Found this postcard a while back in a box at home. Aren’t these the very trees that the Lahaina Public Band was playing under a hundred years ago?
BANYAN TREE, LAHAINA
Mango Fruit.—The past days, and these days as well, a lot [makena wale] of this delicious fruit is seen often at the markets and on the street sides of this town, but other fruits are very rare. We have seen thirty or more or less being sold for an eighth of a dollar [hapawalu], but it was not so recently when there wasn’t any; at that time at the Chinese stores it was six or ten for an eighth of a dollar. Those who crave mango are saved these days, and the adults and children peel them as they walk about the streets; and much is the diarrhea.
(Kuokoa, 8/8/1868, p. 2)
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke VII, Helu 32, Aoao 2. Augate 8, 1868.
The Morning Star brought up for the Hawaiian Government the following curios, corals, &c. Two sets Gilbert Island armor complete with helmets; also shark teeth sword and spear, mats and native dresses; eel basket; common fish basket; umbrella coral, three feet six inches in diameter, perfect, from Apian by Mr. Randolph.
From Marshall Island: Spears, Male fringe petticoats and woman’s mat dress; carved figure-head; model of canoe fully rigged; paddles; red coral; black coral; platter coral, bone adzes from Strong’s Island. Continue reading
Salt Water Trees.—Bonabe and Strong’s Island are tree-clad to tide water and below, several varieties, five we are told, grow in the marshes and flats that are flooded at high tide. Some are large and tall, suitable for timber, and all make excellent fuel. J. E. Chamberlain brought within ten day’s sail two hundred mangrove trees that were injured in a gale. Several of them still survive and may grow in the care of Mr. Derby. The mangrove tree grows from the seed that floats on the tide and may be had by gathering. By perforating the bottom of a tight barrel, then filling it full of mangrove seeds, and keeping them wet with salt water, one thousand or then thousand mangrove trees may be brought from Bonabe safely and planted on Waikiki and Ewa flats in 1876.
(Hawaiian Gazette, 3/22/1876, p. 2)
The Hawaiian Gazette, Volume XII, Number 12, Page 2. March 22, 1876.
Ualana.
This high island is similar to Hawaii being that it is a high mountain, but it is different in that there are trees that grow from the mountain peaks all the way to the ocean, and there are trees that grow in the ocean. There are three kinds of trees growing in the ocean. I brought from Ponape 200 mangrove plants. But they all died. If we really want to bring in that plant, it should be brought in by seed, and planted extensively; thousands in Waikiki, Ewa, Waimea on Kauai, on Maui, Molokai, and Hawaii; this tree reaches from twenty to forty feet high, and is good as lumber for house building and for firewood.
[This appears in a description of travels of the Morning Star to Micronesia, written by Jeremiah E. Chamberlain, the representative of the Board of Hawaiian Missions.]
(Lahui Hawaii, 4/6/1876, p. 2)
Ka Lahui Hawaii, Buke II, Helu 15, Aoao 2. Aperila 6, 1876.
Here is something that is much sought after by the producers of sugar. Bags that are woven with strips [ko-ana] of bulrush [akaakai] or lauahala perhaps, to put brown sugar [ko-paa eleele] in and ship to Australia or America. The previous week, a schooner brought 15,000 bags of this type from New Zealand, and the haole traders greatly appreciated them. The length of the bags are 33 inches, and 17 inches wide. If bags like these are woven here at a reasonable price, and a thousand are made, they will be sold out in a year. Continue reading
Lanai i being purchased for $600,000,000, to carry out the Planting Pineapple Business there. It has been confirmed that there is about 6,000 to 10,000 acres suitable for planting the fruit.
(Puuhonua o na Hawaii, 1/19/1917, p. 4)
Ka Puuhonua o na Hawaii, Buke IV, Helu 3, Aoao 4. Ianuari 19, 1917.
