Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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East Maui Irrigation System

At the time of Haiku Sugar Company’s charter in 1858, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.  Five of these sugar companies were located on the island of Maui:  East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui; Brewer Plantation at Haliʻimalie; LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at Ulupalakua; Haiku Plantation; and Hana.

In 1871, Samuel T Alexander became manager of the Haiku mill on Maui.  Alexander and his partner, Henry Perrine Baldwin, saw the need for a reliable source of water, and to this end undertook the construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

The first part of the work was completed in the summer of 1877; the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, on July 14, 1877, noted:   “The great display of the day was at Haiku, where several hundred Natives and Foreigners assembled to celebrate the completion of the Big Ditch, and to see for themselves, the water from the mountain gushing through great iron pipes, emptying itself into the ditch, and rolling on to the valley, and spreading over the cane fields, making the earth glad with its presence. The motto, “The Grass Grows And Water Runs,” was pointed on canvas and stretched across the principal avenue; flags were flying apparently from every bush,—the Wailuku brass band was in attendance and discoursed screech music. Too much credit cannot be bestowed upon Messers. Alexander and Baldwin for their perseverance and energy in completing so great and valuable an enterprise.”  (Kuykendall)

The completed Old Hāmākua Ditch was 17-miles long and had a capacity of 60-million gallons per day.  A second ditch was added, the Spreckels Ditch; when completed, it was 30-miles long with a capacity of 60-million gallons per day.  Before World War I, the New Hāmākua, Koʻolau, New Haiku and Kauhikoa ditches were built.

A total of ten ditches were constructed between 1879 and 1923; this system makes up what is known today as East Maui Irrigation (EMI.)

This privately financed, constructed and managed irrigation system was one of the largest in the United States.  It demonstrated the feasibility of transporting water from steep tropical forested watersheds with high rainfall across difficult terrain to fertile and dry plains.

East Maui Irrigation system consists of 388-separate intakes, 24-miles of ditches and 50-miles of tunnels, as well as inverted siphons, numerous small dams, pipes, flumes and 8-reservoirs, spanning 39 drainage basins.

The aqueducts bring water from the steep, wet eastern slopes of Haleakalā to the fertile semi-arid central Maui plain. They provide half the irrigation water to the sugar growing area of Maui.

Sugar production dramatically increased with irrigation and improved cultivation practices.  Sugar yields increased from 2-tons per acre to over 13-tons per acre grown with 2-year crop cycles.

Eventually sugar production from the Islands exceeded 1.2-million tons per year, comprising the major economic sector of Hawaii for 100-years.

Over the years of the development of this system, many engineers gained experience in building irrigation systems. They used what they learned from the East Maui Irrigation System to develop other irrigation systems; EMI System was the forerunner of major aqueducts in the Western United States by the Bureau of Reclamation for irrigation districts and regional domestic supplies.

In 2003, the East Maui Irrigation System was designated as an ASCE National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.   It is the third National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in the State of Hawaiʻi.  The other two landmarks are the Kamehameha V Post Office Building, dedicated in 1987, and the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility, dedicated in 1994.

Today, the EMI System conveys billions of gallons per year from high rainfall slopes on the Windward side of Haleakalā to the semi-arid region between east and west Maui for sugar cane cultivation.  In addition, some of the water diverted serves 10,000 Upcountry customers.

The issue of stream diversion, at EMI and elsewhere, however, is not simply engineering success and diversion on one part of the island to irrigate crops on another part of the island.  Taking too much from a stream can impact the stream ecosystem.

This relates to Instream Flow Standard which is “a quantity or flow of water or depth of water which is required to be present at a specific location in a stream system at certain specified times of the year to protect fishery, wildlife, recreational, aesthetic, scenic, and other beneficial instream uses.”

The technical language of the law is complicated; I simplify this to say that the instream flow standard simply allows a stream to be a stream.

Because ground and surface waters of the state are held in public trust for the benefit of the citizens of the state, the people of the state are beneficiaries and have a right to have the waters protected.

