Pertaining to the Rice in Waimea.
Rice is planted much here in this place. The rice just newly planted here in some paddies is growing and it is green when looking at it. Continue reading
RICE.—We are overjoyed to see that rice is planted by one of our friends, S. Kamakahiki, in Hana, East Maui; there is a lot of grain and it is of good quality; why O Friends, are you dallying on planting this good source of money? We are amazed at the small number of people undertaking the growing of rice in Hana, for this is how it is, according to the letter of S. Kamakahiki, like this:
“I am the only one growing Rice here in Hana; I am harvesting the Rice and storing it at my house; I am filled with joy that I have found this good occupation.”
(Kuokoa, 2/15/1862, p. 2)
When considering how we Hawaiians are being supplied with poi, there is not the slightest indication that the cost of our staple food will decrease, and it is also very clear that if what has happened in the past years continues on into the upcoming years, and we continue relying on the Chinese for our supply, it is obvious that the price of poi will shoot up, and we will not be able to eat poi.
As a result of the increase in the price of rice, the former taro lands are being planted with rice, and should the rice market continue to be favorable, then a majority of the Chinese will abandon taro and become rice farmers, then, the cost of kalo will skyrocket, and as a result, so too will the price of poi.
Therefore, in our opinion, Hawaiians should start farming kalo, and obtain its benefits; looking at the land situation these days, it is very clear that the price of poi will continue to rise for long into the future; and the Hawaiians or others perhaps who continue this occupation will not fail to reap its benefits.
That man will make himself prosper and he will supply those who are lacking poi at a fair price, and so we say, O Hawaiian people, go into the occupation of kalo farming, and there shall be many blessings.
[While rice is no longer being planted here, perhaps in its place are being planted buildings. What is there to be done today?]
(Lahui Hawaii, 6/22/1901, p. 4)
Ka Lahui Hawaii, Buke III, Helu 25, Aoao 4. Iune 22, 1901.
RICE.—We are overjoyed to see that rice is planted by one of our friends, S. Kamakahiki, in Hana, East Maui; there is a lot of grain and it is of good quality; why O Friends, are you dallying on planting this good source of money? We are amazed at the small number of people undertaking the growing of rice in Hana, for this is how it is, according to the letter of S. Kamakahiki, like this:
“I am the only one growing Rice here in Hana; I am harvesting the Rice and storing it at my house; I am filled with joy that I have found this good occupation.”
(Kuokoa, 2/15/1862, p. 2)
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke I, helu 12, Aoao 2. Feberuari, 15, 1862.
O Kuokoa Newspaper; Aloha oe:—
Here in the colony of the leprosy patients in Kalawao and Kalaupapa, flour is used to make poi [poi palaoa]; it is similar to poi made of breadfruit [poi ulu] in the yellow color, and it is truly delicious; it is a lot like taro poi [poi kalo]: your stomach doesn’t get sore, and you become full indeed; we have no poi because the taro won’t arrive to these Koolau cliffs because of the terrible weather during these months.
This new poi began at Iliopii, by a Hawaiian who lived in California who was used to making it there, and that is how he spread this new poi here; and the benefits of this poi is now known, and therefore, our poi problems are over during this stormy period, and should calm weather return, the patients will get their paʻi ʻai¹ [pai kalo].
Poi palaoa is very appropriate when working because you stay full, and it is fun to make when you get used to it, and so too with rice mixed with crackers and stirred up in a pot; when it boils and is cooked, it is time for to fill the stomach, and you will be always full.
The Superintendent of the Leprosy Patients.
In my observations, our Superintendent, Mr. N. B. Emerson [Emekona], M. D. is quick with filling the storehouse [hale papaa] with flour [palaoa], rice [raiki], crackers [barena], bags of sugar [eke kopaa], and salmon [kamano]; there is nothing to complain of Kapuukolu.²
Worship. Worship always happens now: Protestants [Hoole Pope], Mormons [Moremona], and Catholics [Katolika]; their meetings on Sundays are always full; life of the patients is peaceful now, not like before when Damien [Damiano] and when W. K. Sumner were Superintendent; there were uprisings from drinking okolehao and other alcoholic drinks made of ti, sweet potato [uala], and so forth.
