Sugar | Page 4 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 21, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Point Four Program

In his inaugural address (January 20, 1949) President Harry S Truman noted that, “Since the end of hostilities [of WWII], the United States has invested its substance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restore peace, stability, and freedom to the world. …”

“We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations and related agencies as a means of applying democratic principles to international relations. We have consistently advocated and relied upon peaceful settlement of disputes among nations.”

Truman challenged the nation by stating that, “In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize four major courses of action.”

He noted that, “First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United Nations and related agencies … Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery. … Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression.”

The last of his initiatives later earned the name, Point Four Program. In it, he stated, “Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.”

Truman went on to elaborate, in describing this latter point, “I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development.”

“Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.” (Truman Inaugural Address, Truman Library Museum, National Archives)

“The primary functions of Point Four lie in the fields of education, public health and agriculture. In the fiscal year 1951 approximately 80 per cent of the Point Four budget was spent on projects in these fields.” (Rickher)

It’s interesting that later history writers referenced the first American Protestant Missionaries to Hawai‘i as the “first American Point Four Agents.” (Tate)

“[O]ne hundred-thirteen years before President Harry S. Truman’s ‘bold new program’ for making the benefits of American scientific ‘know how’ and industrial progress available for the advancement of undeveloped areas of the world …”

“… the Sandwich Islands missionaries demonstrated a genuine and prophetic acquaintance with the requirements of a humble people lacking skill, enterprise, and industry, and suffering under so many restrictions that their temporal prosperity and their existence as a nation appeared problematical.”

“To the naive and sometimes indolent Hawaiians the evangelists exhibited the advantages of industry and frugality; they endeavored earnestly with their limited resources to lift a benighted nation from ignorance and poverty, in fact, to save it from extinction.”

“Their mission was more than a mission of love – it was the first American technical mission overseas; their tireless labors and simple instruction in the agricultural, mechanical, and manual fields represented the first chapter in the prelude to Point Four.” (Tate)

“On November 15, 1832, Rev. William Richards and others at Lahaina, Maui, in a letter to the American Board, expressed their conviction that in order to retain the ground which Christianity had already gained in the islands, new plans must be devised for elevating the character and living standards of the people.”

“As one means of doing this, they suggested that the Board sponsor a project for introducing the manufacture of cotton cloth into Hawaii. … The missionaries did not propose that the Board become a manufacturing company; but they saw nothing more inconsistent in teaching the people to manufacture cloth than in instructing them in agriculture.”

“They had already voted to teach the Hawaiians carpentry in connection with the high school at Lahainaluna, near Lahaina. In the same month [missionaries in Kona] emphasized the need of machinery for the domestic manufacture of cloth and of an instructor.”

“These clergymen earnestly invited the attention of ‘the friends of civilization to the subject of raising this people from their degradation’ and of uniting ‘with this mission in fixing upon some practicable means to effectuate this object.’ The American Board looked favorably upon the plan”.

Rev BB Wisner, secretary of the American Board, “wanted to have the deliberate views of the mission on the subject of agriculture, not with the aim of making New England farmers, ‘but of introducing and encouraging among them [the Hawaiians] such agriculture as is suited to their climate.”

The missionaries in the Islands “regarded the subject as of sufficient importance to warrant ‘encouraging the growth of cotton, coffee, sugar cane, etc., that the people may have more business on their hands and increase their temporal comforts.’”

“The initial steps toward the desired end were taken at the mission stations that became veritable oases from which seeds and cuttings of vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers were distributed throughout the country districts.”

“Edwin Locke at Waialua, Oahu, Samuel Ruggles at Kona, Hawaii, and James Goodrich, of the Hilo station, were especially successful along these lines.” (Tate)

“The first mission schools were not established as industrial or manual training institutions, but in the 1830’s the evangelists perceived the importance of agriculture and industry in raising the living standard of the nation.”

“In their general meeting held at Lahaina in 1833 they proposed a manual labor system, as a means both of desirable improvement and self-support, to be instituted at the high school. The secular agent was instructed to engage an artisan to oversee the work, take charge of the stock, tools, etc.”