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

Adequate provisions must also be made for the protection of traditional and customary Hawaiian rights, the protection and procreation of fish and wildlife, the maintenance of proper ecological balance and scenic beauty, and the preservation and enhancement of water of the state for municipal uses, public recreation, public water supply, agriculture, and navigation.  Such objectives are declared to be in the public interest.

Related to this, EMI and other diversion systems have been the subject of conflict, litigation and contested case hearings before the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the State Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM.)  In the past few years, CWRM adopted interim instream flow standards for 27 of the EMI streams. The saga continues.

While taking water for appropriate off-stream uses, at issue with diversions are the fundamental principles of letting a stream be a stream (don’t divert too much to cause ecological changes in the stream) and protection of downstream user rights (allowing downstream users to also use the water resource – especially for taro cultivation.)

I was fortunate to have served as the Chair and Director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Chair of the Water Commission, working on these and other related issues.

The image shows a map of the East Maui Irrigation system. In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa

We are happy to announce that the Hawaiʻi State legislature just adopted a concurrent resolution (passed by the Senate and the House) in support of Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association’s (NaHHA,) hard work and efforts as the sponsor for the Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway.

The Legislature notes that “Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway is a collaborative effort between the community, business, visitor industry and government to promote and share the special intrinsic qualities of Waikīkī, particularly the role Waikīkī played in Hawaiʻi’s history”.

In addition, the Legislature took a strong, affirmative position that it “supports the designation of the Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa as a Hawaiʻi Scenic Byway and National Scenic Byway.”

The Hawaii Scenic Byways Program identifies and recognizes:
•  roads that “tell a story” that is special;
•  roads with outstanding scenic, cultural, recreational, archaeological, natural and historic qualities; and
•  roads that will benefit from a coordinated strategy for tourism and economic development

The Scenic Byways program serves to identify “Intrinsic Qualities” along the corridor; these include Scenic, Natural, Historic, Cultural, Archaeological and Recreational.

These intrinsic qualities break into two clusters:
“Land” (Scenic, Natural and Recreational,) and
“People” (Historic, Cultural and Archaeological)

Sites and Stories of Waikīkī, as illustrated through its Intrinsic Qualities, help tell the stories of the Land (‘Āina) and its People from the earliest beginnings of Hawai‘i to today.  Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa will be incorporating several core story themes:
•  Royal Residences
•  Visitor Industry
•  Military
•  Natural/Geologic
•  Socio-Economic-Political
•  Side Trips

We have been retained by NaHHA to help them with this process.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sustainability

I sometimes get tired of that term; it gets to be overused and overplayed.

How about simply calling it doing the right things for the right reasons?

Our existence here is not about us and it’s not about now.

As Isaac Newton suggested, we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us … that gives us the responsibility to pass on the legacy to those who follow.

Others before us planted the seed; it is our responsibility to nurture its growth, so those in the future may enjoy its fruit … and sow the seeds for yet future generations.

Our responsibility is to move from the “what’s in it for me” and “I got mine” mentalities, toward a long-term frame of reference and a focus on others (those we will never meet,) rather than ourselves.

That’s what sustainability means to me.  Happy Earth Day.

© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Portuguese in Hawaiʻi

Reportedly, the first Portuguese in Hawai’i were sailors that came on the Eleanora in 1790.  It is believed the first Portuguese nationals to live in the Hawaiian kingdom sailed through on whalers, as early as 1794, and jumped ship.

The first recorded Portuguese visitor was John Elliot de Castro, who sailed to Hawaiʻi in 1814.  During his days in Hawaiʻi he became a retainer of King Kamehameha I, serving as his personal physician and as member of the royal court.

After two years in Hawaiʻi, he sailed off to the island of Sitka, Alaska and joined the Russian-American Company under Alexander Baranov, working as a commercial agent.

