macadamia nut. (Although, allegedly, Macadam had not seen a macadamia nut tree, or even tasted the macadamia nut.)

In 1857, German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller gave the genus of this plant the scientific name Macadamia – named after von Mueller’s friend Dr John Macadam, a noted scientist and secretary to the Philosophical Institute of Australia.

John Macadam, scientist, medical doctor, philosopher and politician, was born in May 1827 at Northbank, near Glasgow, Scotland. (His name has often been misspelled with a capital “A” as in “Adam.”)

Although in ill health by March 1865, he went to New Zealand to give expert testimony as an analytical chemist in a murder trial involving the use of poison. Along the way, he fractured his ribs in rough weather.

Subsequently, he developed pleurisy (inflammation of the moist, double-layered membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the rib cage) and died at sea on September 2, 1865 (at the age of 38.) (CTAHR)

Let’s look back.

For at least 40,000 years, Aborigines have lived in macadamia heartland. As hunters and gatherers, they had an intimate understanding of their environment. The wild macadamias usually grew in dense rainforests, with competition from other trees and absence of light resulting in their producing few nuts.

However, trees growing at the edge of the rainforest or where the Aborigines had encouraged them by burning around each tree generally produced annual crops. Macadamia nuts were a treasured food but a very minor part of the Aboriginal diet due to their rarity. (McConachie)

In 1828, Alan Cunningham (explorer and botanist) was the first Western person to record the macadamia. Other names for Macadamia Nuts are Bush nut, Queensland nut, Queen of nuts, Macadamia, Bauple nut, Boombera, Jindilli and Gyndl.

Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. (Purvis is also notable for importing the mongoose – to rid his Hāmākua sugar plantation of rats.)

A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu on Wyllie Street in Honolulu. This introduction became the source of the principal commercial varieties cultivated in Hawaiʻi. (Storey)

The Macadamia Nut is Australia’s only native plant to have become an international food. Although an Australian native, the macadamia nut industry was started in Hawaiʻi (Australian farmers did not take advantage of the tree until 1950.)

In 1922, Ernest Sheldon Van Tassel organized the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company to produce and process macadamia nuts. Two orchards were established by this company: one (‘Nutridge’) on the Tantalus slopes overlooking Honolulu at an elevation of about 900 feet, and the other at Keauhou at about 1,800 feet elevation on the Island of Hawaiʻi. By 1934, there were about 25-acres planted on Tantalus and about 100-acres at Keauhou. (CTAHR)

Commercial processing of macadamia nuts began in 1934 at Van Tassel’s new factory in Kaka‘ako. The nuts were shelled, roasted, salted, bottled and marketed there as “Van’s Macadamia Nuts.” (Schmitt)

In order to stimulate interest in macadamia culture, beginning January 1, 1927, a Territorial law exempted properties in the Territory, used solely for the culture or production of macadamia nuts, from taxation for a period of 5 years.

Macadamia nut candies became commercially available a few years later. Two well-known confectioners, Ellen Dye Candies and the Alexander Young Hotel candy shop, began making and selling chocolate-covered macadamia nuts in the middle or late 1930s. Another early maker was Hawaiian Candies & Nuts Ltd., established in 1939 and originators of the Menehune Mac brand. (Schmitt)

The first major attempt at large-scale commercialization of macadamia nuts was made in 1948 by Castle & Cooke, Ltd., in their venture at Keaʻau on the island of Hawaiʻi. Later, another of the former ‘Big 5’ companies, C Brewer and Company Ltd, bought out C&C and changed the name to Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp. (Hershey’s later bought the Mauna Loa brand.)

Then, in 1962, MacFarms of established one of the world’s largest single macadamia nut orchards with approximately 3,900-acres on the South Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Today, about 570 growers farm 17,000 acres of macadamia trees, producing 40 million pounds of in-shell nuts, valued at over $30 million. Additionally, nuts are imported from South Africa and Australia, who currently lead the world market, with Hawai‘i at #3. (hawnnut)

The harvesting season for macadamia nuts runs from August through January. During Hawai’i’s cooling autumn months, mature macadamia nuts safely protected by sturdy shells and husks drop to the ground, and farmers hand-gather or mechanically harvest.

