General | Page 185 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 13, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Wai Ola a Kāne

‘Water of Life of Kāne’ (Lāna‘i Cultural & Heritage Center)

Wai (fresh water) is the most important resource for life. As such, wai must be considered a top priority in every aspect of land use and planning.

The kānaka maoli word for water is wai and the Hawaiian word for wealth is waiwai, indicating that water is the source of well-being and wealth.

The importance of the forest is that it plays a significant role in the water cycle, gathering moisture that is stored in the earth that ultimately finds its way to shore or the ocean, evaporated back into the sky to return as rain once again.

As such, the relationship between the wai and the forest is an infinite cycle.

“Fresh water as a life-giver was not to the Hawaiians merely a physical element; it had a spiritual connotation.”

“In prayers of thanks and invocations used in offering fruits of the land, and in prayers chanted when planting, and in prayers for rain, the ‘Water of Life of Kāne’ is referred to over and over again.”

“Kāne – the word means ‘male’ and ‘husband’ – was the embodiment of male procreative energy in fresh water, flowing on or under the earth in springs, in streams and rivers, and falling as rain (and also as sunshine,) which gives life to plants.”

“There are many prayers (referring to) ‘the Water of Life of Kāne” … We also hear occasionally of the “Water of Life” of Kanaloa, of Lono, and of Kū, and even of Hiʻiaka, sister of Pele, a healer”

“Lono was the god of rain and storms, and as such the “father of waters” (Lono-wai-makua).”

“The old priests were inclined to include in their prayers for rain and for fertility the names of the four major deities, Kāne, Kū, Lono, and Kanaloa, whose roles, while on the whole distinct, overlapped in many areas of ritualistic and mythological conceptions.”

The religion of the folk-planters and fishers – was sectarian to some extent; some worshiped Kāne, some Kū, some Lono, and some Kanaloa. Regardless of all such distinctions, life-giving waters were sacred. (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

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Stream-CWRM

January 12, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Not the Foreign Riffraff

“The coming of the missionaries was the real beginning of civilisation in the Islands. Up to 1820 the outside world had given the Hawaiians little beside trinkets, firearms, rum, and more expert methods of deceit.”

“Now it was to give to them their part in the civilisation of Western nations, to teach them that this involved the acceptance of new and higher ideals of conduct, of a religion to replace their outworn superstitions; that it meant a life regulated according to civilised law.”

“The missionaries undoubtedly went to Hawaii fired with the desire to save souls in danger of eternal damnation. They seem very quickly to have realised that wholesale baptism, misunderstood, was less important than a general quickening of spirit, a training in the decencies of life.”

“They never neglected the religious side of their teaching, but they also never neglected the secular side. They learned the Hawaiian language; they reduced it to writing and imported printing presses; they did their best as doctors and taught the elementary rules of health.”

“At first only permitted to land on sufferance, they soon became of prime importance to the chiefs, and were their advisers on almost all questions.”

“It is fair to them to say that if this function seemed an undue extension of their religious duties – and their severest critics never accuse them of anything else …”

“… they were the only foreigners in the Islands who would advise the chiefs impartially, and the only ones, moreover, who would have advised in such fashion as to save the dwindling remnants of the Hawaiian race.”

“They were pioneers seeking results in better men, not in riches for themselves; they were trying to give the people their own standards of decency and honour.”

“This soon resulted in bitter opposition from the foreign riffraff who infested the Islands, and especially from the ships that called more and more frequently.”

“It was the fixed belief of ship captains in those distant days that no laws, whether of God or man, were in force west of Cape Horn.”

“The call at Hawaii for water and provisions was most of all an opportunity for debauchery and unchecked crime. Hawaiian women were often captured and carried off on cruises to the North.”

“When a whaler appeared off the coast many of the native women fled to the mountains as their only sure protection. It is easy to understand, therefore, that when the King promulgated laws against immorality, laws evidently intended to be enforced …”

“… the whaling crews considered themselves cheated out of their rights and turned with rage against the missionaries, whom they correctly held to be responsible. In more than one instance brutal attacks were made on missionaries in isolated stations, who were saved only by the devoted natives.”

