Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaluaokau

Kaluaokau, an ʻili in Waikīkī, has been interpreted with several possible meanings.  Henry Kekahuna, a Hawaiian ethnologist, pronounced Kaluaokau as ka-lu‘a-o-ka‘u, which translates as “the grave of Ka‘u” (lu‘a means “heap, pile or grave.”)

The term Kaluaokau can also be divided as ka-lua-o-Kau, which literally translates as ka (the) lua (pit) o (of) Kau (a personal name), or “the pit of Kau.”  There are others.

Whatever the purpose of the prior naming and its meaning, this portion of Waikīkī (including Helumoa, Kaluaokau and adjacent ‘ili) was important in the lives of the Hawaiian Ali’i.

The ‘ili of Kaluaokau was eventually granted to William Lunalilo (the first democratically elected King, who defeated Kalākaua in 1873.)

The first structure on the property was a simple grass hut; Lunalilo later built and referred to his Waikīkī home as the “Marine Residence;” it consisted of a residence, a detached cottage and outbuildings, surrounded by a fence. The estate included a small section that extended makai to the sea and included several small outbuildings and a canoe shed.

Following Lunalilo’s death in 1874, his Kaluaokau home and land were bequeathed to Queen Emma, the widow of Kamehameha IV (Alexander Liholiho – who had died in 1863.)

Queen Emma had Papaʻenaʻena Heiau on the slopes of Diamond Head dismantled, and she used the rocks to build a fence to surround her Waikīkī estate.

Later litigation confirmed that the Queen Emma parcel included access to the water (ʻĀpuakēhau Stream) and the taro growing on the ‘Marine Residence” property.  Queen Emma is known to have resided occasionally on the Waikīkī property before her death.

Her will stated that her lands be put in trust with the proceeds to benefit the Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu, which Queen Emma, along with her husband, Kamehameha IV, had helped to found.

Records indicate Henry Macfarlane, an entrepreneur from New Zealand who had settled on O‘ahu owned and/or leased property within the Kaluaokau ʻili.

Reportedly, it was Macfarlane and his wife who planted the banyan tree currently growing in the center of the property. They lived on this property for a while, eventually raising six children, some of who became financiers for sugar plantations and for the early tourist industry in Waikīkī.

The site was also used by immigrant Japanese workers.  During the construction of hotels (Moana Hotel, Royal Hawaiian Hotel) in the early twentieth century (and later the Surfrider in 1952) by the Matson Navigation Company, cottages were built for housing the mostly Japanese immigrant workers and their families, and called “Japanese Camps.”  More buildings were built.

By the mid-1950s, there were more than fifty hotels and apartments from the Kālia area to the Diamond Head end of Kapiʻolani Park. The Waikīkī population by the mid-1950s was not limited to transient tourists; it included 11,000 permanent residents, living in 4,000 single dwellings and apartment buildings.

On January 16, 1955, entrepreneur Donn Beach (Don the Beachcomber) announced plans for a “Waikīkī Village” that was to be called “The International Market Place.”

The International Market Place first opened in 1957. Envisioned as a commercial center with the Dagger Bar and Bazaar Buildings, and featuring the arts, crafts, entertainment and foods of Hawaiʻi’s multicultural people, it may have been one of the earliest cultural tourist attractions in the Islands.

Designed originally to encompass 14-acres between the Waikīkī Theater and the Princess Kaʻiulani Hotel, extending from Kalākaua Avenue halfway to Kūhiō Avenue, the International Market Place was to be a “casual, tropical village with arts, crafts, entertainment, and foods of Hawai‘i’s truly diverse people … including Hawaiian, South Sea islander, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino…” (Queen Emma Foundation)

By the late-1950s, a row of retail shops had been constructed along Kalākaua Avenue.  Other elements of the International Market Place included the Hawaiian Halau, Japanese Tea House and Esplanade buildings. The banyan tree, which still remains to this day, was also once home to Don’s tree house.

Matson sold all of its Waikīkī hotel properties to the Sheraton Company in 1959 and no longer required housing for its hotel staff. Additionally, properties were likely cleared in anticipation of the extensive development that occurred throughout Waikīkī in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1964, Waikīkī’s entertainment hub was International Market Place; and it’s where the first Crazy Shirts shop was born (initially known as Ricky’s Crazy Shirts.) T-shirts with a message sold. Some were silly (“Suck ’em Up!”), some were logos (“Surfboards Hawaii”), and some were political (“Draft Beer Not Students”). (Crazy Shirts)

The famous Duke Kahanamoku’s (Duke’s,) where Don Ho gained fame, was once housed there. Don the Beachcomber, one of Waikīkī’s long-gone landmark restaurants, as well as Trader Vic’s also called it home.