Under favorable conditions, a ten-year old tree can produce up to 150 pounds of in-husk nuts. De-husking is the first step needed. Next, a drying process decreases nut moisture from about 25 percent to 1.5 percent. Equipment that can exert 300 pounds of pressure cracks the shells. The raw kernels that emerge are now ready for grading, roasting, final drying and processing. (olsontrust)

Macadamias are a high energy food and contain no cholesterol. The natural oils in macadamias contain 78 per cent monounsaturated fats, the highest of any oil, including olive oil.

Macadamias are also a good source of protein, calcium, potassium and dietary fiber and are very low in sodium. The protein component of nuts is low in lysine and high in argentine. (BaupleMuseum) Horticulturalist Luther Burbank is credited with calling macadamias the ‘perfect nut.’ (NY Times)

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June 25, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

New Month

“The busiest time of the month for the [plantation] stores was ‘new month’ time.” (Stores and Storekeepers of Paia & Puunene, Maui, UH Manoa, Ethnic Studies Program)

“[Y]ou get the goods ahead of the following month. You pay one month later.” (Kenichi Itakura, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“Generally starting between the twentieth and twenty-sixth of each month (exact dates varied with each store), a customer was allowed to charge goods from that date and was not required to pay for his purchase until the payday after next.”

“If, for example, new month began on June 25, and a customer charged something on June 24, he would have to pay for that purchase on the next payday – July 1.”

“However, if he waited until June 25 to charge that purchase, his payment was not due until August 1. Because of this advantage, customers generally waited for new month to begin and bought items such as rice and feed in large quantities.”

“The store became busier than usual during this time, and order takers and delivery boys needed extra help from other store employees.” (Stores and Storekeepers of Paia & Puunene, Maui, UH Manoa, Ethnic Studies Program)

[An average family of, say, four people. How much goods would they buy in new month time?] “Oh, well, those years, you know, money value was low. They used to buy, let’s say, thirty, forty dollars. Thirty, forty dollars, you know how much grocery you have? One month supply, almost.”

“In the meantime, maybe, they run short of certain things, and then they’ll buy little by little. You go over that, you have to pay anyway. So, sometimes, they – you know, come balance for so many months.” (Kenichi Itakura, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“[I worked for] For MA Company [Maui Agricultural Company] … they had boys that go out and take orders. Oh, they had – I think I would say – good, about four of them. Some Japanese, and some other boys.”

“We went into the camps … around the twentieth of each month. We went to this individual names, and they gave us what they called a ‘new month order.’ And [for] that merchandise, we brought those bills in.” (John Perreira, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“One guy takes orders. That’s all he does – take orders. New month time. After [new month time is over], he works inside. Put up orders. You know, whatever job it is. In addition to that, with some of the truck drivers and the boys that put up the orders, they had to unload the freight.”

“Freight all came from Kahului inside box cars. These cars were, oh gosh, they were good size. Locomotive go right into the building. No way of [the merchandise] getting wet. And they unload all that merchandise and stack ‘em. We carried quite a number of merchandise.” (John Perreira, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“They start, maybe, around the twentieth of the month. That, they don’t bill you till the following month, see? So, they [the stores] get new month order. That’s when everybody buy because they don’t have to pay (until the following) payday.”

“You had big order. Yeah, big order. Maybe two trip you have to make. Of course, if you have ten bag rice on your pickup truck, that’ s all you can put. Ten bag plus the groceries, see? So, you have to come back and make another trip.”

“And Filipinos used to eat plenty of rice, so new month, that’s when you sell your biggest quantity of rice. (Masakazu Shimoda, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“Twentieth, then you don’t pay that payday, but the following payday. So, they all wait. (Chuckles) Nowadays, they don’t have that system. More cash and carry. But those days, new month, they all wait. Even the wholesaler used to do that. Same way. So, I used to help deliver.”

“When he goes to take order, well, [for example], he go to your house. ‘Nishimoto’ he put down on the bill – house number, what camp. And then, he start taking the order. On the bill, you have ‘Alabama Camp, house thirteen’. You go deliver over there.” (Masakazu Shimoda, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“[For sales/deliveries other than New Month days,] we still have that – the sales is not big like that once a month [i.e., new month] one. That, gradually, they going buy everyday things or some other stuff. So, they just go and take order every day.”

“They go, maybe, this camp today. They alternate. Next, maybe, two day, they go different camp. So, maybe, they might have about four guys go out, take order. So, every day, it’s a different camp. They bringing order in, but. They make [i.e., gather] their own order, but I have to be ready with that big stuff.”

“Oranges, like that, come out from that crate, eh? Because plenty. Some of them rotten. (KI lowers voice.) They say, “Well, get ’em all, wash ’em all, and put in the counters,” see? They used to fill up from there. We had to take care all that.”

“You know, potatoes come from Mainland – from Oregon or someplace. California side, too. Some used to get that eyes sticking out already. They would get too old, eh? We used to take off that, and then you can pile ’em up, put in the box, and put with the [other] potatoes.”

“The guy who take order. When they make [i.e., gather] their own order, see? So, lot of job.” (Kenichi Itakura, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“Because after new month, [they] only [go out] every day, little by little. New month is 50 percent of their sales already. The rest of the days is just going out [and making] contact, [getting for the customers] few things what they missed [during] new month.

That old style. New month is a big thing.”

“I think, every store had the big sale. All the Japanese stores was doing the same system. New month sale. One would give twenty, next give twenty. If he give nineteen, then we come down nineteen, too [i.e., extending new month privileges beginning on the nineteenth of the month instead of the twentieth].”

“Of course, your big customer, maybe he used to buy fifty dollars worth. He say, ‘Give me new month.’ Naturally, you got to give new month, one day early but. (Masakazu Shimoda, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“[I]f it’s your good customer – the one that buy big one. You don’t want to lose him, so you going to give. If not, he goes to a competitor, and he tell ’em, ‘Hey, give me new month.’”

“Sundays, don’t deliver. But when it came to new month, … he get so much order, we have to make the order [i.e., gather the merchandise] in the evening so he can start delivering early in the morning. If not, he cannot take order next day. Only delivery, yeah? Oh, he used to bring the big order in. New month. You take, maybe, get twenty Filipinos ordering twenty bag rice, that’s two trip already.” (Masakazu Shimoda, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

“[New month could be] One, two days ahead. Especially your good customers. Yeah. [the plantation get mad if you did that.] You not supposed to. But then, the customers don’t say, too. … you have to give, on the sly.” (Masakazu Shimoda, Store and Storekeepers Oral History)

In 1980, the UH Manoa Ethnic Studies program conducted a number of oral histories from people who grew up and worked in the Paia-Pu‘unene area of Maui. Those histories and the information concluded from them provide insight into the plantation store system. All here is from that project report.

June 24, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kauai’s South Shore

“The history of Koloa is in many ways Hawai‘i’s history in microcosm.” (Wilcox) The focus of interest is the region‘s history and the role this area played in helping to shape Hawaiʻi‘s socio-economic past, present and future.

The South Shore of the island of Kauai has many scenic, natural and recreational qualities that travelers may experience and enjoy. Along the coastal area of Poʻipu there are popular beaches for swimming, surfing, snorkeling, scuba or sunset watching.

You enter the historic Old Koloa Town and Poʻipu Beach, Kauai’s premier resort destination, through a tree-formed tunnel. The native Hawaiian history, archaeology and culture can be seen throughout the area and are the foundation of the historic events that followed.

Scattered throughout the area are remnants of pre-contact ancient Hawaiʻi life in the forms of heiau (Hawaiian temples) the Koloa Field System (agricultural) and culturally-significant natural geologic features in the forms of peaks, hills, streams, caves, bays and coastal features.

The native Hawaiians along the Koloa shore were the first to see the white man in Hawaiʻi. It was in 1778, along Kauai’s South Shore, that Captain James Cook first traveled, landed and made “contact”, introducing Hawaiʻi to the rest of the world. His arrival was the beginning of multiple changes in Hawai‘i’s socio-economic framework.

Koloa Landing at Hanakaʻape Bay (the Kingdom’s first Royal Port of Entry) became the favored and major port of call on the island – because of the ability to maneuver in and out of the anchorage – whatever the wind direction, and the region had ample water and food crops to provision the ships. This led to a series of economic activities that shaped the history of the islands.

One of the first exports from Hawaiʻi was sandalwood trees that grew throughout the islands; exported primarily to China. Sandalwood was a desirable cash crop in Hawaiʻi because it could be harvested year round and did not have to be irrigated or cultivated.