“It is sad to think that the commander of a United States frigate was among the most insolent in the demand for the repeal of these laws against vice, and that he permitted his men to attack both the house of a chief and the mission premises in Honolulu for the purpose of frightening the Government into submission.”

“Drink was carrying off the Hawaiians by hundreds, and when, in recognition of the danger, a heavy duty was laid on spirits, it was the commander of a French frigate who gave the King a few hours to decide whether he would abolish the duty or undertake a war with France.”

“These outrages and many others of a similar kind directed against efforts really to uplift the country were seconded by a party in Honolulu, a party, unfortunately, headed by the British consul who was for years allowed to retain his post in spite of repeated protests and requests for his removal on the part of the Hawaiian Government. …”

“(Kawaiaha‘o Church) is the impressive monument of the early missionary labour. It was dedicated in 1842 and was the royal chapel until the coming of the English Mission twenty years later.”

“Built of blocks of coral, it is in shape a rectangle. Over the main entrance is a low, square tower, which used to have an inappropriate wooden spire.”

“White, surrounded with huge algaroba trees, through the filmy leaves of which perpetual sun light plays, it typifies in its Puritanic dignity and rigorous simplicity the lasting work of its founders.”

“Behind it, in a cemetery as unpretentious as they were themselves, most of these founders are buried. Beyond, in the section of the town formerly known as the Mission, what remain of their houses are clustered.”

“One of these, the Cooke homestead, which was the first frame house built in the Islands, is now a missionary museum. The Castle homestead, greatly enlarged from the original, one-story plaster cottage”.

“Whatever one may think of missionary work in general, whatever absurd tales one may hear of the self-seeking of these particular missionaries …”

“… the imagination and the heart must be touched by this plain old church and these pathetic little old houses where, nearly a hundred years ago, a band of devoted men and women, desperately poor, separated by six months from home and friends, gave up their lives to what they believed was God’s work.”

“That their children and their grandchildren chose, most of them, to remain in this land of their birth and to enter secular life; that they have largely guided politics and business, has been a lasting blessing to the Islands.”

“Their presence only has made the people capable of becoming normally and naturally American citizens.” (All here is from Castle, 1913)

Jon Yasuda, who worked on the translation of the Ali‘i Letters Collection noted,

“The missionaries, when they came, they may have been the first group who came with a [united] purpose. They came together as a group and their purpose was to spread the Gospel the teachings of the Bible. …”

“But the missionaries who came, came with a united purpose … and literacy was a big part of that. Literacy was important to them because literacy was what was going to get the Hawaiians to understand the word of the Bible … and the written word became very attractive to the people, and there was a great desire to learn the written word. … Hawai‘i became the most literate nation at one time.”

Puakea Nogelmeier had a similar conclusion. In a remarks at a Hawaiian Mission Houses function he noted, “The missionary effort is more successful in Hawai‘i than probably anywhere in the world, in the impact that it has on the character and the form of a nation. And so, that history is incredible; but history gets so blurry …”

“The missionary success cover decades and decades becomes sort of this huge force where people feel like the missionaries got off the boat barking orders … where they just kind of came in and took over. They got off the boat and said ‘stop dancing,’ ‘put on clothes,’ don’t sleep around.’”

“And it’s so not the case ….”

“The Hawaiians had been playing with the rest of the world for forty-years by the time the missionaries came here. The missionaries are not the first to the buffet and most people had messed up the food already.”

“(T)hey end up staying and the impact is immediate. They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or the other, get ahold of their goods, their food, or your daughter. … But, they couldn’t get literacy. It was intangible, they wanted to learn to read and write”. (Puakea Nogelmeier)

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Hawaiian Mission Houses

January 11, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Historical Society

“On the evening of January 11, 1892, the present historical society was organized. In the first year a total of 2,247 books, pamphlets and newspapers had been collected.”

“The collection was made with the excellent ideal in view that ‘nothing ever printed in this country, even an ephemeral hand-bill, is with out ultimate historic interest, and there is destroyed every month in this community materials that would be of permanent interest and value on the shelves of our library.’”

“In accord with this ideal, large additions have been made to the library, but the fact remains that many pamphlets, handbills and newspapers have not been secured and it would be well worth while, if every household in the Hawaiian Islands instead of destroying any such papers printed in English or Hawaiian, especially of the very old printing, would send the entire lot to the Hawaiian Historical Society to be sorted over.”

“Even the Paradise of the Pacific previous to 1901 is an incomplete set and many annuals and pamphlets are lacking. Donations of every kind would not be amiss.”

“This society celebrates its twenty-first birthday tonight (Jan 11, 1913). All through these years the Honolulu Library Association and the Hawaiian Historical Society have lived and worked together almost as if they were the same organization.”

“This close cooperation was secured in the first year of the society’s existence and is to-night consummated by our continued dwelling together in this splendid new library building on the same conditions practically as during all the years past.”

“It will be well worth while this anniversary evening to look back beyond the organization of our society to the beginning of whatever work has been done toward recording Hawaiian history and the effort put forth to have some organized body systematically undertake historical research. This leads to the first Hawaiian Historical Society and its origin.”

“In 1838 the first history of the Hawaiian people was published by the Mission school printing press at Lahainaluna. It was called ‘Ka Mooolelo Hawaii’ (the History of Hawaii). It was a very small book of 116 pages.”

“It had this inscription on its title page – ‘Written by some of the scholars of the great school and corrected by one of the teachers.’”

“That teacher was Rev. Sheldon Dibble, who used this small history as the foundation of the larger book published in English in 1843 and republished by Mr. Thrum in 1909.”

“In the preface of this history Mr. Dibble tells how he worked with his pupils to gather the material upon which all Hawaiian history has been based.”

“He says: ‘In 1836 I made some effort to collect the main facts of Hawaiian history. Most important events were afloat in the memories of the people and fast passing into oblivion. If they were to be preserved it was time they were collected.’”

“Dibble drew up a list of historical questions and selected the ten most promising scholars in Lahainaluna school, then set them at work.”

“He says, ‘I formed them into a class of inquiry. I gave them the first question and conversed freely with them upon it … then requested them to go separately to the most knowing of the chiefs and people, gain all the information they could on the question given out, commit each his information to writing and be ready to read it on a day and hour appointed.’”

“‘At the time of meeting each scholar read what he had written, discrepancies were reconciled and corrections made and all compositions handed to me, out of which I endeavored to make one connected and true account. At last a volume was prepared and printed in the Hawaiian language.’”

“The results of this plan were four – (1) a history of the islands which is now a classic, (2) an interest in history aroused in the minds of the older and more prominent Hawaiians, as they saw the benefit of preserving the ancient history of their own people …”

“… (3) a body of the best-educated Hawaiians trained along the line of historical research, (4) each one of these men was drilled many months in the art of expressing in writing the ideas received in his conversations with the older people.”

“Dibble was sent to the United States to see if he could recover from threatened pulmonary troubles. His pupils evidently continued the work with varying degrees of success.”

“In later years valuable historical articles by several of these men were contributed to the native papers and two, David Malo and S. M. Kamakau, have written and published enough material to make two or more volumes of Hawaiian lore.”

“To David Malo we owe the best description we have of Hawaiian customs and to Kamakau we are indebted for the most comprehensive historical statements, especially concerning the life of Kamehameha the First.”

“When Dibble returned to Lahaina he renewed his endeavor to collect Hawaiian history. He writes in 1843: ‘A Royal Historical Society has been formed by means of which some information has been gained.’”

“We would have no further knowledge concerning this society if Kamakau had not made a record of its origin and end and printed it in the Kuokoa of 1865.”

“Kamakau says: ‘A society was started at Lahainaluna according to the desire of the teachers. As the people of Alebione (Albion) had their British history and read about the Saxons and William, so the Hawaiians should read their history. So in 1841 the society was organized.’”

“Kamehameha III, John Young (a son of the friend of Kamehameha I), Haalilio, David Malo, D. Baldwin, William Richards, S. Dibble, Kamakau and many others were present.”

“Kamehameha III was elected president, William Richards, vice-president; S. Dibble, secretary, and S. M. Kamakau, treasurer.”

“‘The king said he thought the history of all the islands should be preserved from first to last.’”

“To David Malo was given the history of Umi, to John Young was allotted the coming of the first foreigners, to Haalilio the childhood of Kamehameha I, Kihapiilani was allotted to Kamakau, and the first ships anchoring at Lahaina to A. Moku. The missionaries and wise people from Hawaii to Kauai were given questions about the places where they lived.”

“For about three years this society ‘paa‘i’ – i.e. did its work faithfully, but when Dibble died and the king moved to Honolulu because of the new legislature started there, ‘the work of collecting the ancient things of the islands became “hemahema” i. e., very faulty, and the society came to an end.”

“Kamakau says, ‘If Dibble had lived we should have had a full story of Hawaii.’ About his own work he says in 1865: ‘I have gathered history from Hawaii to Kauai, but there are many things I do – not know and which, not having heard, I cannot teach.’”

“‘It might be well to have four men like myself paid each to go around his island and ask the old people who are still living for the facts and stories about the places where they live.’”

“‘These men must be wise and well known. The trouble is that already many of the residents are like strangers to the places where they dwell and do not know the history.’”

“SN Haleole, who probably was one of the prominent citizens of Wailuku, is the only source I can find for the following statement in the Kuokoa, Vol. IV, Nos. 16 and 22. He says:”

“‘I have been gathering the traditions and history of Hawaii for eighteen years and have been writing about Kamehameha in the ‘Hoku o ka Pakipika.’’”

“According to Haleole, a historical society was organized in March, 1863, and his work was the story of Kamehameha. He says he had ‘a great book filled with historical material.’”

“The above account is the record of the foundation of the first historical society and the method of securing the facts upon which all the Hawaiian history of all the later years has been based.” (Westervelt, 1913)

Today, the Hawaiian Historical Society publishes books in English and Hawaiian, and The Hawaiian Journal of History. This annual publication, which is included free as a benefit of membership, is the only peer-reviewed journal to focus on the history of Hawaiians and all other cultures in Hawai’i during both pre- and post-contact times.

Hawaiian Historical Society leases space from Hawaiian Mission Houses. If you would like to support the important work of the Society, annual dues start at $20 for students, $30 for seniors, and $40 for individuals, or you can make a contribution. You can join by clicking here, or call 808-537-6271 or e-mail HHSOffice@hawaiianhistory.org.

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Hawaiian Historical Society

January 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahuku

“It is not only by far the worst part of the Island, but as barren waste looking a country as can be conceived to exist … we could discern black Streaks coming from the Mountain even down to the Seaside.”

“But the s[outhern] neck seems to have undergone a total change from the Effect of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, etc … By the SE side were black honey comd rockds, near the s extremity were hummocks of a Conical Shape which appeared of a reddish brown rusty Colour, & we judged them tot consist of Ashes.”

“The s extremit, which projects out, has upon it rocks of the most Craggy appearance, lying very irregularly, & of most curious shapes, terminating in Sharp points; horrid & dismal as this part of the Isalnd appears …”

“… yet there are many Villages interspersed, & it Struck us as being more populous than the part of Opoona [Puna] which joins Koa [Ka‘ū+. There are houses built even on the ruins lava flows we have describ’d.”

“Fishing is a principal occupation with the Inhabitants, which they sold to us, & we also had a very plentiful supply of other food when off this end…”

“…those we saw off Kao [Ka`ū], are very tawny, thin, & smallmean looking people, which doubtless arises from their constant exposure to the heat of the Sun, their being mostly employed in fishing or other hard labor on shore, & to their spare diet.” (King’s Journal)

“Kahuku, a very large ahupua‘a which for many years has been a ranch, is just beyond the southwest shoulder of Mauna Loa.”

“Over these heights the moisture-laden trade winds, having traversed the wet uplands and forested interior of eastern Ka‘ū, Hilo, and Hāmākua Districts, spread a great roll of cool clouds.”

“These masses of cool water vapor expand and precipitate as rain when they meet the air that rises morning to evening from the ocean, warmed in its passage over the dry lower plains of Kahuku, Manuka, and neighboring Kona.”

“Warmed trade winds also blow in over the southeast coast and Ka Lae, crossing the high rolling plains of Kama‘oa and Pakini, there precipitating much moisture as dew where it meets the cooled air blanketing the uplands.”

“Actually, during the months of March through November, the blanket of cool moist air moving over the upland flank of Mauna Loa, and the warm damp flood of wind diverted inland and overland by the high plains of Kama‘oa and Pakini …”

“… are nothing more nor less than vast eddies of the great southeastward flow of arctic air, which is warmed as it passes over the ocean in these latitudes.”

“These we term the “trades” – the winds so named because the ‘traders’ (sailing vessels) utilized their regular flow from March through November in their voyages.”

“In the season of southerly (kona) cyclonic storms, the wind and rain came in upon western Ka‘ū from oceanward in more violent gusts, sometimes sweeping in with great force.”

“These kona storms originate in the equatorial regions, hence their warm winds are heavily laden with moisture.”

“Coming upon the cool uplands their heavy black clouds produce electric storms, with thunder and lightning, and downpours starting with light gentle rain (hilina), which gradually increase into deluges, at times veritable cloudbursts.”

“These winter storms drench the whole land, which, whether dry lava, grassland, or forest, soaks it up greedily, and in the uplands stores it beneath the forests.”

“Continuing our journey into Ka‘ū, going southeastward, the next ahupua‘a after Manuka is Kahuku. Until the land was covered by lava through much of the verdant lower forest area in the last century, this must have been a far more favorable area for human occupation than was Manuka.”

“The evidence of such occupation have, however, been obliterated. Where lava has not covered the land, the pastures of Kahuku Ranch have done so. The seacoast of Kahuku is a barren as any on this side of Hawaii.”

“Standing on top of a hillock named Pu‘u Lohena on the east of Pakini and looking north across the 1868 flow, one can see beyond lava-covered land to where there was an open sandy area of Ka’iliki’i between two sections of the 1868 flows.”

“Ka‘iliki‘i was in 1823 described by Ellis as ‘a populous shore village’” The open ground led directly north toward Kahuku from the beach at Ka‘iliki‘i, where travelers from Kona often landed. “

“We could see how their path would have crossed an older flow that was there before the 1868 flow, as they headed for a break in the pali. This is a low dip in the ridge called Lua Puali.”

“In its lower reaches Kahuku is said formerly to have had flourishing gardens of sweet potato and sugar cane on the land now covered with lava.”

“If so, and we have no reason to doubt the veracity of informants, there must have been underground water here. Surface verdure, also, may have drawn more cloud and dew.”

“There probably was more rain coming across from Pakini when the plains east of the Pali-Mamalu and Pali Kulani (the great cliff that borders Kahuku on the east) were more verdant and covered with brush.”

“The bare lava of the recent flows, and the now dry plains of Pakini, Kama‘oa, and Ka‘alu‘alu must desiccate the winds which, sweeping along the coast line, normally throw up a cloud of cooled air that is moisture laden when the trade winds blow.”

“There is no similar drift of moisture over the naked shores of Kahuku and Manuka. Yet these coasts, barren as they are today, must have sufficed as good fishing grounds for the population settled in the two western ahupua‘a of Ka‘ū.”

“Wai-o-‘Ahu-kini close by, with its spring, pond and canoe haven, and the best fishing ground in all Hawaii, was awarded in the ancient land allotment to Pakini, then one of the most verdant of the plains areas of cultivation.”

“Doubtless it was Pakini’s numerous population, which gave its ali‘i power, that was responsible for this award.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

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Kahuku GoogleEarth

January 3, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Shoreline Certification Process

Shorelines are “certified” for County setback purposes. Local building and planning departments require that improvements are not placed too close to the coast, so setbacks from the certified shoreline are imposed on improvements.

Certified shorelines do not determine ownership; they serve as reference points in determining where improvements may be placed on a waterfront property.

The intent of shoreline setbacks include:

Protect coastal structures
Maintain access to and along the shoreline
Allow for natural beach/coastal processes
Maintain open space and view planes to, from and along the shoreline

“Shoreline” means the upper reaches of the wash of the waves, other than storm and seismic waves, at high tide during the season of the year in which the highest wash of the waves occurs, usually evidenced by the edge of vegetation growth or the upper limit of debris left by the wash of the waves. (HRS §205A-1)

To certify a shoreline, typically, a coastal property owner will hire a private surveyor to prepare a survey map and provide photos of the shoreline area of the property. The State land surveyor then reviews the map, photographs and other appropriate documents.

When I was at DLNR, we started the practice of having someone from DLNR’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands assist in shoreline site inspections. Through a partnership with DAGS and UH SeaGrant, we had a SeaGrant agent staged in the OCCL office who conducted shoreline inspections.

When the State surveyor is satisfied with the location of the shoreline, after reviewing the public comments, the maps and photos prepared by the private surveyor and site inspection, he will forward the shoreline maps to the Chairperson of DLNR, for final review and approval.

A notice is posted through OEQC (Environmental Notice) telling the public of the proposed shoreline certification – members of the public have 15-days to appeal the certification.

As Chairperson of the Land Board, I signed the map and certified the shoreline of the coastal property. The certification is valid for only 12-months. (Shorelines can change over time, due to natural coastal processes, so certifications are effective for a limited time.)

Remember, the State does not rely on the “certification” line as the property’s “boundary” line.

When property boundaries and ownership are at issue, the State of Hawai’i does not rely on shoreline certifications, but instead takes a more rigorous approach to locating the property’s seaward boundary.

The State has the responsibility to protect and preserve the State’s (the public’s) interest in its property. It vigorously defends ownership and these rights on behalf of the people of the State of Hawai’i.

When shorefront property owners bring quiet title actions (lawsuits seeking the court’s determination of ownership,) the State enters the action to preserve all of its rights and title to its coastal property.

In all such cases, the State Surveyor will conduct an actual on-site survey of the boundary line and not rely on certified shorelines or surveys done by private surveyors.

Ultimately, in title actions, the court decides ownership of the property and the boundary line dividing ownership between private and public lands.

State law says that the right of access to Hawaii’s shorelines includes the right of transit along the shorelines; the public right of transit along the shoreline exists below the private property line.

Some people inadvertently (and, unfortunately, some covertly) do things in the shoreline area without a permit; permits are required for work in this area. A prior owner may have done something, but the liability and responsibility to correct it ends up with the present owner.

Some of our consulting work has included helping people correct (eliminate and/or subsequently permit) encroachments (walls, rocks, docks, vegetation, etc) beyond the shoreline and private property owner’s boundary line.

The photo shows possible issues with seawalls; other issues of concern are the obvious purposeful-placement of rocks within the wash of the waves – vegetation encroaching beyond a property line is a related concern. Each of these requires a permit.

We feel strongly that it is important to correct past errors, not ignore them (even if they were pre-existing when an owner bought the property.) Likewise, people should get a permit for any work near the shoreline area.

We are willing to work people through the process of getting a permit to do something new or to correct prior mistakes. If you think we can be of help, please give us a call.

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