Hawaiʻi radio icon, Hal Lewis (the self-named “J Akuhead Pupule,” best known to Island radio listeners as “Aku,”) once broadcast his popular morning talk show from the tree house in the Banyan tree.

However, over the last half-century, as the rest of Waikīkī evolved, the Market Place kept its 1960s look, as visitors wind through the carts and kiosks, hawking T-shirts, plastic hula skirts, volcano-shaped candles, and other tiki and tacky souvenirs.

Landowner Queen Emma Foundation changed that. Working with the Taubman Company, the International Market Place, Waikīkī Town Center and Miramar Hotel were demolished, and new structures took their place.

Aiming to restore “a sense of Hawaiianness,” the new International Market Place features low-rise structures, open-air shops and restaurants, paths, gardens, a storytelling hearth, a performance amphitheater and, yes, parking. And the banyan tree stays.

Today, as successor to The Queen’s Hospital, The Queen’s Medical Center is the largest private nonprofit hospital in Hawaiʻi, licensed to operate with 505 acute care beds and 28 sub-acute beds. As the leading medical referral center in the Pacific Basin, Queen’s has more than 3,500 employees and over 1,100 physicians on staff.

The royal mission and vision of The Queen’s Health Systems is directly supported through revenues generated by the lands bequeathed by Queen Emma when she passed away in 1885, including the International Market Place.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Robinson

James Robinson came to the islands from London, his birthplace, arriving here in 1820, before the first missionaries (while rounding Cape Horn his ship passed the “Thaddeus,” which was bringing the first missionaries from New England.)

He was carpenter on the whaling ship “Hermes.”  In 1822, sailing from Honolulu for Japan the Hermes was wrecked on the reef of Holoikauaua (what is now referred to as Pearl and Hermes.)

This seeming disaster turned into a new industry for Honolulu and proved to be the foundation of his subsequent business and of his fortune.

The combined crews (totaling 57) made it safely to one of the small islands and were castaway for months with what meager provisions they could salvage.

He and the crew built a small schooner (the Deliverance) from the wreckage and the survivors of the wreck sailed back to Honolulu to remain permanently.

After his arrival, Robinson was befriended by Kamehameha II and John Young.  He and a ship-mate, Robert Lawrence (a cooper (barrel maker,)) sold the Deliverance for $2,000 and found employment in repairing schooners owned by the king and chiefs.

They received the assistance of Kamehameha II and, in 1827, established their shipyard in Honolulu harbor at Pākākā, or “the Point,” on land obtained from Kalanimoku. They were later joined as a full partner by James Holt, “a very respectable man from Boston.”

In 1840, the Polynesian commended the partners and their shipyard:  “Honest, industrious, economical, temperate, and intelligent, they are living illustrations of what these virtues can secure to men. …”

“Their yard is situated in the most convenient part of the harbor has a stone butment and where two vessels of six hundred tons burthen can be berthed, hove out, and undergo repairs at one and the same time. There is fourteen feet of water along side of the butment.”

“The proprietors generally keep on hand all kinds of material for repairing vessels. Also those things requisite for heaving out, such as blocks, falls, etc. On the establishment are fourteen excellent workmen, among whom are Ship Carpenters, Caulkers and Gravers, Ship Joiners, Block-makers, Spar-makers, Boatbuilders, etc.”

In mid-September 1830, Joseph Elliott moved to The Point to open a hotel with Robinson.  Lawrence and Holt, Robinson’s partners, appear to have specialized in the hotel and liquor business, which also featured a boarding house. The Shipyard Hotel had the advantage of being a “first chance – last chance” operation.

Years rolled on, and the firm of James Robinson & Co. (including Robert Lawrence and Mr. Holt) was a significant success and carried on a business that employed a large number of ship-carpenters and caulkers. More whaling ships were repaired at their establishment than at any other in the Pacific.

This partnership lasted until 1868, when Mr. Lawrence died. For many years their building was one of the sights of the town, being decorated with the figurehead from an old vessel.

Robinson became so wealthy; reportedly, he lent substantial funds to the Hawaiian government during the 1850s and maintained a close relationship with the kingdom’s leaders until his death in 1876.

Hawaiians called him Kimo (James) Pakaka as Honolulu Harbor grew up around his shipyard.

