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March 31, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Seeking A Vision of Hale Hālāwai as Piko of Historic Kailua Village

Over the past few months, I have been helping the Kailua Village Business Improvement District in a process for a Revitalized Vision for Hale Hālāwai.

After some individual and small focus discussions, last week we held two public meetings at Hale Hālāwai to get further input.

Dave Corrigan from Big Island Video News stopped by at one and did some interviews; you may see that here:

Hale Hālāwai translates to meeting house or gathering place.

We are seeking input to develop a community vision. “A revitalized vision of Hale Hālāwai as the piko of Historic Kailua Village will celebrate our heritage, encourage interaction between residents and promote a deeper sense of community.”

Where are we now?

Where are we going?

Where do we want to be?

How do we get there?

Hale Hālāwai has long been a community gathering place, but it had a shaky start …

The people of Kailua-Kona almost lost the only remaining public land fronting the ocean in 1938 when a resolution was passed asking “the land commissioner to consummate an exchange with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., by which an area of approximately 39 acres of land at Keauhou belonging to Inter-Island, would be traded to the county for the courthouse tract on the beach next to the Kona Inn.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 9, 1938)

Effective March 20, 1943, Governor’s Executive Order 1013 set aside the property for the Kona Court House, under the control and management of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Hawai‘i. (EO 1949) Then in the 1950s, “The alert Kona Outdoor Circle has issued a protest and a warning. It protests increased use of the old Kona courthouse site as a parking lot. And it warns that unless action is taken soon, the public may lose access to Kona beaches. There is a connection between the two.” (Honolulu Star Bulletin, March 3, 1956)

The matter was formally resolved when Governor Samuel Wilder King “ended a long controversy over future use of the 3.2-acre waterfront site with a statement at a press conference that the Territory has decided against sale or lease of the grounds.” (Honolulu Advertiser, August 25, 1955)

County Sought Site for Park Purposes

Then, the Hawai‘i County Board of Supervisors, by Resolution 255, dated November 4, 1959, requested that the area be set aside for park and recreational purposes. On May 3, 1961, Governor William F Quinn cancelled Executive Order 1013 and issued Executive Order 1949 and set aside the property “for a public purpose, namely as a Civic Center, under the control and management of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Hawai‘i.” (EO1949)

Initial thoughts for its use noted that the “conversion of the old courthouse site into a cultural center consisting of a library, auditorium and amphitheatre.” (Honolulu Star Bulletin, November 25, 1958) It was initially referred to as the “Kona Cultural Center” (sometimes Kailua Cultural Center). In 1961, the facility was well under construction and groups were already using it, even prior to its completion.

The Naming of “Hale Hālāwai”

The Kona Torch noted that in July 1962, the Kona Outdoor Circle had a “contest for naming the new Kona Cultural Center. Mrs. Grace Napaepae, the naming winner, received $25 for the name, Hale Hālāwai.”

Hale Hālāwai continues to be a community gathering place …

It was sometimes referenced as “Hale Hālāwai, a meeting house next to the Kona Inn” (Honolulu Advertiser, March 20, 1963), as well as “Hale Hālāwai, Kona’s civic center.” (Star Bulletin & Advertiser, April 21, 1963) and “Hale Hālāwai, Kona’s community center.” (Honolulu Advertiser, October 11, 1963)

It became Kona’s gathering place … “we had get-together, you see, down the Hale Hālāwai. So, they pick up the old-timers in [coffee] farming. … Everybody meet at the Hale Hālāwai.” (Katherine ‘Nina’ Kālaiwa‘a, 70, farmer; A Social History of Kona, 1981)

Others note, today, “currently there are only two areas (Hale Hālāwai and Maka‘eo [Old Airport]) in North Kona that can host large family gatherings.” (Malia Kipapa)

In thinking of the Vision for Hale Hālāwai – Think About the Future:

What do you value about Hale Hālāwai that you do not want to see changed?
What changes would you most like to see Hale Hālāwai in the future? (near-term and long-term)
What do you want Hale Hālāwai to be like in 5, 10, 20 years?

What about the existing site & facilities? Keep them? Change them (to what?) Make it all open space?

What about the existing programs and uses: Keep them? Change them (to what?) Add more (what?)

If you have ideas, we want your input. Please e-mail me at PeterYoung@Hookuleana.com

March 30, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Upena Poepoe

“Ua akamai kekahi poe kanaka Hawaii I ka lawaia, no ia mea, ua kapa ia lakou, he poe lawaia. O ka makau kekahi mea e lawaia ai. O ka ‘upena kekahi, a o ka hinai kekahi.”

