Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Līhuʻe

Līhuʻe, Kauai (literally translated as ‘cold chill’) dates from the late-1830s when Kaikioʻewa, governor of Kauai, moved his home from the traditional seat of government, Waimea, to the hilly lands overlooking Nawiliwili Bay on the southeastern side of Kauai in the ahupuaʻa of Kalapaki.

He named this area Līhuʻe in memory of his earlier home on Oʻahu. The name, Līhuʻe, was unknown on Kauai before then; the ancient name for this area was Kalaʻiamea, “calm reddish brown place.”  (Līhuʻe on Oʻahu is in the uplands on the Waianae side of Wahiawa; Kūkaniloko is situated in Līhuʻe.)  (Fornander)

In 1849, Henry A Peirce & Co, a partnership between Charles Reed Bishop, Judge William L Lee, and Henry A Pierce established a suar plantation (on the site Kaikioʻewa chose for it on the Nawiliwili stream (water power was used to drive the mill rollers.)) (In 1859, a new partnership was formed and the name was changed to the Līhuʻe Plantation Company.) (HSPA)

The Plantation had several innovations.  “(T)he first important (irrigation) ditch was dug at Līhuʻe, Kauai, in 1851 … other ditches on Maui soon followed.”  (Louisiana Planter)  In 1859, the first steam engine used to power a sugar mill in Hawaiʻi was installed at Līhuʻe.  (LOC)

In 1851, a frame courthouse was built on a site just above Kalapaki Bay and Nāwiliwili Harbor.  The Lihue Plantation Store was built in the 1860s on the grounds of the plantation manager’s residence and moved in 1876 to a hill across the mill valley (where the present County Executive Offices are situated.)  The store later served as the area’s mail distribution hub.

A cluster of homes and stores around it was the start of the town of Līhuʻe.  During most of the nineteenth century, Līhuʻe served as the center of island government.  Sugar planting to feed the plantation and mill changed the landscape.

“The country was undergoing the process of denudation. Non-resident landlords, large landholders, have in most cases leased out their lands by long leases to vandal-like tenants, who are making the most of their time and their bargain by cutting down the forests, and supplying the sugar mills, shipping, and even Honolulu with wood.”

“Sixteen years ago, where beautiful kukui groves gladdened the scene, is now a barren plain.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1867)

Līhuʻe Plantation expanded in 1910 with the purchase of controlling interest in Makee Sugar Company. Expansion again occurred in 1916 when Līhuʻe Plantation and WF Sanborn purchased the 6,000 acre Princeville Plantation.

In 1922, American Factors, Ltd (AmFac,) successor company to H Hackfield & Co, acquired control of Līhuʻe Plantation Company.  The Līhuʻe Mill was one of the longest sugar mills in service in the Islands (1849-2000.)

The Fairview Hotel (initially opened by Charles W Spitz in 1890) was the first full-fledged hotel on Kauai providing rooms and a restaurant. William Hyde Rice’s oldest son William Henry Rice took over the operation in 1894 and eventually changed the name to Lihue Hotel; it grew over the years to 68-rooms.

In those days, an operation had to be self-sufficient and a farm behind the hotel raised cattle, pigs and chickens along with fruits and vegetable grown for the restaurant.   After Rice’s death in 1946, the family sold the hotel to Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company; the name was changed to Kauai Inn.  (Kauai Museum)

Following annexation (1898,) the Territorial government passed the County Act (1905,) establishing county governments.  Līhuʻe became the county seat of Kauai and the County Commissioners held monthly meetings in the 1851 courthouse.

In 1913, the present County Building was erected, the first structure in the territory built expressly to house a county government.  Its Chambers have served the Kauai County Council ever since.

That year, a new Līhuʻe Store replaced the old.  The County Building and Līhuʻe Store were the earliest buildings on Kauai constructed of concrete and presaged a new era in the development of Lihue.  With the completion of the County Building, the 1851 courthouse was razed and a school built on its site.

The school was interchangeably referred to as Līhuʻe High School and Kauai High School.  It was the fifth high school in the Territory of Hawaiʻi and the first high school on the island of Kauai.  Kauai High sits on a hill often referred to as “Ke Kuhiau” (meaning “high point” – it’s also the name of the school yearbook.)  (KHS)

The partially-rock-faced Albert Spencer Wilcox Memorial Library, the island’s first library, was dedicated on May 24, 1924 (Albert’s birthday – it was funded by Emma Mahelona Wilcox in memory of her husband.)  (A new library was built in Līhuʻe in 1969 – the Wilcox Building is now the Kauai Museum and home to the Kauai Historical Society.)

Down the hill, construction of the Nawiliwili breakwater began in 1920. This was the first step in creating Nawiliwili Harbor, not completed until 1930.  Air fields at Līhuʻe and Hanapepe were constructed and the first airplanes actually flew to Kauai in 1920. By 1929 Hawaiian Airlines established regular flight service. (Strazar)

Kaua‘ made history at this time when it sent the first woman in Hawai‘i to the Territorial House in 1924, Rosalie Keliʻinoi, and the first to the Territorial Senate in 1932, Elsie Wilcox. (Strazar)

During the Depression Era and 1930s, public improvement projects dominated the construction scene in Līhuʻe. Roads were paved and several significant buildings were built.

The area surrounding the County Building developed as the hub of government activities with the construction of the Territorial Office Building (County Building Annex) in 1930 and the County Courthouse in 1938.

Originally the County Courthouse was to be built in the park in front of the County Building; however, public outcry against that location resulted in the construction of Umi Street and the Courthouse on its present site.

Līhuʻe Theater was built in 1931.  The Līhuʻe Post Office (1938) was the first and only federally-constructed post office on the island of Kauai (it was expanded in the late-1970s.)

Daily flights led to airmail in 1934 complementing long distance telephone service begun in 1931. During the 1920s and 1930s a belt road connecting main towns was paved, as well. (Strazar)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kodak Hula Show

The earliest photographs of Hawaiʻi residents were the daguerreotypes made of Timoteo Haʻalilio and William Richards when the two men were in Paris on a diplomatic mission in 1843.    (Schmitt)

Later, on the US continent, George Eastman formed a photography company.  In naming his company, he wanted his trademark short and “incapable of being misspelled to an extent that will destroy its identity.”  And, “it must mean nothing.”

Eastman liked the letter ‘K;’ “it seemed a strong, incisive sort of letter.  Therefore, the word I wanted had to start with ‘K.’ Then it became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ‘K.’ The word ‘Kodak’ is the result”.  (Eastman; Kiplinger)

In 1888, the Eastman Kodak camera was placed on the market, with the slogan, “You press the button – we do the rest.” This was the birth of snapshot photography, as millions of amateur picture-takers know it today.  (Kodak)

In Hawaiʻi, amateur photography began to flourish in the late-1880s. The first retail establishments with camera counters were two Fort Street drug stores, Hollister & Co. and Benson, Smith & Co., both in 1887.

The first business establishment to advertise “printing done for amateurs” was the studio of Theo P Severin, on December 17, 1888. The first camera club was the Hawaiian Camera Club, organized January 10, 1889, with C Hedemann as its president.  (Schmitt)

All of this set the stage for a long-time (although now gone) iconic outdoor stage at Waikīkī, that also ended up with a travelling road show on Dillingham’s OR&L.

Intent on selling film, in 1937, Fritz Herman, then-vice president and manager of Kodak Hawaiʻi, founded the Kodak Hula Show. This allowed visitors to take pictures of hula shows outdoors in the daylight (rather than at the too-dark venues of the nighttime lūʻau.)

In addition, Herman wanted dancers to wear ti-leaf skirts and pose in natural settings, rather than the typical nighttime indoor wardrobe of cellophane skirts and paper lei.  (Desmond)

The first show, on the lawn behind the beach at San Souci, featured five dancers, four musicians and an audience of 100. The popular shows later expanded to 20 female and six male performers, 15 musicians, two chanters and audiences of 3,000 each week.

For many tourists, their only exposure to Hawaiian dance was the Kodak Hula Show.  And, it was free.

The Kodak Hula Show began with the introduction of the fictionalized character “King Kali,” and through the course of a performance a moderator would explain to the visitors the history of various dances, costumes, gestures, and at predetermined moments, dancers would form a display giving the audience ample opportunity to take pictures.  (sfsu-edu)

The classic “Kodak moment” happened when visitors were invited to aim their cameras at the cast as the performers held the huge H-A-W-A-I-I red and yellow letters.  The P-A-U sign closed each performance.

According to Kodak officials, only Disneyland and Disney World sold more film than the Kodak Hula Show.  (sun-sentinel)

Seeking to expand passenger travel, Oʻahu Railway and Land Company expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Haleiwa Hotel.

They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Haleiwa for picture-taking.

During WW II, there were no tourists, but hundreds of thousands of military personnel passed through the islands. The show worked with the military.  However, “You couldn’t even take photos of the beaches in those days.”  (Bartlett)

In 1969, the Kodak Company moved the Hula Show from the beach area to an amphitheater adjacent to the Waikīkī Shell in Kapiʻolani Park.

The show grew from once a week in the summer to four times a week year-round.  The hula show regularly drew capacity crowds from nearby Waikīkī hotels for its 10 am shows.

It was so popular that audiences were advised to arrive at least 30-minutes early to find a seat.  (sun-sentinel)

In July 1999, the Hogan Family Foundation took over operation of the Hawaiian tradition and renamed it the Pleasant Hawaiian Hula Show (Kodak film was still for sale in a kiosk beside the bleachers.)

The Foundation sponsored the Hula Show for three years at a cost of over $500,000 annually.

In 2002, the Foundation’s Board of Directors felt that it would be better to use these funds towards educational programs in the islands.

After months of looking for a suitable sponsor to assume the operation of the Hula Show, the show was officially closed on September 26, 2002.  (HoganFoundation)

An estimated 20-million people had seen the show from 1937-2002.  (Harada)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Sugar Use … Rum

The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.  In 1802, sugar was first made in the islands on the island of Lānai by a native of China.

He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandalwood, and brought a stone mill and boilers and, after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.

But it wasn’t development of a sweetener that was one of the first popular uses of the canoe crop (that later ended up changing the landscape and social make-up of the Islands.)

“In short it might be well worth the attention of Government to make the experiment and settle these islands by planters from the West Indies, men of humanity, industry and experienced abilities in the exercise of their art would here in a short time be enabled to manufacture sugar and rum from luxuriant fields of cane equal if not superior to the produce of our West India plantations.”  (Menzies, 1793)

Rum is a beverage that seems to have had its origins on the 17th century Caribbean sugarcane plantations and by the 18th century its popularity had spread throughout world.  Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts by a process of fermentation and distillation.

The origin of the word ‘rum’ is generally unclear. In an 1824 essay about the word’s origin, Samuel Morewood suggested the word ‘rum’ might be from the British slang term for ‘the best,’ as in “having a rum time.  … it would be called rum, to denote its excellence or superior quality.” (Samuel Morewood, 1824)

According to Kamakau, “The first taste that Kamehameha and his people had of rum was at Kailua in 1791 or perhaps a little earlier, brought in by Captain Maxwell. Kamehameha went out to the ship with (John) Young and (Isaac) Davis when it was sighted off Keāhole Point and there they all drank rum.”

“Then nothing would do but Kalanimōku must get some of this sparkling water, and he was the first chief to buy rum.”

Shortly thereafter, while in Waikīkī, after having tasted the “dancing water,” Kamehameha I gained the apparent honor of having spread the making of rum from Oʻahu to Hawaiʻi island. (Kanahele)

After he saw a foreigner make rum in Honolulu, he set up his own still. Spurred by his own appetite for rum, he soon made rum drinking common among chiefs and chiefesses as well as commoners. (Kanahele)  Many of the subsequent royalty and chiefs also drank alcoholic beverages (several overindulged.)

Within a decade or so, Island residents were producing liquor on a commercial basis. “It was while Kamehameha was on Oʻahu that rum was first distilled in the Hawaiian group,” wrote Kamakau.

“In 1809 rum was being distilled by the well-known foreigner, Oliver Holmes, at Kewalo, and later he and David Laho-loa distilled rum at Makaho.”  Several small distilleries were in operation by the 1820s.

By November 1822, Honolulu had seventeen grog shops operated by foreigners.  Drinking places were one of the earliest types of retail business established in the Islands.