In 1843, James Robinson married Rebecca Prever; they had eight children: Mark, Mary, Victoria, Bathsheba, Matilda, Annie, Lucy and John.

Mr. Robinson died at his residence in Nuʻuanu valley August 8, 1876.  However, his legacy lived on through his children.

His descendants became a well-known island family and his fortune founded the Robinson Estate.  His son, Mark, was a member of Queen Liliʻuokalani’s cabinet (Minister of Foreign Affairs) during the chaotic last months of the monarchy as factional battles separated the royal government.  He was a founder of First National Bank of Hawai’i and First American Savings.

His daughter Lucy married a McWayne (apparently, Robinson’s ship facility eventually became McWayne Marine Supply at Kewalo Basin – some old-timers may remember that later name.)

Daughter Victoria married a Ward.  Their residence was known as Old Plantation, and included the current site of the Neil F. Blaisdell Center.  Her estate, Victoria Ward Ltd, had other significant holdings in Kakaʻako.

Daughter Mary married a Foster.  Her husband Thomas Foster was an initial organizer of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company.  That company founded a subsidiary, Inter-Island Airways, that later changed its name to Hawaiian Airlines.

Foster had also purchased the estate of the renowned botanist William Hillebrand, which was bequeathed to the city as Foster Botanical Garden at the death of his wife Mary.

The image shows Honolulu Harbor in 1854.  The Robinson facilities are on the right hand side – to the left of the Fort wall (you can see a ship being repaired at the shore.)

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Judd Trail

Road making as practiced in Hawaiʻi in the middle of the 19th-century was a very superficial operation, in most places consisting of little more than clearing a right of way, doing a little rough grading and supplying bridges of a sort where they could not be dispensed with.    (Kuykendall)

The absence of roads in some places and the bad condition of those that did exist were common causes of complaints which found expression in the newspapers. But in spite of the complaints, it is clear that in the 1860s the kingdom had more roads and on the whole better ones than it had twenty or even ten years earlier.  (Kuykendall)

At its May 23, 1849 meeting, the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (a private committee of the King’s closest advisors to give confidential advice on affairs of state) sought to “facilitate communication between Kailua, the seat of the local government, and Hilo, the principal port.”

They resolved “that GP Judd and Kinimaka proceed to Kailua, Hawaiʻi, to explore a route from that place to Hilo direct, and make a road, if practicable, by employing the prisoners on that island and if necessary taking the prisoners from this island (Oʻahu) to assist; the government to bear all expenses”. (Privy Council Minutes, Punawaiola)

(In 1828, Dr Gerrit Parmele Judd came with the Third Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi.  A medical missionary, Judd had originally come to the islands to serve as the missionary physician; by 1842, he left the mission and served in the Hawaiian government.)

(He first served as “translator and recorder,” then member of the “treasury board,” then secretary of state for foreign affairs, minister of the interior and minister of finance (the latter he held until 1853, when by resignation, he terminated his service with the government.))

In planning the road, the words of the Privy Council’s resolution were taken literally, and the route selected ran to the high saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on a practically straight line between the terminal points.

What became known as the “Judd Road” (or “Judd Trail”) was constructed between 1849 and 1859; construction began at the government road in Kailua (what is now known as Aliʻi Drive) and traversed through a general corridor between Hualālai and Mauna Loa.  (Remnants of perimeter walls can still be seen at Aliʻi Drive.)

“This was the road that Dr. Judd … would have built from Kona in a straight line across the island of Hawaii. It was meant, of course, as a road for horsemen and pack animals. In the generation of Dr. Judd it was a great work, and the manner of its building showed that he meant it to be a monument to him for all time.”  (Ford, Mid-Pacific, 1912)

When the road had been built about 12-miles from Kailua into the saddle between Hualālai and Mauna Loa, the project was abandoned – a pāhoehoe lava flow from the 11,000 foot-level of Mauna Loa crossed its path.

Though incomplete (it never reached its final destination in Hilo,) people did use the Judd Road to get into Kona’s mauka countryside.

“Up the long slope of Hualālai we ascended to Kaʻalapuali, following the old Judd trail through fields of green cane, through grass lands, through primeval forests, over fallen monarchs, finally out on that semi-arid upland which lies between Hualālai and Mauna Loa.  Here we turned up the slope of Hualālai, climbing through a forest cover of ʻōhiʻa lehua and sandalwood carpeted with golden-eyed daisies – another picture of Hawaii, never to be forgotten.”