Bell of the Church of Kalaupapa. On the 5th of Feb., the Bell arrived on the Warwick; a very fine bell which was a gift from the Sunday School of Kaukeano and the brethren of that church; and now it hangs proudly in its honored steeple with its ringing voice in the cliff faces of Kalaupapa, and it points out the movement of the hands of the clock, and the Sunday School of Kalaupapa fully appreciates the gift of the Sunday School of Kaukeano.
S. K. K. Kanohokula.
Kalaupapa, Feb. 18, 1879.
¹Although i tend not to use ʻokina and kahakō, i marked “pai ai” here for added clarity.
²Kapuukolu is a place on Kauai, figuratively used to represent abundance of good food.
(Kuokoa, 3/15/1879, p. 2)
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XVIII, Helu 11, Aoao 2. Maraki 15, 1879.
Hawaii exported to San Francisco in the month of this past August, 1,311,200 pounds of rice at the price of $71,265; and China exported to the same market in that month, 1,977,412 pounds of rice at the price of $35,156.
[What a different world we live in where we import most of our food…]
(Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, 10/18/1890, p. 2)
Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, Buke XIII, Helu 42, Aoao 2. Okatoba 18, 1890.
INFORMATION FOR THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE!
Mr. J. U. Kawainui,
Honolulu, H. I.
O Friend,
Please allow me to introduce you to the new things I have seen in my newspaper which I believe are new information important to spread; which I invite you to kindly insert into your newspaper, Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, for the benefit of the readers and the nation.
I was pleased to see the thoughts of a famous newspaper of Japan, praising Hawaii as the place where a great number of Japanese laborers obtained a big sum of money, more than they’d receive in their homeland.
This newspaper likened Hawaii to a school of education, where a child receives the wealth of knowledge, equal to the amount of lessons he studies; so too with the Japanese who are going to Hawaii, where they get high salaries that they’d not get here, and for more intense work than in Hawaii, along with more hours.
This paper also stated that within the past five years, the total number of Japanese laborers including men and women has reached 14,000, sent by the Board for Emigration of Japanese Laborers.
And within this period, these laborers, as a result of their effort and their saving of what they earned, made a great amount in Japanese money, not less than 2,000,000 yen; and not included with this, they paid the ship owners half a million yen to take them from Japan to Hawaii and return.
This great sum of money was sent from Hawaii to here in Japan, the home of these laborers. As a result, there rose within me the desire to encourage my own Hawaiian friends to take a look at the path taken by the Japanese, starting like this:
Their departure from the land of their birth—Their travelling across the great ocean at great expense—The landing as strangers in Hawaii—Working all sorts of jobs for a boss who is a stranger—Enduring the work—Eating only a little without wasting—Caring for what they have—The results of their putting up with the work, that being millions of dollars.
I believe that this is ample explanation, O Friends of the same womb, for you to think about; for the work has come to your door O Hawaiians—diamonds, gold, and money, right before your eyes; it is not far away like for the Japanese for whom it is far, far away.
Look at the hardships and the facing of the spray of the Pacific Ocean whose distance from Hawaii to Japan is 3,440 miles; this distance and hardships became nothing to them.
And you, O Hawaiians, you wake up in the morning and take up your work, and put in your time working, and not with things that waste your time, as goes the saying of the educated people: “Time is like money.”
And O Mr. Editor, I am sending a copy of the newspaper, “The Tokyo Mail” of August 7th, 1890, and within it you will see all of what this paper has said, and it is for you to patiently translate it all.
As I am preparing to send to you the news above, I have also received from my true friend, J. W. Girvin, Esq., our Hawaiian Consul in the city of San Diego, California, the newspaper “The San Diego Union”. Within this paper, he explained fully the value of coconuts, starting from the trunk to the leaves; we are familiar with coconuts and its value; and with our consul explaining the value of the coconut, I am thinking that there are also other sources of wealth for you, O Hawaiians, like sugarcane, rice, bananas, and so forth.
He explains that coconuts can be found in Hawaii and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, I am sending this paper with hopes that you will translate it for the good of our people, being that it should not be long before Hawaii starts receiving inquiries for coconuts because of this important description of Hawaii’s good friend dealing with the asset not put to use by Hawaiians in the past years.
It is a very admirable thing that the government selects good people with good ideas to search after the well being of the people that conferred upon him that honorable title, Consul, like J. W. Girvin.