“For some years after the arrival of missionaries at the islands it was not uncommon in going to the enclosure of the king, or some other place of resort, to find after a previous night’s revelry, exhausted cases of ardent spirits standing exposed and the emptied bottles strewn about in confusion.” (Dibble)

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson, who in his younger years had been a planter in the West Indies, arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde. He had made some arrangement with Governor Boki, while the latter was in England, to go out and engage in cultivating sugar cane and coffee and in making sugar and, probably, rum.  (Kuykendall)

A plantation was established in the upper part of Mānoa valley. Six months after beginning operations Wilkinson had about seven acres of cane growing, Untimely rains raised the stream and destroyed a dam under construction at the mill site. (Kuykendall)  His partners constructed a still and began to make rum from molasses.  (Daws)

Boki’s trade in entertaining the visiting ships and distilling liquor ran him afoul of the missionaries and Kaʻahumanu.   Kaʻahumanu had him fined in 1827 for misconduct, intemperance, fornication and adultery, apparently in connection with his brothels and grog-shops.  (Nogelmeier)

Kaʻahumanu ordered the sugar cane on his Mānoa plantation to be torn up when she found it was to be used for rum.  When Boki could no longer provide the cane for distilling and Kaʻahumanu had the sugar crop destroyed, Boki turned to distilling ti-root.    (Nogelmeier)

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

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

In 1843, the seamen’s chaplain, Samuel C. Damon, started ‘The Temperance Advocate and Seamen’s Friend;’ he soon changed its name to simply “The Friend.”   Through it, he offered ‘Six Hints to seamen visiting Honolulu’ (the Friend, October 8, 1852,) his first ‘Hint,’ “Keep away from the grog shops.”

However, that was pretty wishful thinking, given the number and distribution of establishments in the early-years of the fledgling city and port on Honolulu.

In 1874, a legislative act was passed that allowed distillation of rum on sugar plantations.  According to a report in ‘The Friend,’ “the only planter in the Legislature voted three times against the passage of the Act.”  The first export of Hawaiian rum was made on May 15, 1875 – the product of Heʻeia Plantation.  (Today, others are making a comeback.)

The sweetener production focus of sugar caught hold. The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i.  On July 29, 1835 (187 years ago, today,) Ladd & Company obtained a 50-year lease on nearly 1,000-acres of land and established a plantation and mill site in Kōloa.

Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.  A century after Captain Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.  That plummeted to 492,000 tons in 1995.

With statehood in 1959 and the almost simultaneous introduction of passenger jet airplanes, the tourist industry began to grow rapidly.  A majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.  As sugar declined, tourism took its place – and far surpassed it.  Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Orteric

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.  What encouraged the development of plantations in Hawaiʻi?

For one, the gold rush and settlement of California opened a lucrative market.  Likewise, the Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, enabling Hawai‘i to compete with elevated prices for sugar.

In addition, the Treaty of Reciprocity-1875 between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.  Through the treaty, the US gained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets.

However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  The only answer was imported labor.

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 were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese – 1852; 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.

Reasons why people left their homeland to come work in the Hawai‘i sugar plantations varied: some were looking for opportunity and a better life; some were looking for work (there was economic turmoil in their homeland); some left because of political strife … some thought they could make/save some money and return.

An often-overlooked issue with the emigration of these foreign workers to the Islands was the means of getting there.  Many sugar workers came in groups.  One such (and not necessarily the norm) was the sailing of the Orteric.

Of British registry, “The Orteric is a large vessel, fitted with accommodations for about twenty cabin passengers. And is a large cargo carrier, being able to accommodate 10,000 tons dead weight. She can steam twelve to thirteen knots an hour and has 3000 indicated horsepower.”

“She belongs to the Weir line and is on her maiden voyage, having been launched at Greenock, England, on January 28, 1911.  She will probably join other Weir liners, which operate between Seattle and Orient ports.”

“She has a length of 460 feet and is fifty seven feet breadth. … The Orteric sailed from London on February 16 [1911] and at Oporto picked up a batch of immigrants, taking on 305 there. At Lisbon 260 people were taken on, and at Gibraltar 960 Spaniards were sent on the vessel.”

“‘They appear to be a fine lot of people,’ said Secretary of the Territory Mott-Smith, when he went among them.  Dr Victor Clark head of the territorial immigration board agreed with him. The doctor stated that the Portuguese came from agricultural districts back of Lisbon, while the Spanish came from the districts of Seville land mountain districts.” (Hawaiian Gazette, April 14, 1911)

“The immigrants are decidedly glad that their journey has ended.  ‘Vive la Republique’ shouted one husky looking Spaniard, as he fairly leaped from the gangway of the steamer to the wharf.”

“He shouted so that the shed resounded with his exultation.  He leaped as he sped through the shed and when he reached the open air and felt the soil of Hawaii under his feet he waved his hat.” (Hawaiian Gazette, April 14, 1911)

But the arrival was about the only good news about their voyage to Hawai‘i.

“Death stalked among the fifteen hundred Spanish and Portuguese Immigrants aboard the British immigrant steamer Orteric, which arrived yesterday after its long voyage from Spain and Portugal. Fifty eight deaths were recorded among the children during the voyage.”

“Measles was the cause as entered on the ships log and in all but one instance the bodies were consigned to the sea for burial but the federal quarantine officers detected evidences of scarlet fever …”

“… and the territorial board of health, which looked after the body of the child who died just as the steamer was about to enter the harbor announced last evening that death was due to scarlet fever and the immigrants were ordered sent to quarantine Island.” (Hawaiian Gazette, April 14, 1911)

“[A] Portuguese middle aged and carrying heavy bundles ran down the gangway his eyes almost glittering as he ran through the shed knocking his countrymen right and left shouting: ‘Away from that jail away from that jail!’”

“He turned a look of disgust upon the ship and it is little wonder he wished to leave it for death and filth had full sway upon the vessel for nearly fifty days.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 14, 1911)

“Upon the arrival of the vessel at Honolulu an inspection thereof was made by the customs officers under the direction of the Collector of the Port, who thereafter rendered a report to the Collector of the Port, wherein they found that the master of the vessel, James F. Findlay, had violated the … Passenger Act of Aug. 2, 1882”. (US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, July 12, 1915))

The Passenger Act was implemented to address reforms to passenger conditions on board ships and set minimum standards for berths, light and ventilation, food, hospitals, discipline and cleanliness and reporting requirements upon entering US ports.

“Owing to the great number of deaths, the grand jury, which was in session at the time, went on board and made an exhaustive examination of the vessel.”

“On the lower deck on which passengers were berthed neither latrines nor conveniences were provided for the passengers, in many instances empty meat cans being used; all of the latrines were on the upper deck and could be used only by passengers able or willing to climb there, and they were flushed but twice a day.”

“No proper method was adopted to protect the vessel against the filthy conditions which were thus necessarily created; the decks were not washed and the filth apparently was permitted to remain, in alternate layers of filth, sawdust and disinfectants …”

“… the result was an almost intolerable stench which filled the dark and poorly ventilated compartments and existed even up to the day when the vessel was examined by the grand jury. No conveniences were originally provided for the use of children and such as were provided were improvised after the vessel commenced her voyage, and were wholly unfit from all standpoints.”

“Although the vessel crossed the equator twice on the voyage, no bathrooms were provided, and up to within a few weeks of the completion of the voyage the only way in which a bath of any kind could be taken was in the public washroom.”

“No attempt appears to have been made to muster the passengers on deck when weather permitted as required by law; or to air or clean the bedding during the entire voyage, and when the vessel arrived at Honolulu it became necessary to burn all the mattresses.”

“The grand jury stated that no opportunities were afforded the passengers for keeping clean and that it is to be wondered no more deaths occurred than actually took place.” (American Marine Engineer, Jan 1912)

“Charged with the worst case of neglect of steerage passengers on record under the Passenger Act of 1882, the owners of the British steamer Orteric have been fined $7,960 by Acting Secretary Cable of the Department of Commerce and Labor.”

“Among her 1,242 passengers there were in the eight weeks of her voyage fifty-eight deaths, being children; the births numbered fourteen; the sexes were not properly segregated during the larger part of the time …”

“… the ventilation of the ship was inadequate and greately increased the mortality rate; the hospital facilities were and without proper equipment, while the sanitary conditions of the vessel were almost beyond belief.”

“Acting Secretary Cable, after giving ample opportunity for the ship’s agent to make a defense, directed today that the full penalties be imposed.” (New Mexico Review, Dec 14, 1911)

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Palapala Kila Nui

“Under the ancient feudal system the allodium of all lands belonged to the King, not however, as an individual, but ‘as the head of the nation, or in his corporate right,’ to quote the language of the land commission.”

“The constitution of 1840 declared that the land of the Kingdom was not the private property of Kamehameha I. ‘It belonged to the chiefs and people in common, of whom Kamehameha I was the head, and had the management of the landed property.’” (Alexander)

“[I]n 1848 a committee was appointed to effect the division between the King as feudal suzerain and the chiefs, his feudatories, which completed its work in forty days. Partition deeds were signed and sealed by the King on one side and the several chiefs on the other side, who were then entitled to receive awards from the land commission for the lands thus partitioned off to them.”

“[T]he lands held by the King at the close of the Mahele were not regarded as his private property, strictly speaking. Even before his division with the landlords a second division between himself and the Government was clearly contemplated …”

“Accordingly, on the very day after the Mahele, or division with his chiefs, was closed, viz, the 8th day of March, 1848, he proceeded ‘to set apart for the use of the Government the larger part of his royal domain, reserving to himself what he deemed a reasonable amount of land as his own estate.’”

“This latter class of lands ‘he reserved for himself and his heirs forever’ as his own private estate, and they are now known as Crown Lands.”

“On the 7th day of the following June, 1848, the legislative council passed the ‘act relating to the lands of His Majesty the King and of the Government,’ which confirms and ratifies the division which had already been made by the King, thus making it an act of the nation through its representatives.”

“In this act the said lands are designated by name, and declared ‘to be the private lands of His Majesty Kamehameha III, to have and to hold to himself, his heirs, and successors forever; and said lands shall be regulated and disposed of according to his royal will and pleasure, subject only to the rights of tenants.’” (Alexander)

“Government lands were administered by the Minister of the Interior who was empowered by law to sell and lease. As the Land Commission could only consider claims to farms and building lots arising prior to December 10, 1845, many of the people were deprived of the opportunity to secure lands for themselves.”

“So to provide for this class the Minister of Interior was authorized in the early days of the new regime to sell building lots and tracts of land from a fraction of an acre to several hundred acres, at prices ranging from twenty-five cents to one dollar an acre.”

“The Minister of Interior was also authorized to dispose of government lands by sales for many other purposes.” (King)  On July 11, 1851, an Act was passed confirming certain resolutions of the Privy Council of the previous year, which ordered …”

“‘.. that a certain portion of the Government lands on each island should be placed in the hands of special agents to be disposed of in lots of from one to fifty acres in fee simple, to residents only, at a minimum price of fifty cents per acre.’”  (Interior Department, Surveyor’s Report, 1882)

Between the years 1850 and 1860, nearly all the desirable Government land was sold, generally to Hawaiians. The portions sold were surveyed at the expense of the purchaser.  (Interior Department, Surveyor’s Report, 1882)

“Following the division of the lands into Crown, Government, and Konohiki Lands, from time to time portions of the Government Lands were sold as a means of obtaining revenue to meet the increasing costs of the Government.”

“Purchasers of these lands were issued documents called ‘Grants’ or ‘Royal Patent Grants.’ These differed from the Royal Patents issued upon Land Commission Awards.” (Chinen)

These Land Grants were given for lands that were purchased by individuals from the Hawaiian Kingdom when they were made available for purchase in mid-1800s. (UH Mānoa Library) The term used for these was Palapala Kila Nui (also Palapala Sila Nui, aka Government Grant; Royal Patent).

Royal Patent Grants (until 1893) and Land Patents conferred fee simple title to a Government land. This was an outright purchase of Government land, and not a commutation of the Government’s interest in land. The last Royal Patent was number 7992. (UH Manoa Library)

“This class of conveyance is designated a Royal Patent (Grant) and since the overthrow of the monarchy, as Land Patent (Grant). It is more commonly known as a Grant and so designated on most of the title maps.”

“These grants are recorded in a series of books now deposited in the office of the Commissioner of Public Lands. Many conveyances by the Minister of Interior were by the ordinary deed method which deeds were recorded by the grantees in the Bureau of Conveyances.”  (King)

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