“And then the summit with its eight or more great craters and that strange, so-called bottomless pit, Hualālai, after which the mountain is named, and the battle of the Kona and trade wind clouds over the labyrinthean volcanic pits, gray-white spectres of vapor—all these linger in retrospection as we cast our mind’s eye back to that experience of one year ago.”

“Here on this weird summit, where the sun played hide and seek with the tumultuous clouds, the ʻiʻiwi, ʻelepaio, and ʻamakihi birds flitted and twittered from puʻu kiawe to mamani. Down the long southeast slope, beneath the white vapors, beautifully symmetrical cones arose from slopes, tree-clad and mottled by shifting clouds and sun.”

“Farther up the Judd trail, we came to that unique “Plain of Numbering”, where King ʻUmi built his heiau over four centuries ago and called his people together from all the Island of Hawaii. There is a romantic glamor hanging around those heaps of rocks which numbered the people who gathered at Ahua ʻUmi that will remain as a fond memory throughout eternity.”  (Thrum, 1924)

(ʻUmi took a census at about 1500; for this census, each inhabitant of the Island of Hawaiʻi was instructed to come to a place called the “Plain of Numbering” to put a rock on the pile representing his own district. The result, still visible today, was a three-dimensional graphic portrayal of population size and distribution.   (Schmitt))

“It is a wonderful setting up there on that arid plateau with Hualālai to the left and Mauna Loa rising majestically and deceptively to the right, with lofty Mauna Kea, snow-patched and beckoning from the distance before us. There is something sublimely massive, rugged, uplifting about that arid, wild region of the “plain of numbering-‘ hidden away from the ordinary walks of men, off to the right and near the end of the old Judd trail.”  (Thrum, 1924)

This road was not the only attempt of linking East and West Hawaiʻi.  About 100-years after the Privy Council’s resolution to connect East with West, the US military completed the link by building a vehicular access route to its Pōhakuloa Training Area during World War II.

Like earlier roads in Hawaiʻi it was not originally designed to State highway standards.  Surfacing and nominal repairs over the subsequent decades left a roadway that island rental car companies banned its customers from use.

Today, route 200, known locally as Saddle Road, traverses the width of the Island of Hawaiʻi, from downtown Hilo to its junction with Hawaii Route 190 near Waimea.  It “represent(s) both literally and symbolically … the physical bridging together of East and West Hawaii and the bridging of the bonds between people.”  (SCR 43, 2013)

Saddle Road is the shortest and most direct route across the island of Hawai‘i, linking the historical main population centers of the island in East Hawai‘i with the growing West side, where the economy is anchored by tourism.

With realignment of portions and reconstruction starting in 2004, in 2013, the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (DOT) opened the last improved segment and renamed the 41-mile upgraded length of Hawaiʻi Saddle Road the Daniel K Inouye Highway (the renaming occurred on Inouye’s birthday, September 7 (Inouye died December 17, 2012.))

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No Snakes

“Any person convicted of owning, transporting, or possessing any snake or restricted (without a permit) or prohibited plant, animal, or microorganism may be:

  • fined up to $200,000;
  • imprisoned not more than three years; and
  • pay for all costs relating to the capture or eradication of the pest.” (Hawaii Department of Agriculture)

A headline in the April 11, 1902 issue of Kuokoa read, “Snakes are Allowed to be Imported to Hawaii.”  The article went on to state,

“It was thoroughly believed that a person or persons could not bring in snakes from foreign lands into Hawaii, but the head custom inspector received a letter telling him that there is no law prohibiting the import of this type of animal into Hawaii, and should it be brought in by a person or persons, he has [no] right to prevent the bringing of it ashore.”

“It is right for us to oppose this with what power we have. There are many pests currently brought into Hawaii, and we do not want to bring in others. Before the arrival to Hawaii nei, there were no mosquitoes here, and they could be up at night without their hands tiring out from constantly waving them off.”

“That isn’t all, there is the mongoose that are eating chicks, and eggs, and we hear that a baby left somewhere by its mother while she was washing clothes, died because it was got by a mongoose which sucked all of its blood.”

“There are also mynah birds, fleas, and many, many other pests brought into Hawaii after the arrival of the enlightened races into Hawaii, and here is another thing that is wanted to be open to a person or persons to bring into Hawaii.”

“If these snakes come into Hawaii nei, and they spread in the forests, we will not be able to let our children go out to those places without facing calamity. Not just the children, but animals will be in danger of being bit by these snakes.”

