General | Page 22 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 13, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

C&H

“Among the many varieties of sugar the most important are the sucroses and the glucoses. They form a natural group of substances, chiefly of vegetable origin. Chemically considered, all sugars are carbohydrates, that is to say, bodies composed of three elements: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.”

“Apart from sucrose, which is usually cane and beet sugar, the variety most generally met with is dextrose one of the glucoses. It possesses less sweetness than sucrose and differs from the latter in chemical composition.” (Rolph)

“Glucose enters largely into the manufacture of candy, being particularly necessary in the preparation of soft filling for creams, as a certain amount of it added to cane-sugar syrup prevents crystallization.”

“Sucrose is derived from sugar cane, maple sap, sorghum and the sugar beet. It is a solid, crystallizing in the form of monoclinic prisms, generally with hemihedral faces, which are colorless, transparent, have a sweet taste …” (Rolph)

“Sugar cane, described in botany as Saccharum officinarum, is a giant-stemmed perennial grass that grows from eight to twenty-four feet long. … As a rule, sugar cane consists of about eighty-eight per cent of juice and twelve per cent of fiber”. (Rolph)

Sugar cane is processed at two facilities: processing starts at a raw sugar factory (the mill at the sugar plantation) and finishes at a sugar refinery.

Typically, raw sugar was processed in Hawai‘i. Claus Spreckels, the “sugar king” of California, Hawaiʻi and the American West, constructed a sugar refinery in California in 1867 where the sugar was finished, packaged, and marketed/shipped.

“[W]hen the Hawaiian plantation owners organized the Sugar Factors Association, Limited, in Honolulu, the authority to dispose of crops of the Islands as a whole was vested in a special committee. These representatives of the growers then sought to enter into a new contract”.

When negotiations deteriorated, the Sugar Factors’ Association stopped all further negotiations. “The explanation of this bold show of independence on the part of the plantation owners lies in the fact that the [sugar refining company] has been getting the lion’s share of the profits of the sugar business …”

“… and the growers are now determined to get not only their profits under the contract, but also the profits on their sugar which heretofore has gone into the coffers of the [refiners].” (PCA, April 13, 1905)

Then, the news reported, “The relations hitherto existing between the Western Sugar Refinery, controlled by the Spreckels interests, and the sugar planters of the Hawaiian Islands have been ruptured.”

“The planters have acquired a controlling interest in the refinery at Crockett, Cal. … and are making preparations to operate the plant in competition with the Western Sugar Refinery.” (Hawaiian Star, Nov 3, 1905)

In 1906, the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company began refining pure cane sugar in the small town of Crockett, California, near San Francisco.” (C&H)

Early on, it was known as California and Hawai‘i – Hawai‘i represented the place where the sugarcane grew and was initially processed; Crockett, California is where the processed sugar was refined and packaged. (C&H) A small portion was refined in the Islands; the bulk goes to Crockett. (United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit)

The new refiners noted, “It gives us great pleasure to be able to state that on or after April 1^st, 1906, the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company, by beginning the work of refining raw sugars, will enter the field of the Refined Sugar business.”

“This Corporation, hereafter to be familiarly known as the ‘Hawaiian Refinery,’ has entered into strong and intimate relations with Hawaiian Plantation Companies.”

“Every share of our stock is owned or controlled by Hawaiian planters, or their close associates in California, and these Hawaiian shareholders are, in turn, members of the Sugar Factors Company, Limited, of Honolulu, and constitute its shareholders.” (Circular 1, SB, Feb 13, 1906)

The refinery first opened in 1906, when a man named George Morrison Rolph transformed a beet sugar refinery into an operation for refining raw cane sugar from Hawai‘i. (Wells, SFGate)

Rolph wanted to build a loyal workforce and inspire them to stick around, so he started investing heavily in the underdeveloped town. Improvements included building housing, a community center and even a park for his employees. (Wells, SFGate)

Early on, as cargo ships offloaded raw cane sugar from the Hawaiian Islands, the refinery employed 490 people and produced 67,000 tons of refined cane sugar. (C&H)

In the 1920s, some 95 percent of Crockett residents worked for the C&H. (Hayes) At its peak, just before World War II, C&H employed 2,500 workers. (Wells, SFGate)

Cane sugar contains trace minerals that are different from those in beet sugar, and it’s these minerals that many experts say make cane sugar preferable to use.