“Two years later the mission recommended that a farmer be procured to teach agriculture and to conduct the secular concerns of the school and that the scholars be required to cultivate the land or earn their own food by their personal industry.” (Tate)

“In 1841 a regular manual labor school was started at Waioli, on Kauai, by Edward Johnson, but later was conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Abner Wilcox. Moreover, in the boarding schools at Kohala, Wailuku, and Hilo the boys were given instruction in agriculture and the girls were taught domestic science or home making.”

“[T]he Hilo Boarding School curriculum kept abreast with industrial progress by introducing successively courses in agriculture, tailoring, dairying, carpentry, blacksmithing, and coffee culture in the nineteenth century and cocoa, banana, and pineapple production and auto mechanics in the twentieth.”

“On twenty-five acres of land at Lahainaluna set aside for vocational education, Samuel T. Alexander, just out of college, was assigned … to the supervision of a sugar cane project. The success of this experiment conducted by the son of a former missionary principal, William P. Alexander, encouraged the commercial development of sugar in Hawaii.”

The Hawaiian leadership saw benefits. King Kamehameha III sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands. In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly.”

“I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

January 14, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Waialua Sugar Operations

The first mission schools were not established as industrial or manual training institutions, but in the 1830s the American Protestant Missionaries perceived the importance of agriculture and industry in raising the living standard of the nation.

In their general meeting held at Lahaina in 1833 they proposed a manual labor system, as a means both of desirable improvement and self-support, to be instituted at the high school. The secular agent was instructed to engage an artisan to oversee the work, take charge of the stock, tools, etc.

Between 1830 and 1850, the demands of the ali‘i on the maka‘āinana (common people) were severe. The missionary, John Emerson, commenting on the burdensome taxes on the people, wrote that the ruling chiefs “get hungry often and send a vessel to Waialua for food quite as often as it is welcomed by the people”. (Cultural Surveys)

The chiefs also demanded food be brought to them: “Last Sat some 2 or 300 men went from this place to H[onolulu] to carry food for the chiefs and this [is] often done … Each man carried enough food to maintain 4 persons one week … 70 miles travel to get it to H[onolulu]”. (Cultural Surveys)

John Emerson began growing sugarcane on his land in Waialua as early as 1836. He “made his own molasses, grinding a few bundles of cane in a little wooden mill turned by oxen, and boiling down the juice in an old whaler’s trypot”. (Sereno Bishop)

As we’ll see, here, this early sugarcane plantation later passed through several hands, including the Levi and Warren Chamberlain Sugar Company, established 1865, Halstead & Gordon, and the Halstead Brothers. (Cultural Surveys) This eventually became Waialua Sugar.

In a general letter to the Board, dated June 8, 1839, the members of the Sandwich Islands Mission observed that “at many stations the state of things is becoming such, that the missionary, by directing the labor of natives …”

“… and investing some fifty or a hundred dollars in a sugar-mill, or in some other way, might secure a portion and often the whole of his support, and would thus be teaching the people profitable industry.” (Tate)

Two years later the mission recommended that a farmer be procured to teach agriculture and to conduct the secular concerns of the school and that the scholars be required to cultivate the land or earn their own food by their personal industry.

One area for such a school was Waialua. “The whole district of Waialua is spread out before the eye with its cluster of settlements, straggling houses, scattering trees, cultivated plats & growing in broad perspectives the wide extending ocean tossing its restless waves and throwing in its white foaming billows fringing the shores all along the whole extent of the district.” (Levi Chamberlain, Cultural Surveys)

A school designed to be self-supporting and agricultural was organized at Waialua, on Oahu, opened August 28, 1837, with one hundred children and six teachers.

Two hours each working day were devoted to instruction in natural history, geography and arithmetic, while four hours were set aside for supervised labor in the field. By 1842 the institution was entirely self-sufficient. Two years later, the death of Mr Locke caused the manual labor school to be discontinued. (Tate)

The Hawaiian leadership saw opportunities. King Kamehameha III sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands. In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly. “

Later, Warren & Levi Jr, Chamberlain began a Waialua sugar mill operation in 1864. They supplied sugar for the Northern States during the Civil War. (The South had cut off all sugar production in the states to the North forcing them to import it from the islands.)

The prosperity ended with the end of the Civil War and the Chamberlains surrendered the mill to the bank in 1870. Robert Halstead bought the Chamberlain plantation in 1874 for a reported $25,000 under the partnership of Halstead & Gordon.

Robert Halstead was a pioneer sugar planter of Hawaii and was one of the first men with the vision to realize the future importance of cane culture in the financial development of the islands.

Halstead was born in Todmorden, England, on August 10, 1836. Halstead married Sarah Ellen Stansfield (born in May 1840 at Todmorden, England) on January 2, 1858 in Lancashire England.

Mr. Halstead brought his family to Hawaii in 1865, and for many years was a factor in the building of an industrial era responsible for the prosperous and highly developed Hawaii.

Going first to Lahaina, Maui, Mr. Halstead spent seven years there as plantation manager for Campbell and Turton, a partnership formed by James Campbell, one of the prominent figures in the early history of the sugar industry.

Severing his connections with business interests in Hawaii early in 1873, Mr. Halstead moved to the Pacific Coast, but returned in 1874 to engage in a plantation venture at Waialua, forming the partnership of Halstead & Gordon. (Nellist)

Upon the death of his associate, Mr. Halstead took over the entire business in 1888 and it was continued as Halstead & Sons, Edgar (born on March 1, 1862 at Manchester, Lancashire, England) and Frank (born on April 13, 1864 at Manchester, Lancashire, England) joining their father. Robert was the proprietor and manager; Edgar was superintendent and Frank was sugar house manager. (Polk 1890)

Halstead retired from the firm, and it was carried on by his sons under the name of Halstead Brothers. Later, Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham believed that the Halstead Brothers’ land could be turned into a profitable sugar plantation, especially since there was now a rail line to Honolulu.

The Waialua Agricultural Company was established in 1898 by JB Atherton, ED Tenney, BF Dillingham, WA Bowen, H Waterhouse and MR Robinson and was incorporated by the company Castle & Cooke. They bought the Halstead Brothers’ land and mill, and began to buy or lease the adjacent lands. (Cultural Surveys)

“Waialua is reached either by railroad, a distance from Honolulu of 58 miles, or wagon road, 28 miles. The plantation lands extend along the seacoast 15 miles and 10 miles back toward the mountains. The plantation has a good railway system.”

“There are nearly 600 cane cars and five locomotives: with 30 miles of permanent track and eight of portable track. One stretch of road is nine miles long.”

“The brick smokestack of the old original mill still stands as a relic of the past. The present day plant is a 12-roller mill of late type. … The mill has a capacity of 150 tons of sugar per day. The mill has been so constructed that its capacity can be doubled without adding to the building itself.” (Louisiana Planter, May 7, 1910)

Waialua Sugar reported in early 1987 that it would shut down over a two year period. An effort to buy the plantation through an employee stock ownership plan fell through in July 1987.

However, on September 24, 1987 Castle & Cooke announced that Waialua would be operating for at least two more years unless world sugar prices fell drastically. (LRB) (The Waialua mill stayed in operation up until 1996.)

December 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Isthmus

Volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands form in response to hot-spot magmatism deep below the lithosphere. As a volcano is moved away from the hot spot by motion of the Pacific tectonic plate, it ceases volcanic activity and a new vent forms.

Thus, a chain of volcanoes forms along the direction of plate motion, with younger volcanoes near the position of the hot spot.

As volcanoes emerge above the sea surface, they form a gently sloping volcanic shield; the period from when a new volcano breaks the sea surface to the end of shield building is estimated to last about 0.5 million years.

Throughout the growth of a volcano and for some time after completion of its shield, weight on the thin oceanic crust causes the volcano to subside. During shield building, rapid growth outpaces subsidence and there is a net increase in height and area. However, when shield building ceases, net subsidence submerges many areas formerly above sea level.

In addition, over long time periods, erosion is an important factor in changing the topography of an island. Erosion is difficult to model because there is no accurate way to determine the timing and magnitude of all events. (Price and Elliott-Fisk)

Maui is a doublet – that is, it originally consisted of two distinct islands which were later united. (USGS) West Maui and Haleakala lava flows joined to form a broad, low isthmus. (Holthus) The 7-mile wide valleylike isthmus earned Maui the nickname of the “valley isle.” (Britannica)

“The north side of the isthmus, the location of Pauleukalo Marsh and Kanaha Pond, consists of stream-transported sediments and beach material. The marshes have formed in coastal depressions. Kanaha Pond formed in weathered lava. During floods, freshwater overflows the wetland and the barrier ridge and discharges directly to the ocean.”

“The beaches along the north side of Maui’s isthmus are discontinuous and fronted by beachrock outcrops. Beach rock up to 790 ft offshore from the present beach indicates a general trend of erosion over the last few hundred years.”

“The south side of Maui’s isthmus supports a 4 mi long, gently curved barrier beach which separates Kealia Pond from the ocean. Water level fluctuates seasonally, forming a 400-500 acre shallow, brackish pond in winter and spring, and exposing extensive red-brown mudflats in summer.”

“The wetland is slowly filling with stream-transported deposits of terrigenous material and wind-blown beach sands. The pond’s

drainage outlet is periodically blocked by sand, but clears during heavy streamflows.” (Holthus)

The abundance of water in Nā Wai ʻEhā ((“The Four Great Waters”) – Waiheʻe River, Waiehu Stream, Wailuku (ʻĪao) Stream and Waikapū Stream are in central Maui) enabled extensive loʻi kalo (wetland kalo) complexes, including varieties favored for poi-making such as “throat-moistening lehua poi.” (CWRM)

Nā Wai ʻEhā once “comprised the largest continuous area of wetland taro cultivation in the islands.” Its “complex agricultural system of wetland kalo cultivation,” together with the abundant protein sources in the streams and nearshore waters, supported one of the largest populations on Maui.

The fertile kalo lands, complex system of irrigation ʻauwai (ditches) and abundant fresh water from Nā Wai ʻEhā sustained Hawaiian culture for 1,000-years.

Given the makeup of the Nā Wai ʻEhā, Waiheʻe River and ‘Īao historically would have flowed continuously to the coast; Waiehu Stream would have flowed continuously to the coast at least 95 percent of the time; and Waikapū Stream would have flowed continuously to the coast less than half of the time. (USGS)

While water was flowing in the river valleys, in about 1840 it was estimated that, “The isthmus is too dry to be fit for cultivation; it is in extent about twenty by fifteen miles. During nine months of the year it is a fine grazing country, and feeds large herd of cattle, that are mostly owned by foreigner.” (Wilkes (1840-41))

“The district of Wailuku is composed of valley and upland. The soil in the former is extremely rich and well watered; the upland, also, produces good crops when sufficient moisture can be had. Potatoes, corn, sugar-cane, and sweet potatoes, are the chief products of the windward side of the island.” (Wilkes)

“Between the beaches of Kahului and those of Maalaea and Kalepolepo lies a vast expanse of level land, forming an isthmus connecting east and west Maui, which as it exists is fit for nothing except the pasturage of animals and in some places not even fit for that owing to an entire destitution of water supply.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June24, 1876)

“The area of this land is perhaps not less than fifty thousand acres, and capable, if irrigated, of producing many thousand tons of sugar. Most of this belongs to the government, and if the spirit of enterprise were rife among those in authority …”

“… this whole plain could be turned into a garden, for there is an abundance of water running waste upon the highlands of Haleakala amply sufficient if utilized for this purpose to supply the entire tract.”

“The subject of irrigation of this plain has been more than once brought forward for consideration, but no thorough investigations have been divulged, if they have ever been made, as to the best means of bringing down the waste water on to it, or the probable expense that would accrue, although the feasibility of the project is not to be doubted.”

“During the reign of Kamehameha V, some investigations were said to have been made, but as to their nature or comprehensiveness the public were allowed to remain in the dark, or to be satisfied with the dicta of his imperious ministry, that the engineering would be too costly and the whole affair too ponderous to be handled by the government.”