“If the snakes are allowed, the time will perhaps come when lions and tigers will be imported, and we will be just like most of the lands of the world.”

“We want the beautiful things of the other lands, but the problems are what we don’t want. If they import beneficial things, we will happily take them let them free in our verdant fields of Hawaii nei for them to run about; however, if they are to bring in pests, we will stand and exterminate them when they step within the borders of this Territory.”

Things changed … on May 22, 1902, US Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, sent statement titled, Importation Of Reptiles Into Hawaii.  In it, he stated,

“Washington, DC, May 22, 1902. Under the provisions of section 1 of the act of Congress approved May 25, 1900, entitled ‘An Act to enlarge the powers of the Department of Agriculture, prohibit the transportation by interstate commerce of game killed in violation of local laws, and for other purposes,’ …

“… the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to regulate the introduction of birds and animals in localities where they have not heretofore existed, and to make and publish all needful rules and regulations for carrying out the purposes of the act.”

“In accordance with the authority thus conferred, and for the purpose of preventing the introduction of noxious reptiles into the Territory of Hawaii, the order issued under date of September 13, 1900, extending the list of foreign animals and birds which may be imported without permits (Circular No. 30, Biological Survey) …”

“… is hereby amended so that on and after July 1, 1902, and until further notice, permits will be required for the entry of reptiles at all ports of the Hawaiian Islands.”

“Such permits will be issued by the special inspector of this Department in Honolulu in the same form and subject to the same regulations as those now issued for mammals and birds.”

“But no permits will be issued for the entry of poisonous snakes of any kind. All applications for permits to import reptiles into Hawaii should be addressed to the special inspector of foreign animals and birds, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, H. I.”

“Under the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of June 28, 1900 (Circular No. 101, division of customs), persons who have not already secured permits will be allowed a reasonable time in which to secure them after the arrival of the shipment at the port of entry.”

“In case the application for entry is not granted, or the required permit is not obtained in due time, the reptiles will be immediately exported or destroyed at the expense of the owner or agent.  James Wilson, Secretary.”

That order was later amended by Secretary Wilson on June 19, 1905; it stated, “for the purpose of preventing the introduction of snakes into the Territory of Hawaii, the order issued under date of May 22, 1902 (Circular 36, Biological Survey), is hereby amended so that on and after August 1, 1905, and until further notice, no permits shall be issued for the entry of snakes of any kind at any port of the Hawaiian Islands.”

Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (§150A-6 Soil, plants, animals, etc., importation or possession prohibited) state, “No person shall transport, receive for transport, or cause to be transported to the State, for the purpose of debarkation or entry thereinto, any of the following: (3) Any live snake”.

That law goes on to state, “notwithstanding the list of animals prohibited entry into the State, the department [of Agriculture] may bring into and maintain in the State four live, sterile brown tree snakes of the male sex for the purpose of research or training of snake detector dogs …”

“… and further, that a government agency may bring into and maintain in the State not more than two live, nonvenomous snakes of the male sex solely for the purpose of exhibition in a government zoo”. (HRS §150A-6)

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South Kona Colony

Sanford Dole was appointed as Hawai‘i’s first territorial governor, and his annual reports to the US Secretary of the Interior unfailingly emphasized his administration’s objective of settling Hawaii’s public land with family farmers.

According to a report by the Hawai‘i Legislative Reference Bureau, perhaps the most pressing and complicated task confronting Dole as Hawai‘i’s chief executive was a re-examination of public land policy, since the prosperity and continued development of the Islands’ agricultural economy depended decisively on the land laws.

Land policy in all its aspects was of long-standing interest to Dole. As early as 1872, he had argued that Hawaii’s future depended upon attracting immigrants able to resettle Hawaii’s land in the familiar, American pattern of family farming, rather than through development of enormous plantations worked by alien field gangs. Dole’s political-economic objective in Hawaii was the development of a resident yeomanry.

Settlement guided by these objectives, buttressed by other aspects of Jeffersonian agricultural fundamentalism, could, he contended, ultimately make Hawaii’s land productive and valuable.

“Homesteads will be incalculably more profitable to the country than a like area in grazing and wood-cutting lease-holds.”

Dole thereby pointed to the important relationship between public land policy and Hawaii’s critical problem of population, or, more specifically, underpopulation.