“Some of the people of Hawaii were very knowledgeable about fishing, and they were called fisher-people. The hook was one thing used in fishing. The net was another, and the basket trap, another.” (WE Kealaka‘i, Ka Hae Hawaii, 1861; Maly)

“Not one kind of net only was known here in Hawai‘i in ancient times, there were many, large ones and small ones, according to the kind of fish desired to catch, such was the net.”

“These are some of them: Akule net, Opelu net, Weke net, Malolo net, Uhu net, Amaama net. Koki net and Papa was another kind of net, and so on.” (Hoku O Hawaii, 1912; HawaiiAlive)

“Fishermen, or those skilled in the art of catching fish, were called poe lawaiʻa. Fishing was associated with religious ceremonies, or idolatrous worship. The heiaus or altars, at which fishermen performed their religious ceremonies, were of a class different from all others.”

“There were many different methods of fishing: with nets; with hook and line; with the pa, or troll-hook; with the leho, or cowry; with the hina’i, or basket; the method called ko’i; and with the hand thrust into holes in the rocks.” (Malo)

“The olona and the hopue were plants from whose bark were made lines and fishing nets and a great many other things. … Cordage and rope of all sorts (na kaula), were articles of great value, serviceable in all sorts of work.”

“Fishing nets (‘upena) and fishing lines (aho) were valued possessions. One kind was the papa-waha, which had a broad mouth; another was the aei (net with small meshes to take the opelu) ; the kawaa net (twenty to thirty fathoms long and four to eight deep, for deep sea fishing) ; the kuu net (a long net, operated by two canoes) ; and many other varieties.”

“Net-makers (poe ka-‘upena) and those who made fishing-lines (hilo-aho) were esteemed as pursuing a useful occupation. The mechanics who hewed and fashioned the tapa log, on which was beaten out tapa for sheets, girdles and loincloths for men and women were a class highly esteemed.” (Malo)

“Cordage and rope of all sorts (na kaula), were articles of great value, serviceable in all sorts of work. Of kaula there were many kinds. The bark of the hau tree was used for making lines or cables with which to haul canoes down from the mountains as well as for other purposes.”

“Cord (aha) made from cocoanut fiber was used in sewing and binding together the parts of a canoe and in rigging it as well as for other purposes. Olona fibre was braided into (a four- or six-strand cord called) lino, besides being made into many other things. There were many other kinds of rope (kaula).” (Maly)

“… Our ancestors said “Mai uhauha” (Don’t be greedy)! Because the ocean is our ice box. You take what you need for today, you come back tomorrow. There is still some for tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after and next week. So, take what you need just for the day.”

“But sometimes, when you throw the net, you get more fish in the net, you think of your neighbors, share with them, help them.” (Kāwika Kapahulehua; Maly)

“The cast net (or, throw net – ‘upena poepoe, also ‘upena kiloi) is a comparatively recent introduction in the islands, having been brought in by the Japanese about ten years ago, so it is reported, although this is somewhat doubtful.” (Cobb, 1903)

“The Japanese, like most immigrants, were contracted to work on Hawai’i’s sugar cane plantations. When their plantation contracts expired many Japanese who had previously been skilled commercial fishermen in the coastal areas of Wakayama, Shizuoka, and Yamaguchi Prefectures remained in Hawai’i and turned to the sea for a living.” (Schug)

“Some local Japanese fishermen coined their own slang for throw nets, calling them nageami, a term derived from nageru, ‘to throw,’ and ami, or ‘net,’ while Hawaiians called them ‘upena ho‘olei, ‘nets are thrown like a lei.’ A poetic description of the nets’ circular shape in flight.” (Clark)

“The early Japanese fishermen used throw nets and poles. The fashioned throw nets like they had used in Japan ands introduced throw-net fishing to Hawai‘i.” (Clark)

“‘In spite of the fact that it is one of the most photographed of all Hawaiian fishing techniques, throw net fishing is not a native sport. It was brought from Japan about 1890 and quickly adopted by the Hawaiians because of its effectiveness along Ilsnad Shores.’” (MacKellar; Clark)

“Fishermen in Japan call throw-net fishing toami, which literally means ‘to cast a net’”. (Clark) “The to-ami or throw-net is used over every pool, as nearly every boy in Japan learns to throw it, and we got our first lesson in the art.”