When I look at the ideas of this servant of the nation, I know that he is searching while pulling along the minds of entrepreneurs to look to Hawaii to export coconuts, like the other produce exported from Hawaii to other lands.
And should this description of our Consul become something that the wealthy people and trade companies of foreign lands latch on to, then those great fields of coconut from Hopoe until Kahaualea in Puna, Hawaii will become a source of wealth; so too the stands of coconut in the Kona districts, along with those of Maui, Molokai, Oahu and Kauai. And even more so, with the opening these days of new steamship lines which go directly from San Diego to Hawaii. This clarification should be sufficient.
With aloha,
D. Keaweamahi.
No. 9 Fujimi Sho [Fujimi-cho], Kojimachi, Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 13, 1890.
[As we celebrate Merrie Monarch week, Japanese contract laborers is one of Kalakaua’s many legacies…]
(Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, 9/27/1890, p. 2)
Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, Buke XIII, Helu 39, Aoao 2. Sepatemaba 27, 1890.
Some days ago, we had reason to travel about Koolaupoko and Koolauloa, and because of the many wonderful and beneficial things for the people we witnessed in our travels, we are publishing what we saw before us.
PERTAINING TO KEKELE.
We saw some Loi perfect for growing rice; however, we are sad to state that they were fallow and it was not weeded, they were just left wild. Fine is the road from the pali of Nuuanu until
KANEOHE
In this land, it is green from one side to the other, which attests to the non-lazy lifestyle of the people there; the land has ample water, but one thing which saddened us a bit was the seeing of some loi that were left fallow next to the river there on the Heeia side, which caused us to ponder, “Why are these loi not farmed, and planted with rice? They are fine loi supplied and full of water, very good for rice growing. Does our lack of faith and our desire to while away our time still persist? We must discard those feelings, and heed the land, and it will supply us with items that will make this life pleasant. We left that place feeling sad, and travelled on to
HEEIA.
There is not much we saw there, and we went on quickly to
KAHALUU.
There, our eyes were shown things that eased our hearts because of our great joy, when we saw that the kamaaina there did work, and that they did much farming. The one who is leasing the land has started to plant rice; there are perhaps six or more acres. But the somewhat sad thing is the majority of the land suitable for rice cultivation in that Ahupuaa, are just left there without being all farmed; when will it be that if the time is right, we will quickly make up our minds to grasp opportunities to make ourselves rich? Time keeps going quickly. And what of us? Here is what we say, to wake up and to plant your unused loi with rice.
KAALAEA
A haole there is planting rice, and we hear that it is going well; because he resides there, the work is progressing, and our hopes go with him and those others that are working at this valuable endeavor for us Hawaiians and the nation of our beloved Alii.
WAIAHOLE TO KAAAWA.
Waiahole is the first place, in our knowledge, that planted rice; when we began to walk upon the soil of that ahupuaa, our hearts were filled with joy at the sights of that place, and reaching Waikane, all the loi were being farmed, as if it was just one huge farm; we thought to ask who was it that was farming the area, and we were told Messrs. Judd and Wilder (Kale of Kauka and Waila) [Kale of Kauka must be Charles Hastings Judd, the son of Kauka (Gerrit Parmele Judd); so many loi were finely built, and it seemed like almost thirty or more acres; they had thirty-five workers. We see the immediate benefits of growing rice, being that these men were hired, and got paid for their labor, and all this is because of rice; many subjects of the King were provided with jobs, and as a result, perhaps some of those people were prevented from acts which would have caused them to suffer difficulties and problems, because their minds are taken up by work. There are many Loi farmed in Waikane, by J. Fuller (J. Pula), and they are being reworked. The road from Waiahole to Waikane is horrible; it is swampy, and we hear that a horse sunk on this street and its throat was cut. The lower part is boggy, but it is dry on the surface of the earth. There is a fine wooden house standing in Kualoa belonging to Charles Hastings Judd, along with a horse shed, and a carriage house; that place is beginning to become a town.
KAAWA.
This land has a fine appearance, but we did not see a single person who started to grow rice; that is where Mr. Wilder (Waila) resides with a nice wooden house there, with other connected buildings, and life there is luxurious. The road from Kualoa until this land is not good, and in our travels, it was terribly slippery because rain had fallen upon it. After leaving that land and the adjoining lands, we arrived at
KAHANA.