“This is certainly one of our first and greatest needs, and with reciprocity to back us there would be no fear of the result… We have heard of a suggestion to irrigate this plain, or a part of it, by water derived from the streams of Waiehu and Waihee, much of whose water now runs to waste.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June24, 1876)

By the 1870s, growing plantation interests in the region sought out ways to turn what had become almost desolate isthmus lands and neighboring kula lands of Maui, green with cane.

Their economic plan was made viable by the passage of a Reciprocity Treaty between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 30, 1875; and subsequent ratification of the treaty by King Kalākaua on April 17, 1875.

The treaty went into effect on September 9th, 1876, and on September 13th, 1876, King Kalākaua granted issuance of the first Water License for construction of the “Haiku Ditch,” and drawing water out of streams of the Hāmākua Loa District.

The initial development of the ditch system was authorized as a part of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s program to promote prosperity for all the people of the Kingdom. (Kumupono)

Sugar was planted and the West Maui streams were diverted. In addition, five ditches originating in East Maui at different levels are used to convey the water from that region to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui.

In order of elevation they are Haiku, Lowrie, Old Hamakua, New Hamakua, and Kailuanui ditches. They cross about 20 gulches east of Maliko, all of which have more or less water at all times and large quantities after storms. (USGS, 1910-1911)

Wailuku Sugar was organized in 1862 by James Robinson, Thomas Cummins, J Fuller and agent C Brewer. In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company (later known as Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company – HC&S.)

The late-1890s saw internal family conflicts. Spreckels lost control of HC&S and in 1898; it became a part of Alexander & Baldwin Co. Following the 1948 merger of HC&S and Maui Agriculture Co., HC&S became a division of Alexander & Baldwin.

Fast forward to December 2016, Hawai‘i saw its last sugar harvest on the Maui isthmus. In December 2018, Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) announced that it had sold its 41,000-acre sugar plantation in Maui’s central plains to Mahi Pono LLC, a joint venture between Pomona Farming LLC, a California-based agricultural group, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.

Much of the sugar land is now in diversified farming (with orchard and row crops such as lime, lemon, orange, tangerine, coffee, avocado, macadamia nut, ‘ulu, onion, kale, lettuce, watermelon, bananas, coconut, and lilikoi) by Mahi Pono.

As of December 2022, Mahi Pono had planted more than 1.64 million trees on approximately 8,625 acres of land. In addition to our tree plantings, we have also prepared over 9,000 acres of grass pastureland to support our Maui Cattle Company grass-fed beef operations. Their products are typically sold under the Maui Harvest brand. (Mahi Pono)

October 17, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Filipinos in Hawaiʻi

Filipinos were the first Asians to cross the Pacific Ocean, as early as 1587 – fifty years before the first English settlement of Jamestown was established on the continent.

From 1565 to 1815, during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, Filipinos were forced to work as sailors and navigators on board Spanish Galleons. (CSU-Chico)

In 1763, Filipinos made their first permanent settlement in the bayous and marshes of Louisiana. As sailors and navigators on board Spanish galleons, Filipinos – also known as “Manilamen” or Spanish-speaking Filipinos – jumped ship to escape the brutality of their Spanish masters. (CSU-Chico)

During the War of 1812, Filipinos from Manila Village (near New Orleans) were among the “Batarians” who fought against the British with Jean Lafitte in the Battle of New Orleans.

Filipino’s Spanish connection came to an end after the Spanish-American War in 1898 when America wanted to control the Philippines. Unknown to Filipinos, through the Treaty of Paris (April 11, 1899,) Spain sold the Philippines to the US for $20-million, thus ending over 300 years of Spanish colonization.

In Hawaiʻi, shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.

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.

Of the large level of plantation worker immigration, the Chinese were the first (1850,) followed by the Japanese (1885.) After the turn of the century, the plantations started bringing in Filipinos.

Over the years in successive waves of immigration, the sugar planters brought to Hawaiʻi 46,000-Chinese, 180,000-Japanese, 126,000-Filipinos, as well as Portuguese, Puerto Ricans and other ethnic groups.