Starting in 1790, trade in Hawaiian sandalwood became an important export item. As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition, by the Hawaiian leaders.

However, by 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed for two reasons: Hawaiian forests were exhausted and sandalwood from other areas drove down the price in China which made the Hawaiian trade unprofitable.

On October 23, 1819, the first group of missionaries from the northeastern United States set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) There were seven couples sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity.

With them were four Hawaiian youths who had been students at the Foreign Mission School, including Prince Humehume (son of Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i.) In modern times, three churches on Poʻipu Road all trace their roots to the same Christian denomination – Congregational.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 and replaced the sandalwood trade. At that time, whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Whalers, seeking water and food supplies, called at Koloa Landing, the Island’s foremost port. Koloa was a center for agriculture and, as such, became the center of activity for Kauai. The whaling industry was the mainstay of the islands’ economy for about 40 years.

Sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the islands. The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.

In 1835, the first commercially-viable sugar plantation was started in Hawaiʻi at Koloa. Other plantations soon followed. Sugar was the dominant economic force in Hawaiʻi for over a century. Several sites found in this area highlight the historic past of the sugar economy.

Koloa Plantation was the birthplace of the Hawaiian sugar industry. By 1883, more than 50 plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

However, during this growth, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing sugar plantations became a challenge; the only answer was imported labor. It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese (1850,) Japanese (1885) and Filipinos (1905.) Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese (1877,) Norwegians (1880,) Germans (1881,) Puerto Ricans (1900,) Koreans (1902) and Spanish (1907.)

Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawai‘i. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix. Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the planet.

Old Koloa Town grew up around the Plantation industry. Plantation workers not only labored, lived and shopped on the plantation, they also received medical care. Koloa’s buildings housed plantation stores, services and churches for these people, including Kauai’s first hotel.

When Hawaiʻi became a US territory, at the turn of the century, it drew adventuresome cruise ship travelers in a tourism boom. Hotels blossomed.

1959 brought two significant actions that shaped the present day economic make-up of Hawai‘i, Statehood and jet-liner service between the mainland United States and Honolulu. These two events helped guide and expand the fledgling visitor industry.

Tourism is the activity most responsible for Hawaiʻi’s recent economic status and standard of living. Koloa-Poʻipu hosts an organized, supportive Poʻipu Beach Resort Association that organizes and promotes destination marketing and promotion of visitor accommodations/activities on behalf of its membership.

Poʻipu Beach coastal roads have visitor accommodations including hotels, condominium and vacation rental homes. The Visitor Industry remains the primary economic influence in the islands.

We prepared a corridor management plan for the Holo Holo Koloa Scenic Byway. We were honored and proud when the Plan received the Community-Based Planning Award from the American Planning Association‐Hawaiʻi Chapter and a Historic Preservation Commendation from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation.

Click to access Kauai-South_Shore_Background_Summary.pdf

South_Shore-Aerial Image – Ed Gross

Aerial view of Lawai Beach, Kauai-(HSA)-PPWD-10-6-007-1929

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Old Koloa Town

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June 23, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

The Macfarlanes

This summary is a little bit about some places and events that the Macfarlane family was involved with – some generally known and with us today, some long gone, but the history helps give us some added perspectives.

Henry (Harry) and Eliza Macfarlane settled in Hawaii at Waikiki in 1846, coming from Scotland by way of New Zealand. They purchased/leased the ‘ili of Kaluaokau sometime in the mid-nineteenth century, eventually raising six children there (George Walter, Frederick W, Richard H, Edward Creamer, Helen B (later Cornwell) and Clarence William.)

One lasting legacy at their Kaluaokau home is the banyan tree Henry and Eliza planted – we now more commonly refer to the former home site as the International Market Place.

Among other things, the Macfarlanes owned and operated hotels. One, the Commercial Hotel in downtown Honolulu, has a notable claim to fame – Macfarlane brought gas lighting to Hawaiʻi, hanging the first gas lamps over the billiard tables in his Honolulu saloon.

“On Tuesday evening last Mr. E. Burgess opened his spacious billiard saloon at the Commercial Hotel, which was well attended, no doubt the novelty of the room being lit up with gas proving a great attraction. There are four burners … and they filled the large room with a most brilliant light.”