As professional bakers have long noticed, cane sugar has a low melting-point, absorbs fewer extraneous and undesirable odors, blends easily and is less likely to foam up. (C&H)

The refined sugar – the white stuff – was sold by C&H to groceries for home consumption and to the soft drink and cereal companies that were its industrial customers. (United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit)

In 1993, the member companies sold their interests in C&H to Alexander & Baldwin in Honolulu, and the refining company’s status changed from a cooperative to a corporation.

Alexander & Baldwin subsequently sold its majority share to an investment group in 1998, retaining a 40% common stock interest in the recapitalized company.

In 2005, the common stock shares were acquired by American Sugar Refining (ASR, better known as Domino Sugar), a company owned by Florida Crystals and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.

Florida Crystals is a privately held company that is part of FLO-SUN, a sugar empire of the Fanjul family whose origins trace to Spanish-Cuban sugar plantations of the early 19th century. (Finale)

July 12, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Swim Wear

Although sea bathing was fashionable in the 18th century, it was considered proper to keep the skin white and untouched by the sun. Ladies were protected by face-shading bonnets, shawls and gloves (for some, weights were sewn into the hem of their bathing gowns to prevent the garment from floating up and showing their legs.) (Victoriana)

In the mid-19th century bathing dresses covered most of the female figure. The ”turkish” pants (bloomers) and “paletot” dresses are made from a heavy flannel fabric which would surely weigh down the swimmer. (Victoriana)

At ocean resorts where the water was very shallow near the beach, people undressed in ‘bathing machines’ (little houses on wheels, which were drawn out into deep water by horses and hauled back to the shore when the bath was finished.)

The bathing machine allowed a modest Victorian woman to spend the day at the beach in complete privacy. After the horse would haul the cabana into the ocean, the 19th century woman would change from her layers of petticoats and dress into another layer of swimwear.

In the late-1800s and early-1900s, bathing suits were typically accessorized with long black stockings, lace-up bathing slippers, and fancy caps. Beach shoes were made of soles of twisted straw or felt with embroidered serge or crash tops and laces.

During the early 1900s, people flocked to oceanside beaches for popular seaside activities as swimming, surf bathing, and diving. The only activity for women in the ocean involved jumping through the waves while holding onto a rope attached to an off-shore buoy.

Women typically dressed in black, knee-length, puffed-sleeve wool dresses, often featuring a sailor collar, and worn over bloomers trimmed with ribbons and bows. The bathing suit was accessorized with long black stockings, lace-up bathing slippers, and fancy caps. (Victoriana)

In 1905 a lady’s bathing suit was made of ten yards of material; in 1945 it is made from one. Between these times a social revolution had taken place. (Life)

But the next year changed everything.

In 1946, two French designers, Jacques Heim and Louis Reard, developed competing prototypes of new female swimwear. Heim called his the “atom” and advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.

On July 5, 1946, French engineer Louis Réard designed a garment ‘smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.’ Four days earlier, the U.S. military had conducted nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. (Time)

Réard hoped that his invention would be as explosive as that test and so called his new creation the ‘bikini.’ But at first none of the Parisian models would dare to wear his design. (Time)

Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer, was the first woman ever to wear a bikini, during a July 11, 1946, showing for the press at the fashionable Piscine Molitor in Paris. The bikini was so small it could fit into a matchbox. (Time)

Bikinis were banned from worldwide beauty pageants after the first Miss World Contest in London in 1951. As the tasteful one-piece continued to reign supreme, the bikini was later also banned in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Australia, and it was even declared sinful by the Vatican. (Time)

Sports Illustrated, Time’s sister publication published its first ever swimsuit issue in 1964. Apparently, editor Andre Laguerre could not find compelling sporting events to write about.

Fashion reporter Jule Campbell to help fill some space, including the cover, with a model. She found Babette March, and the rest is history.

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1918: From left: Miss Bernice Young, Miss Frances Burtner, Miss Josephine Brixell and Mrs. E.K. Pritchard pose for photo published on the July 21, 1918 Los Angeles Times society page.

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July 11, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kohala Shark Hunt

In the old days, folks used to catch and kill sharks. The accepted attitude was, “the only good shark is a dead shark.”

In an attempt to relieve public fears and to reduce the risk of shark attack, the state government of Hawaiʻi spent over $300,000 on shark control programs between 1959 and 1976. Six control programs of various intensity resulted in the killing of 4,668-sharks.

Subsequent evaluation of the 1959-1976 efforts noted, “Shark control programs do not appear to have had measurable effects on the rate of shark attacks in Hawaiian waters. Implementation of large-scale control programs in the future in Hawaiʻi may not be appropriate.” (Wetherbee, 1994)

At the turn of the century, my grandfather and his brothers (Young Brothers) used to have various jobs in Honolulu Harbor; one was taking paying customers out to harpoon sharks off-shore. My great-uncle, William, wrote books about his adventures shark hunting.

I remember Kohala shark “hunts” on the Big Island where a donated steer carcass was tied between points in a cove and “hunters,” on surrounding cliffs using high-powered rifles, shot at sharks feeding off the carcass.

“For both spectator and participant thrills it would be hard to beat a shark hunt, a sports event that originated in Kohala and perhaps is still unique in this community.”

“The shark hunt is the brain child of Pierre Bowman, personnel manager for Kohala Sugar Co, and these day-long events are staged a couple times a year with hundreds of people turning out with family picnics to watch the kill from along the low cliffs two miles west of the Kohala mill.” (HTH, July 2, 1952)

“The shark hunts originated [in about 1950 and appear to have been run into the mid-1970s] … [on each hunt] hunters have bagged as many as a half-dozen sharks, ranging in size to 29 feet, in good years.” (HTH, July 26, 1965) Some years, no sharks showed up.

“The shark hunt conducted annually be the Kohala group has drawn the interest of persons all over the state.” (HTH, July 24, 1965)

“The affair goes like this: Forty eight hours before the shark hunt begins, a mule [steer] or a horse is shot and the carcass is lashed securely to the reef, out of reach of the sharks but so that the water will wash over it.”

“The vicious monsters of the sea eventually scent the bait and begin to collect. Sharks are always ravenous. When the hunt begins the bait is allowed to float out into the sea, and the sharks close in. The bait is hauled slowly shoreward and the hungry sharks fighting for food come right along with it.”

“Three or four men with harpoons strike when a shark comes close enough, and then the real fun begins for the trick is to get 700 to 1,000 pounds of thrashing hell and fury out of the water and onto the reef for the kill.”

“Then the shore battery, which includes almost everything from .22 rifles to Revolutionary muskets, closes in to finish off the monster.” (HTH, July 2, 1952)

Occasionally, “The Kohala High School stage band played swing music from the 1930s – rather incongruous music to watch sharks while the now bloated cow bobbed in the sea.” (Adv, June 25, 1975)

“Over the years, shark hunts have been staged to raise money for all sorts of school projects in North Kohala.” [i.e., Future Framers of America, Kohala high basketball team, Boys Scouts, Kohala squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, …] [HTH, June 19, 1975)

Times have changed.

We have learned that tiger sharks (the ones most implicated in attacks on humans) don’t simply dwell in small coastal territories but are instead extremely wide-ranging.

They are opportunistic predators and typically move on soon after arriving in an area, because the element of surprise is quickly lost, and potential prey become wary and difficult to catch.

We know more now and recognize that sharks are an important part of the marine ecosystem. Sharks are often the “apex” or top of the food chain predators in their ecosystems because they have few natural predators.

As top predators, sharks help to manage healthy ocean ecosystems. Sharks feed on the animals below them in the food chain, helping to regulate and maintain the balance of marine ecosystems; limiting the populations of their prey, in turn affects the prey species of those animals, and so on.

To some, sharks are ʻaumakua (ancestral spirits that take possession of living creatures) that make appearances to express parental concern for the living, bringing warnings of impending danger, comfort in times of stress or sorrow or in other ways being helpful. (Kane)

Sad and Tragic, yes – we continue to have shark attacks. However, many believe it is typically mistaken identity – the sharks mistake surfers and floaters as turtles or seals. (Remember, we are visitors to their realm in the ocean.)

I still vividly recall Halloween morning, 2003, when DLNR’s shark expert came to my office to brief me on the shark attack on Bethany Hamilton on Kauai. It was a somber day at DLNR. Unlike the old days, there was no “hunt” called for. Other incidents and attacks continue to occur.

“The number of shark attacks has nothing to do with how many sharks are in the water and everything to do with how many people are in the water,” said Kim Holland, University of Hawaiʻi shark researcher and Shark Task Force member. (Honolulu Advertiser, following the Hamilton attack)

John Naughton, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist, said previous efforts to remove large predatory sharks saw the proliferation of smaller ones, which harassed fishermen and their catches.

“It’s an archaic way to manage the resource. It’s like the turn of the century, when they shot wolves. It doesn’t make sense anymore.” (Honolulu Advertiser, November, 2003)

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.