For the first 15-Filipino sakadas (probably derived from the Ilocano phrase “sakasakada amin”, meaning, barefoot workers struggling to earn a living) who got off the SS Doric on December 20, 1906, amid stares of curious onlookers, the world before them was one of foreboding.

The 15-pioneers would soon be joined by thousands of their compatriots, thanks to the relentless recruitment of the Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA). (Aquino)

Upon arrival in Hawaiʻi, Filipino contract laborers were assigned to the HSPA-affiliated plantations throughout the territory. Their lives would now come under the dictates of the plantation bosses.

They had no choice as to which plantation or island they would be assigned. Men from the same families, the same towns or provinces were often broken up and separated. (Alegado)

Between 1906 and 1930, the HSPA brought in approximately 120,000-Filipinos to Hawaiʻi, dramatically altering the territory’s ethnic demographics. (Aquino)

By the 1920s, Filipinos in Hawaiʻi were still largely male, men outnumbered women by nearly seven to one, and unmarried. They represented, at one point, half of the workers in the sugar industry. Initially the Filipinos tended to be “peasants” of lower education than other groups. (Reinecke)

Comprising only 19-percent of the plantation workforce in 1917, the sakadas jumped to 70-percent by 1930, replacing the Japanese, who had dwindled to 19-percent as the 1930s approached. (Aquino)

These Filipino pioneers were known as the “manong generation” since most of them came from Ilokos Sur, Iloilo, and Cavite in the Philippines (manong is an Ilokano term principally given to the first-born male in a Filipino nuclear family who serves as one of the leaders in the extended family.)

During this later time, particularly during the Great Depression, Filipinos had to compete against other ethnic groups to earn a living. Tensions grew.

This eventually led to the passing of the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, which officially provided for Philippine independence and self-government; it also limited Filipino immigration to the US to 50-per year.

The work was hard, it was dirty work (literally with soot and mud) and monotonous and dangerous work; there was no future in it, in that as one grew older and weaker one earned less money, and that the work was tiring and thus the need to recuperate often.

Among Filipinos, when they got paid they would go to Honolulu by train and not come back for a week. Not to worry: “We could always get our jobs back because it was the worst job working in the fields and nobody else would do it.” (Alcantara)

Working conditions and wage disparities lead to worker unrest, eventually leading to the formation of labor unions; they formed the Filipino Labor Union.

In 1924 and again in 1935 the Filipinos struck along racial lines; the Filipino workers and their families were evicted from their homes and left to fend for themselves, their leaders were jailed.

Then, in 1935, President Roosevelt, as part of his New Deal legislation, passed the Wagner Act giving workers the legal right to organize unions that could demand employer recognition.

Following WW II (May 21, 1945,) pro-labor legislature passed the landmark Hawaiʻi Employees Relations Act, popularly called the Little Wagner Act, which extended the rights of collective bargaining to agricultural workers. The legislature extended the provisions of the wage and hour law to cover agricultural workers and set minimum wages.

The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) proceeded to organize on all sugar plantations, and by the end of 1945, the ILWU had contracts industry-wide.

Bargaining on the employers’ side was conducted by the Hawaiʻi Employers Council (non-profit and voluntary,) formed to conduct the bargaining and negotiate contracts with unions – thus the ILWU bargained not with the plantations but with the Hawaiʻi Employers Council.

Over the years, the Filipino community has largely been working class; but there is now a growing number of management, professional and related occupations (including professionals such as doctors, nurses, therapists, teachers, lawyers, engineers and business executives.) (hawaii-edu)

In 1959, the “First Annual Convention of Filipino Community Associations of Hawaiʻi” was held under the theme, “Statehood and the Filipinos in Hawaiʻi.”

Concurrent with the convention, a Fiesta Filipina celebration was held where Leticia Quintal, a UH history major, was crowned as “the first Miss Philippines-Hawaiʻi.” (That pageant award was later changed to Miss Hawaiʻi Filipina.) Out of the convention and fiesta was born the United Filipino Council of Hawaiʻi.

In an editorial entitled “The Filipino Contribution,” the Honolulu Advertiser of June 19, 1959, noted: “There is a sense of urgency as able Consul General Juan C. Dionisio encourages Americans of Filipino ancestry – and Philippine nationals too – to organize and play a bigger part in Hawaiian affairs.” (United Filipino Council of Hawaiʻi)

With a note of optimism, the editorial further pointed out: “The Filipinos, who have been doing right well under individual steam, now can be expected to progress even faster.” (United Filipino Council of Hawaiʻi)

August 30, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānā, Kauai

Mānā is a coastal plain with an ancient sea cliff at its inner edge, which extends from Waimea in the south to Barking Sands in the north on the western shores of Kauai.

This region has been identified as a leina-a-ka-uhane (paths-for-leaping-by-the-spirit). These were almost always on bluffs looking westward over the ocean, from which the spirits of the dead were believed to plunge in order to enter the spiritual realm.

Throughout prehistory, large areas of the Mānā Plain were covered by the great Mānā swamp, allowing the ancients to canoe as far south as Waimea.

Up until the mid-1880s, the great Mānā swamp, east of the plain, covered large areas of the lowlands. Approximately 1,700-acres of permanent, semi-permanent and seasonal wetlands were present on the Mānā Plain.

It is believed that these wet conditions encouraged the independent invention of aquaculture on Kauai and the construction of stone and earthen ponds for growing staples such as taro, yam and sweet potatoes.

Historically, native Hawaiians constructed four different types of fishponds – freshwater taro ponds, other freshwater ponds, brackish water ponds and seawater ponds.

Aquaculture was employed to supplement their other fishing activities, and permanent fishponds guaranteed a stable food supply for populations in lean times. Tended ponds provided fish without requiring fishing expertise, and harvesting the pond, unlike fishing at sea, was not weather dependent.

Evidence suggests that Hawaiian fishponds were constructed as early as AD 1000, if not earlier, and continued to be built until the 1820s.

After the arrival of Europeans to the island, aquaculture transitioned to agriculture through the eventual draining of the swamp and the cultivation of sugar cane and rice.

One of the first successful sugar plantations to export from the islands was established at Kōloa in 1835, and by the 1930s, nearly all of the Mānā swamp had been filled to produce this crop.

Up until the mid-1880s, the great Mānā swamp covered large areas of the lowlands. One of the first European settlers, Valdemar Knudsen, drained a portion of the Mānā swamp by excavating a ditch through to the ocean at Waiele. The first sugarcane was planted in Kekaha in 1878.

Hans Peter (HP) Faye was a Norwegian immigrant (arriving in 1880) who started a small plantation at Mānā and eventually helped form Kekaha Sugar, incorporated 1898, and became its first manager.

It was his vision that created the Kekaha and Kokeʻe Ditch Systems and the intricate drainage canals that drain the large swamps of Mānā.

To keep the groundwater table below the root zone of the sugar cane, thousands of feet of canals were excavated to drain excess water from the soil. The water is then pumped into canals such as the Nohili Ditch for release into the ocean.

The drainage system, with two pumps at the Kawaiele and Nohili pumping stations, was constantly running to lower the groundwater table, which made possible for sugarcane cultivation.

Rice was planted in the drained swamplands from the mid-1860s to 1922. By the 1930s, nearly all of the Mānā swamp had been filled in and planted in sugarcane.

The need to keep the area drained continues today. These pumping stations must continue running to keep the groundwater table from rising too high, which could result in root rots and hence low crop yields. During storm season, with five inches of rain in one day would result in flooding.

Nearby wetlands form the Kawaiele Sand Mine Sanctuary (a State Waterbird Refuge for Hawaii’s four endangered waterbird species – Hawaiian duck, coot, stilt and moorhen;) this was created during a sand removal program.

When I was at DLNR, we authorized the sale of sand licenses to allow contractors to remove sand for construction projects (golf courses, concrete mix and beach replenishment) within the waterbird sanctuary that, in turn, created a beneficial mixed terrain and expanded the waterbird habitat.