Hawaii | Page 445 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 31, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pohoiki

Early settlement patterns in the Islands put people on the windward sides of the islands, typically along the shoreline. However, in Puna, much of the district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors. The ocean along the Puna coast is often rough and windblown.

As a result, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture. (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed.”

“But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.” (Ellis, 1826)

Dry land farming was practiced in coastal Puna during the late prehistoric and early historic period. Table-land areas aong the lower slopes of Hawaii Island were used for cultivation of un-irrigated taro, sweet potatoes, yams, bananas, breadfruit, olona, sugarcane and wauke (paper mulberry.) (Lantinis)

“The whole population of this section of the country was by the wayside, which gave me an opportunity of judging of their number; this is much larger than might be supposed from the condition of the country, for with the exception of the point at Kapoho, very little ground that can be cultivated is to be seen.”

“The country, however, is considered fruitful by those who are acquainted with it, notwithstanding its barren appearance on the road sides. The inhabitants seemed to have abundance of bread-fruit, bananas, sugar-cane, taro, and sweet-potatoes.”

“The latter, however, are seen to be growing literally among heaps of stones and pieces of lava, with scarcely soil enough to cover them; yet they are, I am informed, the finest on the island.”

“At Puna, there is a large church; but no appearance of a village, the houses being much scattered. The church, it is said, will contain two or three thousand persons.” (Wilkes, 1845)

“Our stopping place for the night was at Pohoiki (‘small depression’) … The natives bro’t us the Ki or Ti root baked. It is very sweet and juicy. There are fine groves of cocoa nut trees and the situation of a hamlet on an inlet of the sea is very pleasant.” (Chester Lyman, 1846)

In August of 1878, Robert Henry Rycroft stated that he made improvements to the Pohoiki landing and wanted to buy property here. The original landing was destroyed by a tsunami in August 1885. (DLNR)

The improvements to Pohoiki landing allowed the Puna Sugar Company to ship in their seed cane to Kapoho around 1898. The landing was the only means of transportation. The railroad and roads from Hilo came later. (Red Road CMP)

“This district presents some features which are well worth the exertion which the traveler will have to make in order to see them. The general appearance from the road is sterile, especially in the southern part, where there are considerable tracts covered with lava rock supporting the scantiest of vegetation.”

“Some eighteen miles from Hilo the country begins to improve, and away from the main road, upon the slopes of the mountain, there are many acres of excellent land, suitable for coffee and fruit growing.”

“The south-eastern part of Puna has some celebrity for its groves of coconuts, the trees being more abundant here than in any other part of the islands. The traces of volcanic action are extremely prominent in this district.”

“The tourist who plans to go through Puna, should obtain letters for either Kapoho or Pohoiki, where the first night would be spent … A number of coffee planters have located in this vicinity, and groves of coffee trees may be seen every few miles.” (Whitney, 1895)

In the Puna District in 1880, Hawaiians maintained small-scale traditional farms, and other settlers invested in commercial properties like coffee plantations on approximately three dozen land grants. (ORNL)

Rycroft constructed a coffee mill in 1891 to process the coffee then being planted in Puna. One serious difficulty of coffee growing was that it required a large work force only when the coffee was to be picked. Keeping men employed when not picking coffee was a serious economic drain on the fledgling industry. (Matsuoka, ORNL)

However, for some unknown reason, the coffee boom ended in 1899, leaving the mill basically without a product to process. Then, probably, the Rycrofts had to find an alternate crop to process in the new coffee mill.

Presumably, then, the Rycroft guava business in Puna was started in about 1900 to use the coffee mill, and possibly was abandoned after 1910.

Rycroft and his son, Walter, should be credited with the first commercial production of guava at Pohoiki in Puna; they produced guava jam and jelly in the ‘coffee mill.’ (Shigemura & Bulloock)

The Pohoiki area has remained mostly undeveloped except for the 23-year period of commercial development under Robert Rycroft. Rycroft’s ventures between 1877 and 1899 included ‘awa, cattle, sawmill, coffee and guava. The Pohoiki commercial activity appears to have ended when Rycroft moved to Honolulu in 1899. (DLNR)

This area was used as a whaling port and was always a fishing village. Many families in the area would contribute to the sharing of fish with other families. It has been said that if you even touched the canoe you would get some fish.

Old fishing practices included using the canoes. One practice that is documented in this area is opelu fishing. The families would take out the canoe and feed the opelu koʻa (house) with the ʻopae ula (red shrimp.) This was done to ensure that there was always fish and the fish were well taken care of. The families of these areas were subsistence fisherman.

Pohoiki is a small 1,000-foot long bay located approximately three miles south of Kapoho. During the thirties fewer canoes went out to catch opelu. Eventually a boat ramp was constructed at Pohoiki and the canoes were replaced by motorboats. (Matsuoka, ORNL)

By 1940, the wharf at Pohoiki had been abandoned as a commercial stop, but the bay was used as a canoe landing by local fishermen. (Clark)

World War II had a profound effect on Hawai’i. In Puna, those who remained behind were made to fear a Japanese invasion by sea. The coastline were watched and guarded by soldiers stationed, in the Kalapana area.

There were 100 to 150 soldiers stationed in Kalapana and they were rotated every three months. Some camped in tents on Kaimu beach and Kalapana beach, some lived in the school cafeteria, and others in the gym and the priest’s house at the Catholic Church.

Other forms of subsistence production continued after the war, such as pole-fishing from shore, gathering limu and opihi, and crab and raising stock. Hunting of wild pigs remained an important source of meat. Native plants were gathered for herbal teas and medicine. (Matsuoka, ORNL)

Here is the “Isaac Kepoʻokalani Hale Beach Park.” It was established in 1951 to honor Isaac Hale who was a soldier killed in the Korean War.

Traditional fishing practices started to dissipate in the 1950s with the introduction of fishing boats. Families began to start fishing with boats during these times. (Red Road CMP)

During the 1950s, boating traffic from outside the area began to increase substantially as commercial and recreational fishers began buying smaller boats that could be trailered to parts of the Island. (Clark)

Pohoiki Warm Spring is a natural hot pond in the jungle near a popular Pohoiki surfing beach. It’s a couple hundred yards from the Park to the pool, which is only about 20 yards from the ocean.

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Rycroft Pohoiki guava mill-CTAHR

Rycroft Coffee (Guava) Mill- Pohoiki-Bertram

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August 7, 2014 – Pohoiki, Hawaii: A spectator watches Hurricane Iselle generated surf pound the Puna shoreline at Pohoiki this afternoon. Waves were ranging in 10-12 foot range and increasing.

Pohoiki-GoogleEarth

October 30, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

How did the missionaries feel about Hula?

“Hula is the language of the heart, and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people.” (attributed to Kalākaua)

“Their dances … are prefaced with a slow, solemn song, in which all the party join, moving their legs, and gently striking their breasts, in a manner, and with attitudes, that are perfectly easy and graceful … .” (Captain Cook Journal, 1779)

“Hula is not just a dance, but a way of life, an ancient art that tells of Hawaiʻi’s rich history and spirituality.” (attributed to many)

Did the Missionaries really stop Hula in Hawaiʻi, as we are most often led to believe?

In taking a closer look into the matter, most would likely come to a different conclusion.

First of all, the missionaries were guests in the Hawaiian Kingdom; they didn’t have the power to ban or abolish anything – that was the right of the King and Chiefs.

Most will agree the missionaries despised the fact that hula dancers were typically topless; they also didn’t like the commingling between the sexes.

So, before we go on, we need to agree, the issue at hand is hula – not nudity and interactions between the sexes. In keeping this discussion on the actual activity and not sexuality, let’s see what the missionaries had to say about hula.

As hula is the dance that accompanies Hawaiian mele, the function of hula is therefore an extension of the function of mele in Hawaiian society. While it was the mele that was the essential part of the story, hula served to animate the words, giving physical life to the moʻolelo (stories.) (Bishop Museum)

Hula combines dance and chant or song to tell stories, recount past events and provide entertainment for its audience. With a clear link between dancer’s actions and the chant or song, the dancer uses rhythmic lower body movements, mimetic or depictive hand gestures and facial expression, as part of this performance. (ksbe-edu)

So what did the missionaries really think?

As Hiram Bingham once noted, they “were wasting their time in learning, practising, or witnessing the hula, or heathen song and dance.” (Remember, heathen simply means ‘without religion, as in without God.’)

Others were more supportive.

“The hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, pantomime, and the dance lent themselves, under the forms of dramatic art, to the refreshment of men’s minds. Its view of life was idyllic, and it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times when gods and goddesses moved on the earth as men and women and when men and women were as gods.” (Emerson, son of missionaries)

“(W)hen it comes to the hula and the whole train of feelings and sentiments that made their entrances and exits in the halau (the hall of the hula) one perceives that in this he has found the door to the heart of the people.” (Emerson, son of Missionaries)

In describing a hula danced before Keōpūolani and her daughter Nāhiʻenaʻena, in Lāhainā in 1823, Missionary CS Stewart wrote:

“The motions of the dance were slow and graceful, and, in this instance, free from indelicacy of action; and the song, or rather recitative, accompanied by much gesticulation, was dignified and harmonious in its numbers. The theme of the whole, was the character and praises of the queen and princess, who were compared to everything sublime in nature, exalted as gods.” (Missionary Stewart)

And how did Hiram Bingham feel (again, the one most often accused of a Hula ban?)

“This was intended, in part at least, as an honor and gratification to the king, especially at Honolulu, at his expected reception there, on his removal from Kailua. Apparently, not all hula was viewed as bad or indecent.” (Missionary Hiram Bingham)

“In the hula, the dancers are often fantastically decorated with figured or colored kapa, green leaves, fresh flowers, braided hair, and sometimes with a gaiter on the ancle, set with hundreds of dog’s teeth, so as to be considerably heavy, and to rattle against each other in the motion of the feet.” (Hiram Bingham)

“They had been interwoven too with their superstitions, and made subservient to the honor of their gods, and their rulers, either living or departed and deified.” (Hiram Bingham)

The missionaries most often opposed nudity, drinking and ‘wasting’ time. Even today, laws forbid nudity in public; frown on excessive drinking and, likewise, we tend to encourage people to be productive members of their community (kind of like the concerns expressed by the early missionaries.)

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October 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Aliʻi Letters Kalanimōku to Hiram Bingham October 28, 1826

Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (Mission Houses) collaborated with Awaiaulu Foundation to digitize, transcribe, translate and annotate over 200-letters written by 33-Chiefs.

The letters, written between 1823 and 1887, are assembled from three different collections: the ABCFM Collection held by Harvard’s Houghton Library, the HEA Collection of the Hawaii Conference-United Church of Christ and the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society.

These letters provide insight into what the Ali‘i (Chiefs) were doing and thinking at the time, as well as demonstrate the close working relationship and collaboration between the aliʻi and the missionaries.

In this letter, Kalaimoku (Kalanimōku) writes to Rev. Hiram Bingham dismissing the blame placed on the missionaries for other foreigners’ misconduct. He encourages their goodness and their teachings and professes his own faith in God.

Kālaimoku, also known as Kalanimōku and William Pitt Kalanimōku, was a trusted advisor of Kamehameha I. During the travels of Liholiho and Kamāmalu to Great Britain, he co-ruled with Kaʻahumanu, maintaining a leadership role during the first reigning years of the new king, Liholiho’s younger brother, Kauikeaouli.

In part, the letter notes:

“Honolulu, Oahu October 28, 1826”

“Greetings to you, Mr. Bingham,”

“Here is my message to all of you, our missionary teachers. I am telling you that I do not see your wrongdoing. If I should see you to be wrong, I would tell you all.”

“No, you should all just be good.”

“Give us literacy and we will teach it; and give us the word of God, and we will heed it.”

“Our women are restricted, for we have learned the word of God.”

“Then foreigners come, doing damage to our land, foreigners of America and Britain.”

“Do not be angry, for it is we who are to blame for you being faulted, and not you foreigners.”

“Here is my message according to the words of Jehovah. I have given my heart to God and my body and my spirit. I have devoted myself to the church for Jesus Christ.”

“Have a look at my message, Mr. Bingham and company, and if you see it and wish to send my message to America, to our chief, that is up to you.”

“Greetings to our chief in America. Regards to him. From Kalaimoku”

Here’s a link to the original letter, its transcription, translation and annotation (scroll down):

https://hmha.missionhouses.org/files/original/48a090b14ab39c3e64644c9a03b6b1dd.pdf

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US, led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) They arrived in the Islands and anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”,) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaiian Mission Houses’ Strategic Plan themes note that the collaboration between Native Hawaiians and American Protestant missionaries resulted in the
• The introduction of Christianity;
• The development of a written Hawaiian language and establishment of schools that resulted in widespread literacy;
• The promulgation of the concept of constitutional government;
• The combination of Hawaiian with Western medicine, and
• The evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition (with harmony and choral singing).

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Kalanimoku – Bingham – Not Seen Your Wrongdoing-1826-1

Kalanimoku – Bingham – Not Seen Your Wrongdoing-1826-2

William Pitt Kalanimoku (c. 1768–1827) was a military and civil leader of the Kingdom of Hawaii-Pellion

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October 27, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“… your people must all read and write …”

“If you wish to have me for your friend, you and your people must all read and write. If you do not attend to instruction, I shall not be your friend.” (King George of England to Boki, 1824)

Boki asked him whether preachers are good men, and the King said, “Yes, and they are men to make others good. I always have some of them by me; for chiefs are not wise like them.”

“We in England were once like the people in your islands; but this kind of teachers came and taught our fathers, and now you see what we are.” (ABCFM Annual Report, 1826)

The exchange was at the sad time of when Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and his Queen Kamāmalu died in England. Boki was with them at the time; Liholiho and Kamāmalu died without ever getting to meet King George IV. Boki returned May 6, 1825.

Learning to read and write had already been on Liholiho’s mind, well before he travelled to England. In 1820, missionary Lucy Thurston noted in her Journal, Liholiho’s desire to learn.

“The king (Liholiho, Kamehameha II) brought two young men to Mr. Thurston, and said: ‘Teach these, my favorites, (John Papa) Ii and (James) Kahuhu. It will be the same as teaching me. Through them I shall find out what learning is.’”

Hawaiian was a spoken language, but not a written language. Historical accounts were passed down orally, through chants and songs. The planning for the formal written Hawaiian language in the early part of the nineteenth century was started by the Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii, starting in 1820.

The missionaries selected a 12-letter alphabet for the written Hawaiian language, using five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p and w).

The missionaries established schools associated with their missions across the Islands. This marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of Chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

“Throughout the islands, the schools prospered; though, from the system pursued … At Lahaina, 922 pupils were present at one examination, of whom 500 could read, and 300 had read all the books in the language. At Honolulu, 600 pupils were examined in April.”

“As early as February, about 40 schools were known to be in operation on Hawaii, and the number was greatly increased during the year. In October, 16,000 copies of elementary lessons had been given out, and it was supposed that there were nearly that number of learners on the islands.”

“The people were not allowed to wait in ignorance for accomplished teachers. Everywhere the chiefs selected the most forward scholars, and sent them out to teach others. Such of these teachers as were conveniently situated for that purpose, were formed into classes for further instruction.” (Tracy, 1840)

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the missionaries, Hawaiians had built over 1,100-schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 53,000-students. (Laimana)

The proliferation of schoolhouses was augmented by the missionaries printing of 140,000-copies of the pī¬ʻāpā (elementary Hawaiian spelling book) by 1829 and the staffing of the schools with 1,000-plus Hawaiian teachers. (Laimana)

The word pīʻāpā is said to have been derived from the method of teaching Hawaiians to begin the alphabet “b, a, ba.” The Hawaiians pronounced “b” like “p” and said “pī ʻā pā.” (Pukui)

By 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent. By way of comparison, it is significant that overall European literacy rates in 1850 had not risen much above 50 percent. (Laimana)

In 1839, King Kamehameha III called for the formation of the Chiefs’ Children’s School (Royal School.) The main goal of this school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking Chiefs’ children and secure their positions for Hawaiʻi’s Kingdom. The King asked missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke to teach the 16-royal children and run the school.

The King also saw the importance of education for all. “Statute for the Regulation of Schools” was passed by the King and chiefs on October 15, 1840.

Its preamble stated, “The basis on which the Kingdom rests is wisdom and knowledge. Peace and prosperity cannot prevail in the land, unless the people are taught in letters and in that which constitutes prosperity. If the children are not taught, ignorance must be perpetual, and children of the chiefs cannot prosper, nor any other children”.

This legislation mandated compulsory attendance for all children ages four to fourteen. Any village that had fifteen or more school-age children was required to provide a school for their students. The creation of the Common Schools (where the 3-Rs were taught) marks the beginning of the government’s involvement in education in Hawaiʻi.

By 1853, nearly three-fourths of the native Hawaiian population over the age of sixteen years were literate in their own language. The short time span within which native Hawaiians achieved literacy is remarkable in light of the overall low literacy rates of the United States at that time. (Lucas)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period,”) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

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October 26, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Calrose

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.

From 1860 to the 1920s, rice was raised in the islands of Hawaiʻi, Kauai and Oʻahu. Hanalei Valley on Kauai 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?”

During the 1860s and 1870s, the production of rice increased substantially. It was consumed domestically by the burgeoning numbers of Chinese brought to the Islands as agricultural laborers.

In 1862, the first rice mill in the Hawaiian Islands was constructed in Honolulu (prior to that it was sent unhulled and uncleaned to be milled in San Francisco.) By 1887 over 13 million pounds of rice were exported.

A particularly important stimulus for the increased demand for rice was the Reciprocity Treaty of 1876. This treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi granted duty-free status to certain items of trade between the two countries, including rice.

Thomas Thrum wrote in 1877 that Kamehameha V and other landowners had “planted a large tract of land in rice (in Moanalua,) and even went so far as to pull up and destroy large patches of growing taro to plant rice.”

In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina. Much of this rice acreage was worked initially by Chinese immigrants, who first arrived as contract laborers in 1852.

In 1882, with passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese immigration was banned; Japanese workers were brought in to take their place. Ironically, this influx of Japanese immigrants accelerated Hawaiʻi’s decline in rice production.

Japanese preferred short grain rice rather than the long grain rice the Chinese were used to eating. So rice began to be imported from California for the Japanese.

California’s success would ultimately mean the end of the rice industry in Hawaiʻi. Commercial rice production in California was established 1912 along with the founding of the Rice Experiment Station (RES) near Biggs, California.

Short grain selections from temperate japonica plant introductions from China and Japan constituted essentially all of California’s rice production until the 1950s.

‘Calrose’ was the founding California medium-grain rice variety, the ancestor of California medium-grains, and is now recognized as a market class term for California medium-grain rice. (CRRF)

Calrose (C.I. 8988 FAO G.S. No. 1013) originated at the Biggs Rice Field Station, as a selection from the cross Caloro x Calady backcrossed to Caloro. Calady was selected from the cross Caloro x Lady Wright and is a medium-grain variety. (Johnson)

(The name “rose” indicates medium-grain shape and “Cal” to indicate California origin and production.)

Seed of Calrose was first distributed to California growers in 1948 (27). It is adapted to growing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys of California but is not grown in the Southern rice area. (Johnson)

Calrose acreage began increasing rapidly after a very cool year in 1954 that was a yield disaster for Caloro. Fortunately, Calrose had very acceptable cooking and taste properties. By 1960 Calrose was grown on 30% of California rice acreage and by 1975 70%. Today it constitutes more than 80% of the California rice crop. (McKenzie & Johnson)

Hawai‘i is a unique market for California Rice, consuming close to 70 million pounds a year. Their per capita rice consumption is about twice what it is in the contiguous 48 states. (Calrice)

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