“Mr. Macfarlane is deserving of great credit for his indefatigable exertions in being the first to introduce gas on this Island”. (Polynesian, November 6, 1858) (The next year, Honolulu Gas Company formed and lit-up more of Honolulu.)

The Commercial Hotel was one of Honolulu’s earliest hotels to advertise hot and cold water for baths and showers. It operated as a hotel and saloon until 1903, when the building was torn down. (Hibbard)

They had other property, in Waikīkī. Son, George is credited with building one of the first hotels in Waikīkī (his home turned to hotel) – the Park Beach Hotel near Kapiʻolani Park. CN Arnold later leased the Macfarlane property in 1888.

By 1899, the hotel failed and Macfarlane sold the lease to James Castle, who built Waikīkī’s most impressive mansion, a lavishly furnished four-story home with extensive grounds, an ocean pier and other amenities. He called it Kainalu.

When Castle died, his widow found the beachfront property more than she wished to keep up. Impressed by the charitable work being done by the Elks (the Honolulu Elks Lodge 616 was established on April 15, 1901,) in 1920 she sold them 155,000-square feet on the beach at Waikīkī complete with lavish home, for $1 a square foot.

Between 1954 and 1956, Outrigger Canoe Club made several offers to purchase about half of the Elk’s property. All were refused. Eventually, in 1955, the Elks agreed to lease property to Outrigger. Negotiations continued, and a lease was signed effective November 17, 1956. (In 1958, the Elks razed Kainalu and built a new lodge.)

In 2007, a rent dispute between the Elks and Outrigger Canoe Club was settled by a three-member arbitration panel. Terms of the new rent between the next-door neighbors were not disclosed because of a confidentiality agreement (the Elks, the landowner, were seeking up to $1-million or more a year in rent from the canoe club for a 99-year lease that was renegotiated midway through the term.)

The Macfarlanes had other Waikīkī property. Nearby in Helumoa, the Macfarlanes had other hotel property – the Seaside Hotel. (There is now another “Seaside Hotel” in Waikīkī, but that’s different from the hotel we are discussing here. That other “Seaside” was built in 1970 and has been used by United Airlines as a perk for employees and company retirees.)

Likewise, the Seaside was the annex for the “Royal Hawaiian Hotel;” not the one in Waikiki, the original Royal Hawaiian was in downtown Honolulu located at Richards and Hotel streets. In the 1890s, son, George, ran the Royal Hawaiian and the Seaside Hotels.

It was later acquired by Alexander Young’s Territorial Hotel Company, which operated the Alexander Young hotel in downtown Honolulu. After the lease expired, Matson Navigation received a new lease from landowner Bishop Estate and built what we refer today as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

One more thing about George Macfarlane, he was Chamberlain (an officer whose function is in general to attend to the personal needs of the King and regulate the etiquette of the Palace) and Private Secretary to King Kalākaua (and served as the medium of communication between the King and his Ministers.)

When times were tough, George was entrusted with the responsible task of negotiating and floating the first Hawaiian loan in England. The $2,000,000 loan bore interest at 6 per cent per annum; within six months, the bonds commanded 15-per cent premium. (The Morning Call, December 25, 1890)

Son Clarence (in addition to supporting the family operations) also has a notable and lasting claim to fame. A competitive sailor, Clarence invited West Coast sailors to race to the Hawaiian Islands from San Francisco.

The race start was set for summer of 1906; he took his yacht, “La Paloma,” from Honolulu to San Francisco Bay and found the city lying in ruins following the great earthquake 27-days earlier. He changed the starting point to Los Angeles. The starting line is now off the bluffs of Point Fermin in San Pedro and the finish is off the Diamond Head Lighthouse, about 2,560 miles.

The race, the longer of the two oldest ocean races in the world, continues today – we now call it the Transpacific Yacht Race (TransPac.)

Others in the family participated in the family business activities. Likewise, they had property on the Island of Hawaiʻi and operated the Puʻuloa Sheep and Stock Ranch Company (partnership of the Macfarlane family.)

7,000-sheep ran over fee and leased land, including 4,000-acres of the ahupuaʻa of ʻŌuli, extending from the sea, near Kawaihae, to the top of the Kohala range of mountains, as well as other land nearby.

The family left several lasting legacies in the Islands.