Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … Comparing American & Hawaiian ‘Declarations’ … and War

Being in the middle of the Pacific, and unknown to the western world at the beginning of the American Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, folks in Hawai‘i may not feel connected to the American Revolution and its history.

July 4, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of America’s Declaration of Independence, it is interesting/appropriate to analyze, evaluate, and compare the similar/different circumstances, context, and text of …

… America’s Declaration of Independence (1776) with the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Declaration of Rights (1839) and subsequent Hawai‘i Constitution (1840 – that has the 1839 Declaration of Rights as its Preamble).

The following are only some of the kinds of comparisons that you might consider, under the theme of similarities and differences in the circumstances, context, and text of these documents:

• In America, the people forced the change; in Hawai‘i, the King and Chiefs initiated the change.
• In America, the changes were made through revolution and war (with thousands of lives lost, lasting over 8 years (1775-1783)); in Hawai‘i, the changes came through voluntary and peaceful recognition of ‘rights’ (that was bloodless, with immediate change).
• Each country’s ‘Declaration’ has similar references to the Creator and God:
o America’s Declaration of Independence (1776): “all men are … endowed by their Creator”;
o Hawai‘i’s Declaration of Rights (1839): “God hath made of one blood all nations of men”.
• Each ‘Declaration’ has similar statements of equality:
o America’s Declaration of Independence (1776): “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”;
o Hawai‘i’s Declaration of Rights (1839): “God … has given alike to every man and every chief of correct deportment … protecting alike, both the people and the chiefs of all these islands”.
• Each ‘Declaration’ has similar statements of individual rights:
o America’s Declaration of Independence (1776): “all men are … endowed … with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”;
o Hawai‘i’s Declaration of Rights (1839): “These are some of the rights … life, limb, liberty, freedom from oppression; the earnings of his hands and the productions of his mind”.
• Each country has a similar transition in how the people were viewed and treated, from being strictly subjects of a King to citizens of a country with established rights in written documents and laws.
• Each has similar governance mechanism/documentation that allowed each to join the family of nations (with a written Constitution), with Hawai‘i’s happening only 13-years from having a written language (with the standardized Hawaiian written alphabet approved on July 14, 1826).

Making these comparisons of ‘Declarations’ (with notably similar context and text) will help link Hawai‘i to the American Revolution during the 250th anniversary year of the adoption of the American Declaration of Independence.

Another Similarity is that Each was at War

Another interesting comparison/similarity is that Hawai‘i was at war at the same time as the American Revolutionary War. At the period of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms:

(1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

“At that time Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the seizure of Oahu and Molokai, and the queen of Kauai was disposed to assist him in these enterprises.”

“The occupation of the Hana district of Maui by the kings of Hawaii had been the cause of many stubborn conflicts between the chivalry of the two islands, and when Captain Cook first landed on Hawaii …”

“… he found the king of that island [Kalaniʻōpuʻu] absent on another warlike expedition to Maui, intent upon avenging his defeat of two years before, when his famous brigade of eight hundred nobles was hewn in pieces.”  (Kalākaua)

Kamakahelei was the “queen of Kauai and Niihau, and her husband was a younger brother to Kahekili, while she was related to the royal family of Hawaii. Thus, it will be seen, the reigning families of the several islands of the group were all related to each other, as well by marriage as by blood.”

“So had it been for many generations. But their wars with each other were none the less vindictive because of their kinship, or attended with less of barbarity in their hours of triumph.”  (Kalākaua)

“Whether we contemplate the horrors or the glories of the rude warfare which wasted the nation, we are not to confine our views to the struggles of armed combatants – the wounds, the reproaches, and various evils inflicted on one another…”

“… but the burden of sustaining such armies deserves attention, and the indescribable misery of the unarmed and unresisting of the vanquished party or tribe, pursued and crushed, till all danger of further resistance disappeared, must not be forgotten.”  (Bingham)

“Before the conquest of Kamehameha, the several islands were ruled by independent kings, who were frequently at war with each other, but more often with their own subjects. As one chief acquired sufficient strength, he disputed the title of the reigning prince.”

“If successful, his chance of permanent power was quite as precarious as that of his predecessor. In some instances the title established by force of arms remained in the same family for several generations, disturbed, however, by frequent rebellions … war being a chief occupation …”  (Jarves)

“It is supposed that some six thousand of the followers of this chieftain (Kamehameha,) and twice that number of his opposers, fell in battle during his career, and by famine and distress occasioned by his wars and devastations from 1780 to 1796.”  (Bingham)

“However the greatest loss of life according to early writers was not from the battles, but from the starvation of the vanquished and consequential sickness due to destruction of food sources and supplies – a recognized part of Hawaiian warfare.”  (Bingham)

Vancouver was appalled by the impoverished circumstances of the people and the barren and uncultivated appearance of their lands.

“The deplorable condition to which they had been reduced by an eleven years war” and the advent of “the half famished trading vessels” convinced him that he should pursue his peace negotiations for “the general happiness, of the inhabitants of all the islands.”  (Vancouver, Voyage 2)

Then, a final battle of conquest took place on Oʻahu.  Kamehameha landed his fleet and disembarked his army on Oʻahu, extending from Waialae to Waikiki. … he marched up the Nuʻuanu valley, where Kalanikūpule had posted his forces.  (Fornander)

At Puiwa the hostile forces met, and for a while the victory was hotly contested; but the superiority of Kamehameha’s artillery, the number of his guns, and the better practice of his soldiers …

… soon turned the day in his favour, and the defeat of the Oahu forces became an accelerated rout and a promiscuous slaughter. (Fornander)  Estimates for losses in the battle of Nuʻuanu (1795) ranged up to 10,000.  (Schmitt)

In the American Revolutionary War, an estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.

Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)

© 2026 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Waikiki Beach

In the late-18th century, European and American trade and travel into the North American continent’s interior was largely by water. Merchants used canoes to trade with the tribes for the continent’s most valuable natural resource: furs.

Eastern and central North America had many navigable rivers. For western traders, finding a great western river became an obsession for fur traders and scientific and government expeditions.

The first non-Indian to encounter and identify the river was Spaniard Bruno de Heceta. In August, 1775, Heceta mapped what he called Cape of Saint Roc and Leafy Cape, respectively. He attempted to cross the bar under full sail, but was unable to do so.

In 1778, the great British navigator Captain Cook sailed by the river in the night. While he did not find Heceta’s river, his expedition traded for otter furs. Cook was killed in Hawai‘i early the next year, but his ships carried the furs to China where they discovered a lucrative trade market with the Chinese.

The reports of a potentially trade between western North America and China would spur traders from all nations to the West Coast.

In 1788, Britain sailor John Meares also failed to find a river; he give Cape Disappointment its name to commemorate his failed search. (This is what Heceta called Leafy Cape.)

In April, 1792, British naval expedition Captain George Vancouver passed by the river mouth and noted muddy water flowing into the sea. Noting the sand island and waves breaking on the bar, he discounted the entrance as the mouth of a small river as it looked like most of the rivers emptying into the Pacific north of San Francisco.

On the morning of May 11, 1792, American merchant Captain Robert Gray sailed across the bar and into the Columbia River estuary, the first documented non-Indian to do so.

That was the river’s discovery via sea; by land, after acquiring the ‘Louisiana Purchase’ in 1803, under the directive of President Thomas Jefferson, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the ‘Corps of Discovery Expedition’ (1804–1806,) was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific coast undertaken by the US.

“Ocian in view! O! the joy.” When Captain William Clark wrote these words in his journal on November 7, 1805, he was not standing at the Pacific Ocean but the Columbia River estuary. It would be another couple of weeks before he and Captain Meriwether Lewis would stand at what they had “been so long anxious to see.” (NPS)

Clark and members of the Corps of Discovery explored the headland in their final push to the Pacific Ocean. “I Set out at Day light and proceeded on a Sandy beech … 2 Miles to the inner extremity of Cape Disapointment …”

“… this Cape is an ellivated circlier point covered with thick timber on the iner Side and open grassey exposur next to the Sea and rises with a Steep assent to the hight of about 150 or 160 feet above the leavel of the water … this cape as also the Shore both on the Bay & Sea coast is a dark brown rock.”

“I crossed the neck of Land low and 1/2 of a mile wide to the main Ocian, at the foot of a high open hill projecting into the ocian, and about one mile in Sicumfrance. I assended this hill which is covered with high corse grass. decended to the N of it and camped. I picked up a flounder on the beech this evening. …” (Clark, November 18, 1806)

The Lewis and Clark Expedition would have an immediate effect on American interest in the Northwest. Fur baron John Jacob Astor was excited by the expedition’s success in recording the lands, resources and peoples.

Astor sought to create a global network of land and sea transportation for fur pelts, goods, information and services between China, Russia, Europe, the American east coast and the mouth of the Columbia River.

In June, 1810, Astor and others signed articles of agreement of the ‘Pacific Fur Company.’ They hoped to best the flourishing Northwest Company (who travelled by land,) which was a most powerful concern, by having a great depot at the mouth of the Columbia, in other words, by using the sea.

One of the vessels selected for the pioneer voyage was the ‘Tonquin,’ under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorn. Before getting to the American Northwest, they supplied at Hawai‘i.

They were unable to secure either water or provisions on the Island of Hawaii; on February 21, 1811, Thorn anchored the Tonquin off Waikiki. Here he met Kamehameha I and paid Spanish dollars for hogs, several goats, two sheep, a quantity of poultry and vegetables.

Needing additional manpower, Canadian partners aboard the Tonquin proposed to enlist thirty or forty native Hawaiians, because they had never seen watermen to equal them, not even among the voyageurs of the Northwest.

“Remarkable for their skill in managing light craft and able to swim and dive like waterfowl,” were the words used in describing the Hawaiians. Thorn objected to a large number; twelve were signed for the company and twelve for the ship. The trade-men were to serve three years, were to be fed and clothed and at the end of the term were to receive $100 in merchandise.

On February 28, 1811, the Tonquin sailed for the Northwest coast, and March 22, 1811, arrived off the mouth of the Columbia, where they encountered heavy seas. Thorn sent out several boats to find the river channel; two of them capsized and eight men died. One of the men was a Hawaiian.

Local history says that the “the neck of Land low and 1/2 of a mile wide to the main Ocian, at the foot of a high open hill” noted by Clark (five years before) was named Waikiki Beach in honor of this unnamed Hawaiian who was buried on the beach (Washington State Parks.)

In 1811, Astor’s Pacific Fur Company established Astoria, the first non-native trading post and settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The Astor expedition to the Columbia-Pacific region would also be responsible for opening up the key overland route for western settlement in years to come.

In 1812 on a journey from Astoria to New York City, Robert Stuart, a partner in the Pacific Fur Company stationed at Fort Astoria, discovered South Pass, a low pass over the Rocky Mountains. This route could be made by wagon from the Missouri and Mississippi valleys and became known as the Oregon Trail. (Lots of information here is from NPS.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cats and Dogs

“I saw cats – Tom cats, Mary Ann cats, long-tailed cats, bobtail cats, blind cats, one-eyed cats, walleyed cats, cross-eyed cats, gray cats, black cats, white cats, yellow cats, striped cats, spotted cats, tame cats, wild cats, singed cats …”

“… individual cats, groups of cats, platoons of cats, companies of cats, regiments of cats, armies of cats, multitudes of cats, millions of cats, and all of them sleek, fat, lazy, and sound asleep”. (Twain, April 19, 1866)

They had taxed the cats, but dropped that in 1851. Let’s look back …

“The history of taxation in Hawaii is very brief. … Taxes were summarily levied on what was nearest and most convenient. … In 1850 all taxes, except labor, were made payable in money.”

“A chattel tax, which was really a tax on personal property, as well as a specific tax on cattle, horses, mules, asses, cats and dogs was, by said act, also provided.”

“Cats and dogs not useful in guarding flocks, herds or households were taxed $1 each. All other chattels, etc., were taxed 2 per cent ad valorem.” (Castle)

“All dogs and cats shall be subject to an annual tax of one rial per head, payable to the tax-gatherer previously to the first of January of each year; otherwise they must be killed.” (Laws Passed by the Annual Council of the Hawaiian Nobles and Representatives, Lahaina, 1843)

“It shall in like manner be incumbent upon all owners of cattle, horses, mules, asses, cats and dogs on or before the first day of December, to file with the governor of the island in which they happen to be, a true statement of the number owned by them respectively attested as aforesaid.” (Chattel Tax in Statute Laws, 1846)

“(T)hinking the horse and dog tax to which we are subject in these Islands not only heavy but unusual, I have to my surprise found out they paid in England the following taxes for 1850, and I presume for every year. Dog Tax – For every greyhound, $5.00, For every other dog, where two or more are kept, $3.50.” (Polynesian, January 10, 1852)

However, in 1851 the cat tax was dropped, “That all laws of this kingdom imposing any tax on cats be and the same are hereby repealed. … The tax of one dollar on dogs shall remain”. (Approved by the King, July 11, 1851)

When William Root Bliss visited Honolulu in 1873, he discovered that what should have been a quiet port city had been transformed into a noisy, yowling place by the pets of its residents. “Every family keeps at least one dog; every native family a brace of cats.”

The dogs would then begin to howl, joined by the cats who protest with “every vowel sound in the Hawaiian language.” It was impossible, he wrote, for him to sleep. (Bliss; Amanda)

Mormon missionary Joseph Fielding Smith (later LDS Church President,) in particular, noted their presence in his diaries. With few exceptions, he wrote in his July 4th, 1856 journal entry, “hoges, doges, cates and they live together.” (Smith; Amanda)

“I cannot account for the apathy of this community, in relation to the numerous and increasing fierce foreign dogs allowed to range about, or not safely secured in their owners’ yards.”

“I think it is a scandalous thing that those whose duty it is to see their salary paid, do not see the other part of their duty, to look after these animals and report them to the Magistrate, as often as they are loose or their chain too near the door path.”

“Dogs ought not to be allowed their liberty in any yard, that will seize a person approaching the house in the day time. If the owners do not wish visitors, let them notify that they keep a savage dog within, to prevent calls.” (Letter to the Editor, March 12, 1857)

“… and if any dog shall injure or destroy any sheep or cattle, goats, hogs, fowls or other property belonging to any person other than the owner of such dog, the owner shall be liable in damages to the person injured, for the value of the property so injured or destroyed …”

“… and it shall be the duty of the owner to confine or destroy such dog, and if he neglects – or refuse to do so, he shall in event of any further damage being done to the person or property of any person, by such dog …”

“… in addition to paying the person injured for such damage, pay the cost of the trial, together with a fine often dollars or in default of the payment of such fine, be imprisoned at hard labor for the term of thirty days, and it shall be lawful for any other person to destroy said dog.” (Approved by the King, July 11, 1851)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Ka ʻaina a Kane-huna-moku”

Hawaiians recognize a Floating Island, or an Illusory Land which they call “Ka aina a Kane-huna-moku,” (the land of island-hiding-Kane.)

This appears at times on the ocean fertile green slopes with valleys and streams, and uplands towering up into a cloud-capped summit. Some now living claim to have seen it, and one man at least is said to have visited it and lived there for years.

How this came about was somewhat as follows:
There was once a chief called Keawe-ahu who lived in Kona, Hawaii, who by his exacting disposition and harshness with which he treated his people, won their everlasting hatred.

But the more they complained the more vigorous and exacting became his treatment, until his people made up their minds that they couldn’t stand it any longer and began to cast about for some way to get rid of him.

On a suitable occasion the chief Keawe-ahu was invited to go out fishing, and on his acceptance the old fisherman and his assistant manned the canoe, taking care to hide at either end of the canoe under the little deck and the fishing gear, a couple of extra paddles.

They went far out, trying their luck at various places, but always assured that it would be better farther out. At length when they were so far out that the land was misty and dim in the distance, at a preconcerted signal the two fishermen giving the canoe a vigorous spurt which shot it forward, let the paddles slip from their hands.

The impetus of the canoe left the paddles away behind. Of course the thing to do was to jump overboard and secure them, but this the fishermen were unwilling to do. One claimed that he had a bad cold, the other had rheumatism. Perhaps Keawe-ahu would do it

Keawe-ahu was an excellent swimmer; suspecting nothing, he plunged in without a word. No sooner was he out of the canoe than the fishermen whisked out the hidden paddles and pulled away, never even pausing to look back until they had reached the shore.

When Keawe-ahu realized what had happened, he turned over on his back, ceased swimming and closed his eyes to think. There was a moment of lost consciousness, and when he opened his eyes there before him was a strange, unfamiliar, beautiful land, with fertile green slopes and smiling valleys and limped flowing streams.

He swam to it; landing, he saw near at hand a banana-leaf hut under a big kukui tree, in front of which sat a beautiful maiden. It was at once evident to him that she was a Menehune.

She asked who he was? “I am Kanakao-Kai,” the Man of the Sea, he replied. ”And who are you?” “I am the maiden Ana-like, we live here alone, the three of us together, my father, my mother and I.”

He then inquired more at length concerning the land. He found that it was inhabited by a race of Menehune who lived on the natural fruits of the earth uncooked as they plucked them. Taro and sweet potatoes grew in abundance but were untouched by the people because of the lack of means to cook them.

Keawe-ahu set himself assiduously to two things; winning the favor of the maiden Ana-like, by personal attention and service, and winning the favor of the old folks and people generally by showing them how to make fire, cook food, etc. He succeeded at both.

So Keawe-ahu and Ana-like were married according to such simple custom as was common among the Menehune, and again there was a cooked food ahaʻaina, more generous and wonderful than before.

In due time there came to the new home a son, whom they named Na Maka o ke Ahi – the light of the fireside – equally dear to both the mother and the father.

The years flew by – the son grew up to be like his father and seemed to be drifting away from his mother. Sometimes it seemed as though the father encouraged this; he himself had drifted away from the tenderness of his early affection. In truth he had grown weary of the narrow life and the limited interests.

Keawe-ahu had kept all this to himself, but the keen eyes of his wife had not been blind to the change that had come over him, and suspected the cause of it. She surmised that if the chance of escape ever offered itself he would take advantage of it.

But what about the boy? Would he leave him behind?

His devotion to the lad and his constant and almost exclusive monopoly of him convinced her that the father would never leave him behind. He would either forego his chance of escape or take the boy with him.

At first, naturally and instinctively, she steeled herself against the loss of her son; she would herself carry him off and go into hiding with him. Yet when she came to think of it more carefully she saw how futile this was, Keawe-ahu would certainly find them.

And then too did she want to ruin the boy’s future for the sake of her own enjoyment of him?

He would be better off with his father. On his father’s estates he would be a prince; a prince and a hero in that large and wonderful life that she had heard of. Gradually she became reconciled; if the father went and took the lad, it would break her heart, but it was better so.

Nor was the prospect of their departure so utterly remote. This wonderful floating island was constantly shifting, mostly it drifted in shoreless seas, but sometimes it came within sight of land and several times in earlier years Keawe-ahu had seen the familiar shores of Hawaii; then he didn’t want to leave, now he did.

Any day the chance might come again. And one day, sure enough it did come.

In the early morning at daylight, there they were close to off the coast of Kona. It was the impulse of a moment to seize the lad, throw him across his shoulders, run down the slope and leap into the warm ocean.

It was a long hard swim, but was he not a master swimmer, and had he not, secretly, been training for just this kind of feat? However that may be, they reached the shore safely, though very much exhausted. (This summary is entirely from Legend of the Floating Island, A Kauai version narrated by Mrs S Polani, of Kapaʻa, by JM Lydgate; Thrum.)

It appears that Kane-huna-moku has been seen in many places within the Hawaiian Islands and beyond, which suggests that many instances of coastal submergence in these islands may have been enshrined in oral traditions, sometimes by modifying existing stories.

For example, the occasional reappearances of Kane-huna-moku in Hawaiʻi may be the outcome of a mirage or the appearance of a pumice mat, combined with a perceived need to reinforce some element of tradition. (Nunn; Heggen)

© 226 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Experiment Stations

Members of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association were typically sugar plantations or mill companies and individuals who were directly interested in sugar production. HSPA was self-funded by the industry through self-assessments on each ton of sugar produced. Each plantation company contributed based on the tons sugar produced.

“This Association shall be known as the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association and shall have for its objects the improvement of the sugar industry, the support of an experimental station and laboratory, the maintenance of a sufficient supply of labor, and the development of agriculture in general.”

“Members of this Association may be Sugar plantations or Mill Companies and individuals who are directly interested in Sugar plantations or Mills, but the Trustees of this Association may at their discretion admit other plantation companies and individuals engaged in other agricultural pursuits.” (The Independent, November 27, 1895)

HSPA’s Experiment Station was founded in the days of the Republic of Hawai‘i on April 2, 1895 (the date that Dr. Walter Maxwell arrived at the port of Honolulu as the first Director of the Station and took up his work in science applied to sugar-cane culture and production.)

The HSPA Experiment Station had its beginnings in an era when farm science was theory, separated from farm practice by a great gulf of unbelief. Truly, the founders of the Experiment Station had a breadth of vision in the necessity for untrammeled research which was extraordinary.

The initial laboratory and office first opened on the ground floor of the Robinson building, corner of Nuʻuanu and King streets. It was later moved to Makiki (on Makiki Street, near Wilder on land leased from the Kapiʻolani Estate.) HSPA later purchased adjoining land from the Lishman family, and acquired the fee of the leased site.

A building was built in 1904 to house offices and laboratories being “ … equipped in modern fashion, with especial regard to the use to which it is to be put. The rooms are large and are provided with sufficient shelves, drawers, etc., the special bug room and the outdoor cages furnish ample facilities for conducting breeding experiments; and, in fact, almost everything in the way of equipment is present that could be desired”. (Grammer)

In 1919, following restructuring after WWI, the Station’s programs of work included: Entomology (focusing on natural enemies of the leafhopper;) Botany and Forestry (focusing on Forestry work, establishment of nurseries and stations on all islands; and pineapple work in accordance with our contract with the Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association) …

… Chemistry (Fertilizer control work, analytical work as needed by the plantations; soil surveys; and research work on Hawaiian soils;) Sugar Technology (Mill inspections and laboratory investigations on mill operations;) and Agriculture (field experimentation on fertilization, cultivation, irrigation, etc., and extension of seedling work.)

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the HSPA Trustees, “resolved, that in light of the existing emergency, The Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association does pledge its fullest cooperation to the Government of the United States and places all its facilities, services and membership at the disposal of our Government.”

The onset of war forced the Station to suspend immediately work on some of its important projects; numerous members of the Station joined the Armed Forces, while other members left to devote their skill to some special phase of the war effort.

When the Honolulu Blood Bank was frantically calling for blood and more blood, the Station not only made its laboratory facilities and apparatus available to the Blood Bank but assigned numerous members of its technical staff to full-time work.

Members of the Chemistry department devoted considerable time and effort to war work, mainly concerned with such matters as chemical surveys, camouflage problems, weed control, soil sterilization, chemical-dipping problems, precautions in handling toxic materials, demolition issues, and gas decontamination problems.

To meet a very obvious need, the Pathology department cultured the penicillin-yielding mold and produced in large quantities products of the highest quality and potency which were made available to local physicians throughout the long and critical period during which penicillin was not available for the treatment of civilians.

The primary object of the Molasses laboratory had been to produce a high-quality yeast for human consumption. After December 7, however, the shortage of bakers’ yeast in Honolulu brought many requests to the Station for aid. It was found that the yeast slurry was excellent for bread making and the Station furnished yeast slurry to numerous bakeries.

One of the most active units of the Station during the war was the Library. It was practically a war-time utility and scarcely a day passed that a group of service men could not be found around the Library tables.

Information was requested on an amazing and endless variety of subjects such as chemistry, ordnance, agricultural crops, rat control, mosquito data and other material pertinent to camp or field work, diversified and soilless agriculture, insects, botany, and so on.

HSPA built its main experiment station and administrative facilities at Makiki (much of its former outplanting area is now the fields of the Makiki District Park;) in the early-1970s HSPA moved to a new facility in Aiea.

In addition to that, HSPA had a large leased area at Waipiʻo, the Helemano Variety Station, the Ewa Variety Station, the Kailua Substation, the Manoa Arboretum (later known as the Lyon Arboretum,) and a few other O‘ahu sites.

On the Island of Hawaii there were four cane variety units (in Hilo, Hāmākua, Kohala and the Hawai‘i Seed Nursery,) as well as other facilities. Kauai had the Kauai Variety Station at Lihue; the Maui substation was at HC&S and Molokai had sugar-cane quarantine facilities.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC