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by Peter T Young 1 Comment
The Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society was formed in 1850 to develop Hawaiʻi’s agricultural resources. It was then that rice made its mark in the Hawaiʻi economy. The group purchased land in the Nuʻuanu Valley and rice seed from China and planted in a former taro patch.
At first the Society offered the rice seed to anyone in Hawaiʻi who wanted to plant it. King Kamehameha IV also offered land grants for cultivation of rice. Because there were no proper milling facilities in Hawaiʻi, it didn’t take off as a viable crop right away.
Then, in 1860, imported rice seed from South Carolina proved very successful and yielded a fair amount of crop. This, combined with the collapse of the taro industry in 1861-1862 (as the Hawaiian population declined, the demand for taro also declined,) added value to the numerous vacant taro patches and a boom in the rice industry.
In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.
The Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Hawaiʻi encouraged rice production, primarily in Hanalei. As a result the acreage planted in rice on the island rose from 759 acres in 1933 to 1,058 in 1934.
For areas like Hanalei Valley, such efforts, coupled with the valley’s general remoteness and absence of competing demands for the land, allowed rice cultivation to continue as a regional activity.
The Hanalei Valley of Kauaʻi led all other single geographic units in the amount of acreage planted in rice. The valley was one of the first areas converted to this use and continued to produce well into the 1960s.
The Commercial Pacific Advertiser noted on October 3, 1861, “Everybody and his wife (including defunct government employees) are into rice – sugar is nowhere and cotton is no longer king. Taro patches are held at fabulous valuations, and among the thoughtful the query is being propounded, where is our taro to come from?”
When the Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaiʻi, their tastes preferred a shorter grain rice than the Chinese long-grain variety. With the decline of the Chinese population and increase in the Japanese population, more of the Japanese rice was being imported from Japan.
As the Japanese left the plantations, they started their own farms and cultivated their own staple rice.
It was at Hanalei where some Chinese built a rice processing facility; it as later purchased by the Haraguchi family in 1924. At one time, the Haraguchis cultivated about 75-acres in Hanalei Valley.
Fire destroyed the original wooden mill in March of 1930; a new mill consisted of a 3-foot thick concrete foundation with corrugated iron for its roof and siding. Interior spaces included engine room, milling area, and storage area for both finished and unprocessed rice.
This main engine operated all the mill machinery by turning a main shaft that connected all the other machines by a pulley system. The rice in a pit would be delivered up by cups on a belt located on a “triple chute” system. One chute served the belts going downward, another chute for the belts returning upwards and a third to suck the dust up which traveled to the blower.
The cups carried the rice over the wall onto another chute and into the strainer. This strainer would shake the rice and separate any rubbish or stones to prevent it from entering the husking machines. From the strainer, the rice would proceed to the first husker that removed part of the husk.
About 80% of the husks would be removed by this husker. The husks would travel up the air ‘chute to the blower which blew the husks out the back of the mill into a ditch that carried the husks into the river.
The partly husked rice would exit the first husker and was taken up a chute by belted cups and dropped onto another chute into the second husker. The second husker would remove the rest of the husks and the grains would continue up another “triple chute” which would carry it up and over into the polishing machine.
The fine dust from the second husker was collected in a basket under the machine and also taken up the chute into the blower. Cowhide was used to polish the rice which prevented the grains from cracking which ensured high quality rice. The rice would exit the polisher and taken up another chute to the grader.
The grading machine constantly shook to move the rice to the three different grades of rice. The whole grain would bypass the grading holes and a trowel was used to push the rice onto a small trough into the rice bag which hung at the end of the funnel. From there the bags were scaled, sewn by hand and then stacked.
Despite the competition from the California grown rice, the Japanese farmers continued to produce on a smaller scale than the Chinese farmers. By the early 1950s there were about 50 growers cultivating 170 acres of rice on Kauaʻi. Hanalei Valley held 90 acres, 48 acres in Wailua and the rest was split between Hanapepe and Waimea valleys.
In addition to the staple rice, “mochi rice,” used for traditional Japanese cake on New Year’s and other special occasions, was grown.
The mochi rice from Hanalei Valley was noted for its quality throughout the Islands. It was largely a luxury crop and most of it was consumed in the Islands; about 200-bags were shipped to the Mainland.
Some mochi rice was imported from the Mainland but local buyers preferred the local crop since it was said to produce a larger yield of mochi per pound.
In 1959, Hurricane Dot left the mill intact except for an air vent at the roof peak that was torn off and not replaced. The mill ceased operating in 1960 when Kaua`i’s rice industry collapsed. Hurricane Iwa on November 23, 1982 toppled 85% of the building onto the machinery; then came Hurricane Iniki in 1992.
The Haraguchi Rice Mill was the last mill to operate in Hanalei Valley and the only remaining rice mill in the State of Hawaiʻi. A nonprofit organization was formed to preserve and interpret the mill; the organization is guided by an unpaid Board of Directors (many of them are members of the Haraguchi family.) The Haraguchi family now farms taro on the adjacent lands that once supported rice.
Today, the Hoʻopulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill is an agrarian museum located in the taro fields of Hanalei Valley. The Rice Mill Kiosk is open to the public, Monday through Saturday, 11 am – 3 pm. No Public access into the farm & Rice Mill unless through guided tours, available Wednesdays at 10 am (reservations are required.) (Lots of information here from NPS.)












by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
“It began in the swimming pool at Glen Ellen. Between swims it was our wont to come out and lie in the sand and let our skins breathe the warm air and soak in the sunshine. Roscoe was a yachtsman. I had followed the sea a bit. It was inevitable that we should talk about boats.” (London)
In 1906, Jack London announced he was planning a trip on a boat – the Snark – he was to build and do blue-water sailing on a round-the-world cruise. (The Snark was named after one of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poems.)
“‘Honolulu first,’ said London yesterday. ‘After that we are not very definite. Everybody’s in good health, the bourgeoise tradesmen have finally freed us, the boat is staunch, the weather fine. What more a man wants I don’t know.’”
“‘Meet me in Paris,’ called Mrs. Jack London back through the megaphone as the boat disappeared. ‘Isn’t it glorious? Good-by, everybody!” [April 23, 1907]
“The remaining members of the crew of the Snark are: Captain Rosco Eames, under whose personal direction the Snark was built; Herbert Stoitz of Stanford University; Martin Johnson, cook, and Hideshisa Hochigi. Cabin boy.”
“Flying from her mainmast the red flag of Socialism, Jack London’s Snark, towed by a gasoline launch, passed through the Oakland estuary shortly after noon yesterday.”
“She had been freed from Federal surveillance and scores of the author’s friends thronged her deck as she lay at Franklin-street wharf to bid godspeed to him and his wife on their long cruise.”
“Cheer after cheer rent the air as the Snark moved down the channel and passed out into the bay, on her way to Bonita Cove, near Sausalito, where she will await the ebb tide this morning before sailing through the Golden Gate.”
“In the farewell levee on the deck leaders in Socialism hobnobbed with literary workers and a staid burgher friend or two mingled in the gathering with men of the professions. But for the most part the throng that gathered was made up of workingmen as negligee in attire as the author himself.”
“They all called him ‘Jack,’ and he seemed to know them all. They cheered when the two banners of red, the one bearing the initial S. for Snark and Socialism: the other, a black and white star, the London emblem,” were hauled by Captain Eames to the masthead.”
“There they will fly until the cruise is done, carrying the message of Socialism to the people of the seven seas.” (PCA, April 30, 1907)
“The arrival of Mr. Jack London in the Snark is looked forward to with pleasant anticipation by certain society folk who will doubtless wine and dine him most hospitably.”
“After many rumored departures, he is said to have really sailed from San Francisco and may be expected here shortly, wind, weather and his navigating officer permitting.” (PCA, April 28, 1907)
“Folks flocked down to the waterfront to get a glimpse of the little craft which was designed to circumnavigate the globe.”
“A glimpse was all they got, for the Snark gave a line to Young Brothers’ tug Waterwitch and was towed to Pearl Harbor, where she dropped anchor off the Hobron place, and will probably remain there for the best part of the next two months.”
“Mr and Mrs London made up their respective and collective minds to spend at least two months in the waters of Pearl Lochs and to take their residence ashore in the TW Hobron cottage. They yearn for the shore awhile and want to be quite.”
“‘We are here for work,’ said Mrs London when the Londons were visited by a representative of the Star shortly after their arrival here at 11:20 o’clock this morning [May 20, 1907]. Continuing Mrs. London stated that her husband intended to put in a lot of time writing and that they could not Image a quieter place than Pearl Lochs.”
“They will not go to Honolulu today. They do not want the distractions of the city, preferring, for the present at least, the peacefulness of the Hobron cottage, whither the typewriter has already been transferred from the cabin of the Snark and where
its click will be heard until late in July.”
London noted, “‘Pearl Harbor is a dream. The coming through the breakers into the placid water of the lagoon is a sight I shall never forget. We shall remain here and work as quietly as may be. I’m sick of the hotels and steamships.’”
“There are years of adventure and romance before the people of the Snark and the beginning has been auspicious. The Snark has proved herself to be everything that London claimed she would be.”
“‘We’ve come 2600 miles In twenty-seven days,’ said the captain, ‘and while not tired of the trip must say that land looks mighty good to me. We went south in order to fall in with the dolphins and flying fish and latterly bore southwest for the wind as far as the nineteenth longitudinal.’”
“‘We loafed along the whole way, with more wind the first four days out than we had all the rest of the trip. The voyage was singularly devoid of Incident. Three days out a ship was sighted, after which nothing was seen till Sunday, when we saw a steamer hull down.’
“The Snark is thirty tons gross and ten tons net; fifty-one feet in length, fifteen and five-tenths beam and seven and fieve-tenths in depth of hold. Her foremast is much taller than the main and she carries a big bowsprit. Her deck is flush and living apartments occupy the whole vessel from stem to stern.”
“The Snark, according to present plans, will leave here in about twenty days for Hilo. From Hilo the South Seas, Australasia and the Orient, and the rest of the world, will be checked off the Snark’s chart.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 21, 1907)
Charmian London (Mrs Jack London) made a couple of books about the two years’ with her husband in the forty-five-foot ketch Snark into the South Seas, by way of the Hawaiian Islands.
The seafaring portion of her notes was published in 1915 as “The Log of the Snark.” The record of five months spent in the Paradise of the Pacific, Hawaii, she made into another book, “Our Hawaii,” issued in 1917. Jack London had previously passed through Honolulu in 1893.
The South Sea trip was meant to be just the beginning of the cruise. London dreamt of threading the Arabian Sea and traversing the Mediterranean and the Atlantic but ultimately it was the savage climate of the south Pacific that did for him.
After about 2-years of sailing, at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands London became afflicted by a skin disease which meant his hands swelled up and chunks of skin fell off. Without his hands he could not write and earn the money to fund the voyage and, after seeking medical advice, he was urged to abandon the trip.
It was a devastating decision for London, and he and Charmian were distraught, as Jack recalled: “In hospital when I broke the news to Charmian that I must go back to California the tears welled into her eyes.”
“For two days she was wrecked and broken by the knowledge that the happy, happy voyage was abandoned.” Thus one of the most offbeat and pioneering cruises ended rather abruptly. Once the voyage was called off, Snark was sailed to Sydney and sold there. (Jefferson)








by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
Most houses at the time of Cook’s contact consisted of a framework of posts, poles and slender rods – often set on a paving or low platform foundation – lashed together with a coarse twine made of beaten and twisted bark, vines, or grassy fibers. This was then covered with ti, pandanus or sugarcane leaves, or a thatch of pili grass or other appropriate material.
When covered with small bundles of grass laid side by side in overlapping tiers, these structures were described as resembling haystacks. One door and frequently an additional small “air hole” provided ventilation and light, while air also passed through the thatching. Grass or palm leaves covered the raised earth floors of these houses.
When a chief needed a house, his retainers assembled the materials and erected the structure under the direction of an individual (kahuna) expert in the art of erecting a framework and applying thatch.
Many of these more modern royal residences were named – some were named after the material they were made from. Here are three such royal residences.
Hale Kauila (Downtown Honolulu – Queen Kīna‘u)
Hale Kauila (house built of kauila wood) once stood on the street in downtown Honolulu that still bears the name of this large council chamber or reception room (some refer to it as Kina‘u’s house.)
While the thatch is attached in the usual way, the posts are much higher than usual and have squared timber; but the most foreign touch, apart from the windows, are the cross braces at the top and between the posts and the plate (they were never used in genuine native work.)
The description by Captain du Petit-Thouars of this house (which he calls the house of the Queen Kīna‘u:) “This house, built in wood and covered with dry grasses, is placed in the middle of a fortification closed with a fence.”
“The platform on which it rests is high above the ground in the yard about 30 centimeters and it is surrounded, externally, a covered gallery which makes it more pleasant.”
“Its shape inside, is that of a rectangle lengthens; in one end, there is a flat shape by a wooden partition which does not rise to the roof.”
“This piece serves as a bedroom, in the remaining of the area, box, and at the other end, there is a portion of the high ground from 28 to 30 centimeters, which is covered with several mats: it is this kind of big couch that was placed the ladies and they are held lying on one side or stomach, or they stand to receive and to make room.”
Hale Lama (Waikīkī – King Kamehameha V)
King Kamehameha V’s Waikīkī home was built in 1866. It was called Hale Lama. As described by George Kanahele, the residence “was quite modest with only one bedroom, but was notable for its neo-Hawaiian architecture – a low, rectangular-shaped structure, with a high-pitched, hipped roof that was thatched and descended to the poles of the lanai that sounded three of the four exterior walls.”
“The design suited Waikiki’s climate perfectly. The high pitched roof allowed for the upward expansion of warm air, thus cooling the inside of the house, and the wide overhanging eaves kept out both sun and rain, while inviting the serenity and beauty of the natural setting.”
“It has been mentioned that the lama wood was especially used for building houses of the gods, that is, the thatched houses within the enclosures of the heiau or luakini, and its use in building the house for King lot, Kamehameha V, gave an excuse for its reported use by an old kahuna in the King’s establishment, for a house of prayer, and I am assured by an old resident that prayers to the gods were frequently offered therein”.
After the Kamehameha V’s death in 1872, the house and property went to went to Princess Ruth who bequeathed the property to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. The Princess and her husband Charles Bishop renovated and enlarged the house with servant quarters.
Hale Kamani (Lāhainā – Princess Nahiʻenaʻena)
When Keōpūolani returned to Maui to live her final years, she had a house on the beach in Lāhainā; her daughter, Nahiʻenaʻena, lived in her own home next door – Nahiʻenaʻena called her house Hale Kamani.
It had an early and convenient addition to the common grass house in a land where the people lived so generally in the open air, was the lanai, with extensions of the rafters at the same or a slightly reduced slope.
This verandah was, generally speaking, the most comfortable part of the house. This lanai was often detached as in the Hale Kamani and was sometimes large with walls of coconut leaves intertwined, and a nearly flat roof of similar substance which was intended to furnish shade rather than shelter from heavy rain.
At least one other Royal Residence was named after a native wood ‘Āinahau (Princess Kapi‘olani’s home in Waikīkī;) however, it was named such because it was situated in a hau grove, not that its wood was used in the structure.















by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
In 1824, Liholiho (King Kamehameha II), his wife, Kamāmalu, and a group of retainers and foreign advisors, traveled from Hawai‘i to England. Liholiho and his wife died in England and in May of 1825, their bodies were returned to Hawai‘i by Lord Byron.
While in the islands, James Macrae, a botanist, traveling with the Lord, traveled to various locations in the company of native guides, where he took observations and collected biological samples.
One of Macrae’s journeys along with Lord Byron and party took him to Pu‘uloa, the Pearl River, where he described the scene and scenery. (Maly)
“May 17. Joined Lord Byron’s party, with Mantle carrying my traps. We did not embark until noon. After two hours sailing along the coast, we entered the mouth of the Pearl River, which divides itself into several branches, forming two islands.”
“One which is smaller than the other is called Rabbit island [Moku‘ume‘ume], from a person, the name of Marine [Marin], a Spaniard, residing at Hanarura, having put rabbits on it some years ago. The rabbits have since increased in numbers.”
“It became so calm, that his Lordship, Mr. C., and the Bloxoms left us in the launch, and rowed in the small boat in tow, and soon disappeared from sight.”
“We waited in suspense, hour after hour, not knowing the several branches of the river, nor where we were to spend the night.”
“The boat party pulling into one branch of the river, the other in which I was tacking about from bank to bank till the boaters hauled their boat ashore and we cast anchor.”
“Both parties were opposite each other on Rabbit Island, but ignorant of the fact, till on walking about the island, the parties met.”
“One hut was noticed, and those on the island made for it, but the launch having the ladies and some others on board, got up anchor and sailed round to the hut, where with the help of canoes, they all landed.”
“The ladies were somewhat discontented, but after a good dinner partaken sitting on mats spread on the grass, harmony was restored.”
“At dusk we embarked to cross to a larger hut. Landed at 8 p.m. At ten o’clock two old men entered our hut to play the hura dance on a couple of bottle shaped gourds. They took a sitting posture, beating time on the gourd’s with the palms of their hands, accompanied by a song made up about the late king.”
“About 11, we all retired to rest, lying down beside each other on mats, some with pumpkins or what else they could get for a pillow. The ladies got themselves screened off in a corner with a flag without any other accommodation.”
“Pearl River is about seven miles west of Hanarura, and is improperly called a river, being rather inlets from the sea, branching off in different directions. There are three chief branches, named by the surveyors, the East, Middle and West Lochs.”
“The entrance to Pearl River is very narrow and shallow, and in its present state it is fit for very small vessels to enter, but over the bar there is deep water, and in the channel leading to the lochs there are from 7 to 20 fathoms. The lochs themselves are rather shallow.”
“The coast from Hanarura to the west of Pearl River possesses no variety of plants beyond two or three species, such as Argemones (kala, beach poppy), Portulacas (‘ihi, yellow purslane), and a few other little annuals, intermixed with the common long grass so plentiful everywhere on the coast round the island.”
“The oysters that are found in Pearl River are small and insipid and of no value or consequence.”
“May 18. Got up at 4 a.m., after a restless night, having been tormented with fleas. Departed with my man Mantle, leaving the rest yet asleep. But after travelling about three miles, the path which we had first struck terminated, and the grass became longer and more difficult to travel over.”
“At last, after another three miles, we got so entangled with creeping plants running a little above the ground beneath the grass, that Mantle, who was stockingless, shed tears, complaining of his ankles, and refused to go on.”
“Being yet five miles from the woods, and not having sufficient provisions for two days, we were forced to return to the town by a path leading through taro ponds, some distance inland from the coast.”
“On the path we had left near the Pearl River, we saw several thickly inhabited huts, situated on the side of a ravine stocked with bananas, taro and healthy breadfruit trees just forming their fruit. Here we met with an old Englishman, who told us there was on the opposite side of the ravine a large river coming out under the ground.”
“We went to the place and found that what he had told us was correct, and stood admiring the subterranean stream of fine, cool water. Its source was rapid, forming a cascade nearly 20 feet in height, having ferns and mosses on its sides.”
“In the grounds of the natives, I saw plenty of the awa plant (piper) mentioned in the history of these islands, as being destructive to the health of the natives when used to excess, owing to its intoxicating qualities. I obtained several specimens of it in flower.”
“The old man informed me that he had been on the island over sixteen years, and that the grounds we were then upon, belonged to Boki, and had been in his charge for ten years.”
“Upon Boki going to England with the king, another chief had turned him away, and taken all his little ground from him, so that he had been forced to live on the charity of the natives.”
“The neighbourhood of the Pearl River is very extensive, rising backwards with a gentle slope towards the woods, but is without cultivation, except round the outskirts to about half a mile from the water.”
“The country is divided into separate farms or allotments belonging to the chiefs, and enclosed with walls from four to six feet high, made of a mixture of mud and stone.”
“The poorer natives live on these farms, also a few ragged foreigners who have a hut with a small spot of ground given them, for which they must work for the chiefs a certain number of days besides paying an annual rent in dogs, hogs, goats, poultry and tapa cloths, which they have to carry to whatever spot their master is then living on the island.”
“On the least neglect to perform these demands, they are turned away and deprived of whatever stock, etc., they may possess. Such is the present despotic or absolute law in the Sandwich Islands.”
“This is corroborated by all foreigners met with at different times, who, on our arrival, hoped that Lord Byron would render them their little property more secure in future. Unfortunately they must wait till the British Consul helps them, as we have no authority to interfere with the laws of the country.”
“On our way home we noticed that the country on the side towards the woods still remained uncultivated, also towards the sea coast, except the lower ends of the small valleys which are cultivated with the taro in ponds, which much resemble peat mosses that had been worked and afterwards allowed to get full of stagnant water.”
“There is no convenient road to travel anywhere on the island. We met with another subterranean river at the side of one of the hollows, larger than the other, but of no great fall after its appearance from underground.”
“By 4 pm we gained the summit of a high hill, thickly covered with tufts of long grass. It lies within three miles of Hanarura. There is a burying ground of the natives at the top, which was formerly where the chiefs of high rank had a morai.”
“At the bottom towards the sea, there is a circular salt pond, nearly two miles in circumference, surrounded by low conical hills. In places on the sides of a valley leading to the pond from the interior, are several huts of the natives with taro ponds and a large grove of coco-nut trees, apparently very old from their height and mossy appearance.”
“We reached town about six o’clock having travelled twenty miles since morning without much success, being too near the coast to meet with a variety of plants. We learnt, however, a good deal about the present mode of life of the natives, and the manner in which they continue to cultivate their grounds, differing but little, if any, from the descriptions given Capt. Cook and others.” (Macrae)