“The net is generally circular, of a diameter of about twelve feet; the outer edge has leaden weights attached to it all round, at distances of eighteen inches to two feet. These sinkers are made of different shapes, according to the nature of the ground over which they are to be used.” (Dickson, 1889)

“Unlike the fishermen in the United States, the Japanese hold no part of the net in the mouth, but manipulate it entirely with the hands. About two-thirds of the outer edge is gathered up and the net is thrown with a sort of twirling motion, which causes it to open wide before it touches the water.”

“The leads draw the outer edges down very rapidly, and as they come together at the bottom the fish are inclosed in a sort of bag.”

“The net is then hauled in by means of a rope attached to its center, the weight of the leads causing them to hang close together, thus preventing the fish from falling out as the net is hauled in. The fish are shaken out of the net by merely lifting the lead line on one side.” (Cobb, 1903

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shorefishing-throw net

ThrowNet

Throwing net at Keauhou Bay 1915

Throw_net-DMY

Fisherman in malo with throw net-UH-1940

Fisheman-Throw_net-Kealakekua-1919

14-3-9-19 throw net-ksbe

14-3-9-17 =throw-net=williams studio -ksbe- 1882-1922

14-3-9-15 =throw net-lahaina-ksbe-1914

14-3-9-2 =maui fisherman taken at paia beach-ksbe-c1912

Throwing net

‘Hawaiian_Fisherman’,_woodblock_print_by_Charles_W._Bartlett,_1919

‘Fishing_in_Hawaii’,_hand_colored_etching_by_Charles_W._Bartlett,_c._1923-27

‘Hawaiian_Fisherman’,_watercolor_on_paper_by_Charles_W._Bartlett-1917

Throw-net-Bowden

March 27, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi’s Visitor Industry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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March 24, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Water Matters

For centuries, Hawaiians recognized the life giving qualities, significance and value of water to their survival. Water is wealth; water is life.

On islands with limited supplies of water, we need to better understand the importance of water in our lives. With greater understanding, we may then give greater respect (and attention and care) to water and recognize its critical link to our quality of life and ultimate existence.

Ground and surface water resources are held in public trust for the benefit of the citizens of the state. The people of Hawai‘i are beneficiaries and have a right to have water protected for their use and/or benefit.

The Hawaii Supreme Court identified water-related public trust purposes: Maintenance of water in their natural state; Domestic water use of the general public, particularly drinking water; and Exercise of Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights.

The object of the public trust is not to maximize consumptive use, but, rather, the most equitable reasonable and beneficial allocation of state water resources, with full recognition that resource protection also constitutes “use.”

“Reasonable and beneficial use” means the use of water for economic and efficient utilization for a purpose and in a manner which is both reasonable and consistent with the state and county land use plans and the public interest.

Such uses include: domestic uses, aquacultural uses, irrigation and other agricultural uses, power development, and commercial and industrial uses.

Under the State Constitution (Article XI,) the State has an obligation to protect, control and regulate the use of Hawaii’s water resources for the benefit of its people.

Over 90% of our drinking water statewide comes from ground water resources.

This percentage could change to include more surface water, as Counties make use of surface water ditches formerly run by sugar companies, most whose fields have since been taken out of sugar cultivation.

Virtually all of our fresh water comes through our forests.

Forests absorb the mist, fog and rain, and then release the water into ground water aquifers and surface water streams. Healthy forests protect against erosion and sediment run-off into our streams and ocean.

A healthy forest is critically important to everyone in Hawaii.

We are fortunate that 100-years ago, some forward-thinkers established Hawai‘i’s forest reserve system and set aside forested lands and protected our forested watersheds – thereby protecting the means to recharge our ground water resources.

Interestingly, it was the sugar growers, significant users of Hawai‘i’s water resources, who led the forest reserve protection movement.

Threats to the forests, and ultimately to our fresh water resources, are real and diverse – whether it is miconia (a tree that prevents rain water from soaking into the watershed, resulting in run-off and erosion,) …

… ungulates (such as pigs and goats that disturb the forest floor and lower level shrubs and ferns) or the many other invasive plants and animals that negatively impact the native forest resources.

We are reminded of the importance of respect and responsibility we each share for the environment and our natural and cultural resources – including our responsibility to protect and properly use and manage our water resources.

I was honored to have served for 4½-years as the Chair of the State’s Commission on Water Resource Management overseeing and regulating the State’s water resources.

We are fortunate people living in a very special place. Let’s continue to work together to make Hawaii a great place to live.

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March 23, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

$20,000 as a Guarantee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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L’Artemise,_Arthus_Bertrand