“With the present rapid decadence of the population we are in a fair way of learning the very important truth that land without people on it is really worthless; that the value of the land depends simply on there being somebody to collect its produce … upon the premises, …”

“… therefore, that if our islands are ever to be peopled to their full capacity, it must be brought about through the settlement of their lands; … homesteads, rather than field-gangs, are to be the basis of our future social and civil progress, and a careful study of our land policy becomes necessary to the formation of any practical plan for effecting this result.”

The US Congress also weighed in with changes in Hawaii’s public land laws that encouraged family farming much like the pattern established on the American mainland.

To further this objective, the Organic Act also made mandatory the opening up of land for family farm settlement whenever twenty-five or more persons eligible for homesteads presented a written application to the land commissioner.

This objective was apparently shared by Dole’s land commissioner, Edward S Boyd, who concluded the published report of his department’s work in 1903 with the promise that …

… “this office will use its best endeavors in every way possible to settle our public lands with desirable settlers, and will encourage by literature and otherwise the migration of American farmers”.  (LRB)

Then, a headline and story ran in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, “California Ranchers Get Kona Land – Half a Dozen Families Will Settle on Island of Hawaii Men Have Taken Up Five Thousand Acres of Grazing Land.”

“A colony, second only to the Wahiawa farmers, is one of the first results of the campaign for settler, which Land Commissioner Boyd started a few months ago, after the receipt of a flood of letters from mainland people, who had read of the public lands offered for settlement in Hawaii.”

“The new colony is to be started in South Kona near Franz Bucholtz’ famous farm and will mean an increase in the population of the Territory of at least twenty-five souls.”

“The new colonists are ranchers and the men at the head of them have sufficient money to stock the place with fine cattle.”

“Six men have been promised by the government, tracts of grazing land of from 900 to 1200 acres each in the South Kona district, and they have returned to the mainland with the intention of bringing their families from California immediately, and such other settlers as might wish to come.”

“The six men are AH Johnson and his two grown sons, Alfred Johnson and Andrew Johnson; Ulysses Waldrip, WH Hollill and Frank Bolander.”

“They come originally from Texas where they had engaged in ranching, but went a few years ago to Southern California to engage in farming. The men have their homes in the vicinity of San Diego and Los Angeles, where each of them has a family.  Altogether the members of the colony will number twenty-five or thirty.”

“The upper lands of Opihihali and Olelomoana in South Kona [near Papa], have been set apart by Land Commissioner Boyd for the perspective settlers and they have each taken up a section of from 900 to 1200 acres.”

“The land is about one half mile from the Bucholtz place and the splendid appearance of the famous farm of Mr Bucholtz was one of the principal reasons why the California men chose the land they did. Previously they visited Pupukea lands on this island [Oahu], but were not satisfied with them and they were then sent to South Kona by Mr Boyd.”

“The appearance of the Bucholtz place and the possibilities of the land in that vicinity as demonstrated by him decided the California men in taking the tract.  Altogether about 5000 acres have been allotted to them, with the usual restrictions as to forest reservation.”

“It is the intention of the six settlers to return to Honolulu immediately with their families.  Their purpose is to start a ranch on a large scale and they will probably import blooded stock for this purpose.  All the men are competent ranchmen and they are said to have sufficient funds to make their undertaking a success.”

“The land allotted to the settlers will be purchased by them under the right to purchase lease.  This simply requires the payment of a small proportion upon the taking up of the land, and eight per cent of the value as an annual rental.”

“Land commissioner Boyd stated yesterday that the Kona tract was classed as grazing land and the average price would not exceed two dollars per acre.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 20, 1903)

What was disheartening to the proponents of family farming was the surprisingly limited use of the congressional provision for groups of twenty-five or more prospective farmers to form “settlement associations”.

It was anticipated that members of the settlement associations would be able to cooperate in the formidable tasks of clearing land, planting, road building, and marketing, and thus would be able to overcome the myriad problems that had generally forced isolated homesteaders to abandon the struggle.

It was anticipated, too, that the united membership of a prospective settlement association would be in a stronger position to make more effective demands on the land commissioner for good land than solitary homesteaders applying for land under other provisions of the law.

This expectation was partly fulfilled, and some rather good land was made available in Wahiawa as well as the Pupukea-Paumalu area on Oahu, and in the Kinaha-Pauwela-Kaupakulua section of Maui.

The Wahiawa settlement area proved to be well suited for the cultivation of pineapple and other cash crops, yet even this isolated instance of successful homesteading was of rather short duration, for the settlers’ land was subsequently incorporated into the operations of an enormous pineapple plantation. (LRB)

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