We saw nothing new there, but they did have some rice fields which were located in the uplands; we did not go to see it for ourselves, we just heard of them from the kamaaina; J. M. Kapena and Asing Apakana are the ones doing the farming.
PUNALUU.
This is the rice growing lands of Dr. [Seth] Ford (Kauka Poka) them; they built a wooden house for themselves and a halau for the workers who number 35, and they work without any complaints. Dr. Ford them slaughter two cows as meat for their men for a week. The area that was plowed up is between thirty and forty acres and it is ready to be planted with rice. The work there progresses due to the good treatment by the bosses to their workers; they are anxious to work for Dr. Ford. We all know that if we treat others well, we will be treated well and with aloha.
HAUULA.
We saw some well-farmed land to the southwest of the Church, and the land all about is green. This shows the benefits of the recent showers.
“HOWLAND’SVILLE,” LAIE.
We arrived there at 4 in the evening, and met pleasantly with the Konohiki of that land, and rested our limbs at his house. Captain H. S. Howland (Haulani), the Konohiki of that land is starting to build a wooden house there. Here however is the problem, that being the long wait for the lumber and the other house building materials, because of the delay and the inattentiveness of the captains of the ships that travel there; we believe that if there was a ship that went regularly to Koolaupoko and landed at the harbor of Koolauloa, the materials needed for the Owners [of land] would always be there. After making a start at the home of the landowner, we went to the houses of those living on the land, and we were urged on by an astonishing idea, to question the people of that area about their life under their new landlord. And we are happy to report to our friends, their answer was that their life was very pleasant, without any admonishments or reproach; and because of their great aloha and appreciation for Capt. Howland, they went and gave him many gifts—taro, pig, chicken, and many other things, without pay; it was as if he was a native-born alii; also, they all went quickly to assist him, with things that Capt. Howland needed, on their own accord, without being coerced by him. One kamaaina of that area did not touch work in the least when the land was under the previous Konohiki, but with Capt. Howland, he came to work industriously without complaint, but enthusiastically, without being forced to. The new Land owner of Laie lives together with the people of his land, like brothers of the same family. How pleasant is the life of people like that!
The reason for their love is because their landlord gives them many things, and does not just burden them, or put a restriction on plants or things from the sea. The one who owns the land just wants to live together in peace, and to search for together things that will benefit them all. How could there be no appreciation and love if we treat others well? It is good to remember this, to remind us to treat others with aloha, so that we are loved, when the day comes where we will be blessed to become land owners.
GOLD IN KAHALUU.
There was so much commotion amongst the Hawaiians and haole at the news that there was Gold in Kahaluu; there were many people who came from Honolulu to the place where Gold was thought to be. Many Hawaiians from Koolaupoko came with Oo, Pickaxes, Shovels and other things, preparing them to dig.
When it was heard that there was real Gold on that land, the news flew from house to house like firebrand. Those who first spotted it went immediately, making ready with dynamite powder. However, before those people who first witnessed the Gold reached Kahaluu, the news reached the people of that land, and they were roused. Therefore, about 60 kanaka maoli and 2 haole got together with weapons to expel all those who came to that area thought to have Gold. So when the haole came that wanted to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the Gold of that place, they were sent away.
Following that time, a hole was bored into a rock to place dynamite and explode to see if there was Gold within it or not. People stood together there waiting in anticipation for the rock to break.
In the evening of the 18th, the hole dug in the rock was finally deep enough, and it was blasted, and the rock was shattered, the tiny pieces flew. There was however no Gold found. Many pieces were taken to Honolulu, and were looked at by experts, but there was no Gold found.
[Under all the disparaging comments and the obvious push for rice cultivation, you can glean some historical information of what the windward side of Oahu looked like a 150 years ago. There are followup articles in the papers speaking of how the true gold of Hawaii is found through farming the land…
For more information on the history of rice in Hawaii, see: RICE IN HAWAII: A GUIDE TO HISTORICAL RESOURCES, compiled and annotated by Karol Haraguchi.]
(Kuokoa, 2/22/1862, p. 2)
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke I, Helu 13, Aoao 2. Feberuari 22, 1862.
nupepa 