Later, Whitney notes, “In (1828,) extensive fields of cane were grown in and about Honolulu, and mills were erected in Nuuanu Valley and at Waikapu, Maui. At the latter place, a Portugese, named Antonio Silva, is spoken of as the pioneer sugar planter.”

For 50 years after these early visitors arrived, Portuguese sailors came ashore alone or in small groups, jumping ship to enjoy Hawaiian life and turning their backs on the rough life aboard whalers and other vessels.

The 1853 population of the Hawaiian Islands was 73,134, including 2,119 foreigners, of these, reportedly 86 were Portuguese.  Hawaiians referred to the Portuguese as “Pokiki.”

Eventually several hundred Portuguese made the Islands their home.  Many of the settlers came from Madeira Islands (about half the size of Oʻahu,) off the coast of Africa.  They also came from the Azores, nine islands between Portugal and the US, and about 1½-times the size of Oʻahu.

The reciprocity treaty in 1875 between the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the United States opened the US sugar market to Hawaiʻi and greatly increased the demand for workers.

Jacinto Pereira (also known as Jason Perry,) a Portuguese citizen and owner of a dry goods store in Honolulu, suggested in 1876 that Hawaiʻi’s government look for sugar labor from Madeira where farmers were succumbing to a severe economic depression fostered by a blight that decimated vineyards and the wine industry.

At that time, about 400-Portuguese, a large number of whom formerly served as seamen on whaling vessels, lived in Hawaiʻi.  Then, the numbers grew.

São Miguel in the eastern Azores was also chosen as a source of labor. In 1878, the first Portuguese immigrant laborers to Honolulu arrived on the German ship Priscilla. At least one hundred men, women and children arrived to work on the sugar plantations. That year marked the beginning of the mass migration of Portuguese to Hawaiʻi, which continued until the end of the century.

In 1879 in Hawaiʻi, Portuguese musicians (Madeira Islanders) played on “strange instruments, which are a kind of cross between a guitar and a banjo, but which produce very sweet music” (this Madeiran guitar, the machete, was destined to become known as the Hawaiian ʻukulele.)  (Hawaiian Gazette – September 3, 1879)

On his world tour, in 1881, King David Kalākaua visited Portugal and was entertained in royal fashion by Portugal’s King Dom Luis. That year two ships delivered over 800-men, women and children from São Miguel.  The next year a treaty of immigration and friendship was signed between Portugal and the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Migration to Hawaiʻi became popular to escape poverty and a harsh military system. The dream of settling in islands that looked like home drew workers away from offers to labor in the fields of Brazil and urban seaports of the US.

Mass immigration of the Portuguese to Hawaiʻi also came from New England and California as Portuguese came to replace Chinese workers who left plantations to open stores and work in the trades.

While Chinese and Japanese workers had come as single men, whole families came from Portugal (reportedly, forty-two percent of the early Portuguese emigrants were men, 19% women and 39% children.)

The sponsoring of Portuguese immigration to Hawaiʻi was ceased in 1888 due to its high cost and the success of efforts to recruit Japanese workers. Almost 12,000-people had moved from Madeira or São Miguel, Azores to Hawaiʻi by that time.

Many continued to be employed by the plantations even after their contracts had been fulfilled.  Others, however, sought to take up independent work and turned especially to farming and ranching.  Between 1890 and 1910, many Portuguese left Hawaiʻi and migrated to California, primarily the Bay Area.

The Portuguese have given Hawaiʻi many traditions.  In music – they brought the ʻukulele and steel-string guitar.  Try to image Hawaiʻi without sausage (linguiça,) malasada (malassada) or sweet bread (pão doce) … or Frank De Lima.

The image shows the early influence the Portuguese had on Hawaiian music and hula – the ʻukulele.  I added a couple of other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa

We are happy to announce that Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA,) serving as the sponsor for the Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway, has retained Hoʻokuleana LLC to assist in the application, designation and planning processes for the Byway through the Hawaiʻi Scenic Byway Program.

The Hawaiʻi Scenic Byways Program is designed to complement the National Scenic Byways Program, a nationwide effort to identify, promote, manage and invest in roadways that are the most significant in their region with regard to these scenic, historic, recreational, cultural, archeological and natural qualities.

The purpose of the Hawai`i Scenic Byways Program is to formally designate Hawaiʻi Scenic Byways and to establish and implement Corridor Management Plans (CMPs) for our corridors.

The Hawaii Scenic Byways Program identifies and recognizes:
• roads that “tell a story” that is special;
• roads with outstanding scenic, cultural, recreational, archaeological, natural and historic qualities; and
• roads that will benefit from a coordinated strategy for tourism and economic development

First, the name – it is not only descriptive of the meaning and feeling of Waikīkī as we know it today, it is also a metaphor of Waikīkī in traditional (ancient Hawaiian) times, at multiple levels.

In ancient times, a ‘kauhale’ was a cluster of structures [a living compound.]  The traditional Hawaiian home was the kauhale (Lit., plural house;) this was a group of structures forming the homestead – with each building serving a specific purpose.

Literally, ‘Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa’ translates to ‘Waikīkī – Home of Hospitality.’  But, this context of “Home” can expand and also represent the community of Waikīkī.

Starting with Māʻilikūkahi, who ruled in the 1400-1500s (at about the same time Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic,) Waikīkī became the Royal Center for Oʻahu’s ruling Aliʻi.  It remained as such, through Kamehameha I.

The Royal Centers were areas selected by the Ali‘i for their residences and Ali‘i often moved between several residences throughout the year.  The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources (water, fishing, fertile land, etc) and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The Scenic Byways program serves to identify “Intrinsic Qualities” along the corridor; these include Scenic, Natural, Historic, Cultural, Archaeological and Recreational.

These intrinsic qualities break into two clusters:
“Land” (Scenic, Natural and Recreational,) and
“People” (Historic, Cultural and Archaeological)

Sites and Stories of Waikīkī, as illustrated through its Intrinsic Qualities, help tell the stories of the Land (‘Āina) and its People from the earliest beginnings of Hawai‘i to today.  Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa will be incorporating several core story themes:
• Royal Residences
• Visitor Industry
• Military
• Natural/Geologic
• Socio-Economic-Political
• Side Trips

Although many of the sites and structures of Waikīkī from the ancient times are long gone, many of these pre-contact Hawaiian places, environment, people, history and culture still convey the sense of earlier importance through continued use of original place names for areas, streets, surf sites, symbols, etc and other references to these people, places and times.  Though gone, they are not forgotten and continue to express the ways of the past.

Through the telling of stories of Waikīkī (and a goal of the establishment of a Scenic Byway (and dream of NaHHA founder, George Kanahele,)) we help to restore Hawaiianness to Waikīkī in a positive, productive and respectful way.

The sense of place of Waikīkī lies within these stories, under the overarching contexts of “Aloha” and “Hoʻokipa” (Hospitality.)

“Waikīkī’s significance is as a place of history, not destination.” (George Kanahele)  Restoring some of Waikīkī’s historical and cultural integrity through Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway will help to illustrate “I ka wā mamua, ka wā mahope” (The future is in the past.)

This is our third Scenic Byway opportunity.  We also assisted the Kona Sponsor of “Royal Footsteps Along the Kona Coast” with their Corridor Management Plan (the first approved in the State,) as well as helping the Kōloa Sponsor of Holo Holo Kōloa Scenic Byway with their permits and CMP.

In addition to each of those receiving Historic Preservation Commendations from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation, the Kona project also received the Environment/Preservation Award from the American Planning Association-Hawaiʻi Chapter and the Pualu Award for Culture & History from the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce.

For more information on this project, you can click the following link for a background summary of Waikīkī,  the Scenic Byway Program and the many stories that are told along its roadways.

Click here for more information on the Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa

The image shows our theme image, theme statement and mission/vision – ultimately, we see this Scenic Byway helping to “Restore Hawaiianness to Waikīkī.”

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© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC