Sugar | Page 11 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 24, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Frederick Arthur Godfrey Muir

“One of the outstanding results of the great commercial and agricultural developments of the past century has been the enormous increase of insect pests.”

“Some of these pests have been distributed by commerce and many of them have become great pests only after leaving their home country.”

“In 1900, the sugar cane industry of the Islands began to be seriously checked by a very small insect known as the sugar-cane leafhopper which somehow had become established from Australia a few years earlier.” (Timberlake)

“This insect is extremely prolific and when multiplying unchecked it increases to such an extent that the sugar cane is badly stunted and finally killed. The adults migrate especially at night from one field to another, flying generally from the older cane to younger fields.”

“By 1904 the situation had become extremely bad and the whole industry was suffering enormous losses and was threatened with entire destruction by this insect. There seemed to be no practical· means of combating it”. (Timberlake)

As an example, the Big Island’s Pahala Plantation harvested 18,888 tons of sugar in 1903, but only 1,620 tons in 1905 and 826 tons in 1906. (Tucker)

Dr. Frederick AG Muir began this work for the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association in September, 1905. This was when the sugar cane leafhopper was still a serious pest in Hawai‘i. (Swezey)

Before coming to Hawai‘i, Muir was employed in various parts of Africa, first as engineer and electrician and later as entomologist, having been connected with Eckstein group of gold mines in Johannesberg. (Nellist)

Frederick Muir (an entomologist with HSPA – at the time the only entomological research institution in Hawai‘i), began a long search to find and introduce natural enemies, seeking biological control as a method of controlling insect pests. (Swezey)

He was sent out to the tropical areas of the South Pacific, Australia, and the Melanesian Archipelago to search for potential biological control agents for sugar cane pests. (Evenhuis)

In a magazine article published in 1912, a newspaper man asked Mr. Muir, “Were you ever in danger of losing your life?” Muir was a small, mild-looking man with the air of a college professor, in spite of the outdoor color on his face and hands. He seemed much embarrassed by the question.

“Oh, no,” he said with a sharp English accent that ten years knocking about in the tropics had not altered. “You see, I have a theory that a man can go anywhere safely as long as he respects the point of view of the inhabitants, whether they be man or animals.” (Easton)

On one expedition, “he fell ill of typhoid fever and lay helpless in the hospital for five weeks. His precious insects were almost continually in his mind, be he was too ill to care for them”. (Washington Herald, Oct 11, 1914)

He was instrumental in finding and bringing to the Territory numerous parasites to counteract the ravages of the leaf-hopper, borer beetle, and anomala beetle, thus saving the industry an immense amount of money if not from destruction. He has published a number of monographs on leafhoppers, beetles and other entomological subjects.

“(H)e considered (the) isolated oceanic (Hawaiian) islands to which during a tremendously long time the flotsam and jetsam of ocean drift had brought a few forms of vegetable and animal life from which have since been evolved the numerous species that in a few tribes only now characterize its flora and fauna.”

“It is noteworthy that in this evolution no degree of adaptation is exhibited, species have gone on forming regardless of adaptation. The peculiar simplicity of the biological conditions with known factors make these islands the finest center for the study of evolution”.

“(I)ntroduced insects, from the absence of their parasites, are liable to play an important role. As an example, a leaf hopper damaged the sugar crop $5,000,000 in a year; but the introduction of an egg parasite from Fiji reduced this to $15,000.”

“The absence of secondary parasites has caused such introductions of parasites to be attended with unusual success.” (Proceedings of NY Entomological Society, Nov 26, 1917)

Muir was born in London on April 24, 1873, the son of Alexander Muir of Scotland and Annie Marie (Lempriere) Muir, of Jersey. His early education was obtained in England.

“On October 31, 1917, Dr. Muir left for England to engage in war service for his native country in the trying days of the World War. He returned to Honolulu a year later on October 28, 1918.”

“In the meantime he had married Margaret Annie Sharp on April 9, 1918, the daughter of Dr. David Sharp (another entomologist).” (Swezey)

Dr. Muir’s health had been undermined by so much time spent in unhealthful tropical jungles, etc., and he went to England at intervals, spending most of the years 1927 and 1928 there.

On his return from England, September 12, 1928, arrangements were made for his retirement from active service at the Experiment Station, HSPA.

He left Honolulu on November 17, 1928, to make his home in England, (Swezey) He died there on May 13, 1931.

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Frederick Muir-Easton

Frederick Arthur Godfrey Muir

August 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānoa – Home of Hawai‘i’s Commercial Agricultural Ventures

Mānoa translates as “wide or vast” and is descriptive of the wide valley that makes up the inland portion of the ahupuaʻa of Waikiki. The existence of heiau and trails leading to/from Honolulu indicate it was an important and frequently traversed land.

Mānoa Valley was a favored spot of the Ali‘i, including Kamehameha I, Chief Boki (Governor of O‘ahu), Ka‘ahumanu, Ha‘alilio (an advisor to King Kamehameha III), Princess Victoria, Kana‘ina (father of King Lunalilo), Lunalilo, Ke‘elikōlani (half-sister of Kamehameha IV) and Queen Lili‘uokalani.

In early times Mānoa Valley was socially divided into “Mānoa-Aliʻi” or “royal Mānoa” on the west, and “Mānoa-Kanaka” or “commoners’ (makaʻāinana) Mānoa” on the east. The Ali‘i lived on the high, cooler western (left) slopes; the commoners lived on the warmer eastern (right) slopes and on the valley floor where they farmed.

Mānoa is watered by five streams that merge into the lower Mānoa Stream: ‘Aihualama (lit. eat the fruit of the lama tree), Waihī (lit. trickling water), Nāniu‘apo (lit. the grasped coconuts), Lua‘alaea (lit. pit [of] red earth) and Waiakeakua (lit. water provided by a god). (Cultural Surveys)

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver described Mānoa Valley on a hike from Waikīkī in search of drinking water: “We found the land in a high state of cultivation, mostly under immediate crops of taro; and abounding with a variety of wild fowl chiefly of the duck kind … “

“The sides of the hills, which were in some distance, seemed rocky and barren; the intermediate vallies, which were all inhabited, produced some large trees and made a pleasing appearance. The plains, however, if we may judge from the labour bestowed on their cultivation, seem to afford the principal proportion of the different vegetable productions …” (Edinburgh Gazetteer)

The well-watered, fertile and relatively level lands of Mānoa Valley supported extensive wet taro cultivation well into the twentieth century. Handy and Handy estimated that in 1931 “there were still about 100 terraces in which wet taro was planted, although these represented less than a tenth of the area that was once planted by Hawaiians.” (Cultural Surveys)

“(T)he valley is under almost complete cultivation of taro”. “(T)he whole valley opens out to view, the extensive flat area set out in taro, looking like a huge checker-board, with its symetrical emerald squares in the middle ground.” (Thrum, 1892)

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson, who in his younger years had been a planter in the West Indies, arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde. He had made some arrangement with Governor Boki, while the latter was in England, to go out and engage in cultivating sugar cane … and, probably, rum. (Kuykendall)

Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825. In that year, Wilkinson and Boki started a plantation in Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing and processing. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum. (Schmitt)

Over the years, sugar‐cane farming soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947)

At the industry’s peak a little over a century later (1930s,) Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the globe. And remember, commercial-scale sugar production started in Mānoa.

That was not the only plantation-scale agriculture started in Mānoa. In 1885, John Kidwell started a pineapple farm with locally available plants, but their fruit was of poor quality. That prompted him to search for better cultivars; he later imported 12 ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants.

An additional 1,000 plants were obtained from Jamaica in 1886, and an additional 31 cultivars, including ‘Smooth Cayenne’, were imported from various locations around the world. ‘Smooth Cayenne’ was reported to be the best of the introductions.

Kidwell is credited with starting Hawai‘i’s pineapple industry; after his initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations.

The “development of the (Hawaiian) pineapple industry is founded on his selection of the Smooth Cayenne variety and on his conviction that the future lay in the canned product, rather than in shipping the fruit in the green state.” (Canning Trade; Hawkins)

The commercial Hawaiian pineapple canning industry began in 1889 when Kidwell’s business associate, John Emmeluth, a Honolulu hardware merchant and plumber, produced commercial quantities of canned pineapple.

Emmeluth refined his pineapple canning process between 1889 and 1891, and around 1891 packed and shipped 50 dozen cans of pineapple to Boston, 80 dozen to New York, and 250 dozen to San Francisco.

By 1930 Hawai‘i led the world in the production of canned pineapple and had the world’s largest canneries. And remember, the first commercial cultivation of pineapple and subsequent canning of pineapple started in Mānoa.

Other smaller scale agriculture activities across the Islands also started in Mānoa. Wilkinson, noted for starting commercial sugar in Mānoa, also started commercial coffee in the Islands in Mānoa Valley.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings of the same kind of coffee from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee. (Greenwell Farms)

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

By the 1930s there were more than 1,000 farms and, as late as the 1950s, there were 6,000-acres of coffee in Kona. The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi. And remember, ‘Kona Coffee’ was the same as that in Mānoa Valley.

Another commercial crop, macadamia nuts, also has its Island roots in Mānoa. Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu Honolulu. (Storey)

“Brought in ‘solely as an addition to the natural beauty of Paradise’ (Hawaiian Annual, 1940,) it was not until ES (Ernest Sheldon) Van Tassel started some plantings at Nutridge in 1921 that the commercial growing of the plant began. On June 1, 1922, the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company Ltd. was formed.” (NPS)

The Van Tassel plantings were at ʻUalakaʻa on a grassy hillside of former pasture land (what we call Round Top on the western slopes of Mānoa Valley.)

Mo‘olelo (Hawaiian stories) indicate that Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a was a favored locality for sweet potato cultivation and King Kamehameha I established his personal sweet potato plantation here. ‘Pu‘u translates as “hill” and ‘ualaka‘a means “rolling sweet potato”, so named for the steepness of the terrain.

In order to stimulate interest in macadamia culture, beginning January 1, 1927, a Territorial law exempted properties in the Territory, used solely for the culture or production of macadamia nuts, from taxation for a period of 5 years.

In just over 10-years (1933,) “the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company has about 7,000 trees in its groves at Keauhou, Kona District, Hawaii, which are now coming into profitable bearing. The company has also approximately 2,000 trees growing and producing in the Nutridge grove on Round Top, Honolulu, or a total of 9,000 trees.” (Mid-Pacific, October 1933)

Macadamia nut candies became commercially available a few years later. Two well-known confectioners, Ellen Dye Candies and the Alexander Young Hotel candy shop, began making and selling chocolate-covered macadamia nuts in the middle or late 1930s. Another early maker was Hawaiian Candies & Nuts Ltd., established in 1939 and originators of the Menehune Mac brand. (Schmitt)

In 1962, MacFarms established one of the world’s largest single macadamia nut orchards with approximately 3,900-acres on the South Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Today, about 570 growers farm 17,000 acres of macadamia trees, producing 40 million pounds of in-shell nuts, valued at over $30 million. Additionally, nuts are imported from South Africa and Australia, who currently lead the world market, with Hawai‘i at #3. (hawnnut) And remember, commercial cultivation of macadamia nut’s started at Mānoa.

One last thing, Mānoa was home to the Islands’ first dairy; William Harrison Rice started it at what was then O‘ahu College (now Punahou School.) Later, Woodlawn Dairy was the Islands’ largest dairy (1879.)

As you can see, what became significant commercial-scale agricultural ventures in the Islands – Sugar, Pineapple, Coffee and Macadamia Nuts – all had their start in the Islands, in Mānoa.

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Manoa_Valley_from_Waikiki,_oil_on_canvas_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry_Jr.-1860s

Taro Lo’i Agriculture in Mānoa Valley-(UH_Heritage)-ca_1890

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Manoa-back of valley

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Buggies on Mt. Tantalus, Honolulu, 1900s.

Old Manoa Valley-1924

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Workers loading sugar cane-1905-BM

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Hawaiian Pineapple Company Canning Lines, Honolulu, O‘ahu, 1958

Coffee

Nutridge-Van_Tassel_Tantalus Home-HonoluluMagazine

June 19, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona Hotel

From 1899 to 1926, Hōlualoa was a sugar town; coffee was cut down to make way for fields of sugarcane, which surrounded Hōlualoa. The sugar plantation carried the region’s economy, and Holualoa became its commercial center.

Plantation camps sprang up near the mill and along the length of the railway. Catholic, Protestant and Buddhist churches were established to serve the multiethnic community.

Luther Aungst chose Hōlualoa as headquarters for the Kona Telephone Company, started in the 1890s. Using mules to drag telephone poles across lava flows, Aungst installed a line from Hilo to Ka‘u, and across Kona to North Kohala.

Dr Harvey Saburo Hayashi from Aomori-ken, Japan, one of Kona’s first full-time resident physicians and publisher of Kona’s first newspaper, the Kona Echo, lived there.

The Kona Sugar Company started in 1899 with ambitious plans to create a major sugar plantation in Kona. The company built Kona’s first sugar mill above Kailua Village in 1901.

The mill site was near Waiaha Steam. But water was not sufficient to properly process the cane; in 1903, the company went broke. Other investors tried to keep it alive, but the plantation failed in 1926.

Sugar’s collapse spelled economic ruin for many people. Coffee kept Hōlualoa alive, but just barely. Young people looking for employment left North Kona in droves, finding work in Honolulu or the mainland. (Kona Historical Society)

It was at this time (1926,) when Zentaro and Hatsuyo Inaba opened their 11-room Kona Hotel in 1926, they advertised “Rooms and Meals”.

The business was quickly a going concern in Hōlualoa town and initially catered to traveling businessmen like the Love’s Bakery salesman. They also welcomed the occasional tourist traveling from Hilo, via Volcano, in modified Packard ‘Sampan’ automobiles. (Pulama ia Kona)

“My father was Zentaro Inaba. That’s my stepfather. My mother was Hatsuyo Inaba. Her maiden name was Hatsuyo Miyamoto. Now, my real father, when I was very young, left for the Mainland.”

“And subsequent to that, my [step]father came to Kona and married my mother. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t know my real father. Ever since my childhood, my father was Zentaro Inaba.”

“I think they came here during the latter part of the 1890s. Mother came to Kona with my father – that is, Kitao – and my stepfather came from Pāpaʻikou to Kona. He was one of the contract laborers in Pāpaʻikou.”

“You know, those days, because of the pressures, because of the treatment that they had in the plantation under a contract system, he was dissatisfied. So, he actually ran away from his contract and came to Kona.”

“He used to tell me how he came to Kona. He travelled at night. He was afraid of being caught during the day. And from Pāpaʻikou to Kona, it took him three days to get to Kona.”

“He settled in Kona. As soon as he settled in Kona, he started working for the LS Aungsts – Luther Aungst’s family as a cook. He cooked for the family for 17 years, I think. I think it was about 17 years that he cooked for the Aungst family.”

Then, “they built that hotel – Kona Hotel – in 1926. So, they were running the hotel. … Father used to cook, and mother used to clean the rooms and so on. And they had a girl there that did the rooms. Mother did the laundry and things like that. And father did the cooking.”

“Who were the people who used to stay at the hotel? … Oh, most of them were salesmen … Travelling salesmen. Then, we’d have tourists come in once in a while. Because, at that time, the only hotels were the Kona Inn and Manago Hotel in Kona. And, of course, my folks’ hotel.” (Minuro Inaba, Social History)

“I guess his cooking ability was the reason they opened the hotel. The hotel food was western and Father was quite a cook. He always served soup which was well liked by the customers … beef soup.”

Zentaro and Hatsuyo’s son Goro and wife Yayoko continued the family tradition and today the historic Kona Hotel is still operated by the Inaba ‘ohana. (Pulama ia Kona)

By 1958, just over 1,000 people lived in Hōlualoa area. The construction of Kuakini Highway in the early-1950s reduced traffic through town even further.

Tourism and a coffee boom have brought new life to Hōlualoa. Eager entrepreneurs have transformed old garages and empty houses into galleries showcasing art of every description, some of it produced by artists who grew up in Hōlualoa.

Friendly family-run businesses such as Kimura’s Lauhala Shop, the Kona Hotel, and thrice-named Paul’s Place (formerly Tanimoto General Store in the 1890s, and later Morikami Store in the late 1920s) keep old Kona alive. (Kona Historical Society)

Ranchers herded their cattle to Kailua Bay where they were shipped out. This process involved lassoing the cattle and pulling them into the bay, where they were lashed onto the gunwales of waiting whaleboats and delivered to waiting ships. The last cattle were shipped out in 1956, when the deep harbor at Kawaihae supplanted the Kailua Harbor. (Kona Historical Society)

I fondly remember, as a kid in Kona, we occasionally got to go sheep hunting at Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a. A regular stop for us on the way home was to see the Inabas at Kona Hotel, where we left with them one of the sheep we shot.

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Kona Hotel

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April 4, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1930s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1930s – sugar production peaks, Pan-Am Clipper service begins, Hickam Airfield is constructed, ‘Aloha Shirt’ is trademarked and Doris Duke builds Shangri La. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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Timeline-1930s

March 23, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nikai Camp

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.) In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawai‘i’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi.

Kalākaua’s meeting with Emperor Meiji improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government, and an economic depression in Japan served as an impetus for agricultural workers to leave their homeland. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

By 1884, Hawai‘i Island counted more than thirty plantations, many of them in the Hilo area. Immigrants were arriving by the thousands, mostly from Asia. They fulfilled labor contracts and afterward stayed on. (Olson)

“Upon their arrival in Honolulu those desiring help were permitted to select their labourers and take them to their plantations. Each man was allowed from twelve to fifteen dollars a month, and each woman thirteen, a house to live in, fuel, free water and medical attendance.”

“The labourer was allowed to return to his country at the end of three years, and while here he was not to be separated from his family. … Living largely upon rice raised by himself, and under the favourable condition of the climate, the labourer could lay by a modest sum each year if he chose.” (Browne)

The first ship of Japanese sugar workers, City of Tokyo, arrived with 944 emigrants on February 8, 1885. The second ship, Yamashiro Maru, brought 988 more Japanese (930-men, 34-women and 14-children, most of them from Hiroshima and Kumamoto. They arrived on June 17, 1885; their living quarters were called ‘Nikai-sen Camp’ (second ship camp.)

There used to be a Japanese plantation workers camp associated with Wainaku Mill known as Nikai Camp – for most, it was referred to as the Japanese Village.

It became an attraction. “A mile and a half from Hilo, above the Wainaku mill, there is to be found, in a green, fern-clad valley with a sparkling stream and a dashing waterfall, a complete Japanese village, with thatched roofs and bamboo walls for its houses.”

“Few strangers know of its existence, but it is, to my eye, the most picturesque and unique cluster of dwellings in the Hawaiian isles. Many of the doors of the cottages are shaded by luxuriant banana trees, bearing bunches weighing from sixty to seventy pounds.”

“The hamlet is swarming with rosy babes and smiling young mothers. All look healthy, contented and happy. Mr. Furneaux has some very artistic photographs of this Arcadian village, as well as other scenes in the environs of Hilo.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 17, 1892)

“One of the curious and interesting sights around Hilo is the Japanese village of bamboo huts on the Wainaku plantation. Every foot of space is utilized. Cucumbers and squashes covet the thatched roofs with luxuriant growth.”

“The Board of Health has had to interfere, however, with some of their curious and malodorous processes of utilizing fertilizing material.” (Daily Bulletin, January 20, 1892)

However, tragedy struck the village … “During Monday afternoon, the 15th (January 15, 1895,) the Japanese camp at Wainaku was completely destroyed by fire.”

“The village consisted of fifty or sixty thatched houses fashioned from bamboo and cane leaves which formerly had been often pointed out to tourists as one of the most picturesque sights in Hilo district.”

“It is stated that Manager Scott will immediately rebuild the camp but this time the dwellings will be constructed of prosaic northwest lumber.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 24, 1895)

Hilo wasn’t the only Japanese Village attraction … “By the way it would repay one to mount his horse and ride away to a little Japanese village nestling on the mountain side amid the corn lands of Haleakala Ranch.”

“Perhaps Fukuda who keeps a neat little store there would kill a chicken and entertain a well-dispised stranger most hospitably.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 25, 1893)

In 1971 Wainaku, Hakalau, Pepe‘ekeo and Pāpaʻikou sugar companies were consolidated in a processing cooperative that also included independent cane growers. Two years later, Pepe‘ekeo Sugar merged with Mauna Kea Sugar to form Mauna Kea Sugar Co., Inc., the state’s fourth largest sugar company with 18,000 acres of cane.

The mills at Wainaku and Hakalau were closed as the Pepeʻekeo mill was modernized to double its capacity by 1974. (HSPA) The Hilo Coast Processing Company and the Mauna Kea Sugar Company (at that point called Mauna Kea Agribusiness Company) mill shut down in 1994.