The Lands of Hawaii THEIR USE AND MISUSE Thomas H. Creighton THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF HAWAII X Honolulu Copyright © 1978 by The University Press of Hawaii All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo­ copying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Creighton, Thomas Hawk. The lands of Hawaii. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Land use—Hawaii—History. I. Title. HD211.H3C73 333.7’09969 77-16124 ISBN 0-8248-0482-1 For GW EN ! Contents Preface ix Prologue: Hawaii’s Green Heritage 1 part 1: The Story of Hawaii’s Lands 15 1. The Loss of the Past 17 2. Paths to the Present 42 3. The Lure of the New 60 4. Memories and Expectations 82 part 2: The Worth of Hawaii’s Lands 111 5. Source of Pleasure 115 6. Source of Sustenance 131 7. Source of Shelter 149 8. Source o f Wealth 169 9. Source of Power 196 part 3: The Fate of Hawaii’s Lands 227 10. Programs and Policies 233 11. Plans Without Purpose 251 12. Reshaping Urban Space 284 13. To Preserve and Enhance 299 14. Closing the Options 332 viii CONTENTS Epilogue: Scenario for the Future 359 Notes 365 Bibliography 397 Index 411 Preface Mahalo A grant-in-aid from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts made possible the research and much of the writing for this book, particularly regarding urban design and environ­ mental planning in Hawaii. The writer is most grateful for this assistance. Any study of Hawaii’s recent past depends largely on material which is available in the several excellent libraries and depositories in Honolulu and the informed as­ sistance of their librarians and staffs. This writer is especially thankful for information gained in the Archives of Hawaii, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society and the Hawaiian Historical Society libraries (now housed in the same mission building), and the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections in Sin­ clair Library of the University of Hawaii. Great thanks are due historian-writer Gavan Daws for reading the manuscript and suggesting many improvements. Alfred Preis, director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, was most helpful with advice, particularly on urban design and land planning. Notwithstanding this coun­ sel, interpretation of events and opinions on their significance X PREFACE are, of course, the writer’s own responsibility, as are any faults in fact, disregard of salient data, and slips in style. Hawaiian Words Hawaii’s native Polynesian language is all but lost to com­ mon usage. Some older, proud Hawaiians, fewer in number each year, know their forebears’ mellifluent tongue, but for most of the population of the islands individual words are all that remain of the Hawaiian language. Many of these words have become substitutes which the English-speaking newcom­ ers have adopted to use along with the haole kam a’ainas and the locals. No one who has lived for any time in Hawaii speaks of having difficulty; the trouble is pilikia.' One no longer refers to a hole in something; the cavity is a puka. Assistance is kokua; gratitude for it is expressed as mahalo. Few of these words have the precise meanings that their translations into English imply; when the missionaries tried to express the poetic, allusive Hawaiian language in more familiar terms and reduce it to a written medium they faced a difficult task. The Hawaiiana scholar Martha Beckwith recognized “the fondness for indirect speech in the everyday language of the people” and found half a dozen possible translations of the preface to a chant. Yet to understand the early Hawaiians’ concern for and use of their land, one must try to learn the meanings, or the implications, of the terms they used. Some words are direct and descriptive: the ahupua'a, a major land division that usually extended from the uplands to the ocean, was so named, apparently, because its boundaries were marked by a heap (ahu) of stones and tax for its use was paid by a pig (puaa) laid upon an altar. Others, more figurative, have in­ ferential shifts in meaning. Kuleana, word for the small piece of land on which the Hawaiian commoner lived and farmed, also meant any right or title, jurisdiction or authority, func­ tion or responsibility. “ That’s not my kuleana,” have dis­ claimed many developers when they were asked to preserve PREFACE XI the environment. Following is a brief glossary of words used in this book whose primary, generally understood meanings must be known to appreciate certain passages in the history of land in Hawaii. To indicate their pronunciation the accepted phonetic clues are given: hyphens (-) separating word/syllables; macrons (a) showing where stress occurs and vowels are long; and glottal stops (‘), almost consonants in themselves, with a sound like that between the oh's in oh-oh. (Remember too that most vowels are pronounced individually—in their unstressed state with a as in above, e as in bet, i as in city, o as in sole, and u like oo in moon.) ‘a‘a brittle, rough lava ahupua'a basic land division ali’i chief aloha love, kindness, greeting, farewell haole white person hapa half, part, as in hapa-haole heiau temple hui association, partnership hula a dance •Hi land division within ahupua'a kahuna priest, sorcerer, expert kama ‘aina native-born kanaka human being, subject kane man, husband kapu taboo, prohibition konohiki headman, landlord, agent kuhina premier, regent kuleana small land division commonly for individual livelihood lau hala pandanus leaf mahele division, share maka 'ainana commoner makai toward the ocean malihini stranger, newcomer mauka inland, toward the mountain mele song, chant moku major land district Xll PREFACE m o‘o land division within ahupua'a mu ‘umu ‘u long, loose gown nui great, important pahoehoe smooth, hard lava pili a grass used for thatching pilikia trouble ‘ulu maika game with small stone wahine woman, wife Place Names Hawaiian place names are meaningful, and very often an understanding of the meaning adds tremendously to apprecia­ tion of the place.2 Knowing the proper phonation of a place name is essential to understanding its meaning, but even kamaainas in Hawaii today, even those with native back­ grounds, are inclined to be careless about the way they pronounce them and heedless of their meanings. The most blatant instance must be the distortion of Kamehameha when the word is used to identify a territory. Hawaii’s first islands-wide ruler was called Ka-mehameha, The Lonely One, with the article ka (“ the” ) followed by the adjective meha- meha, meaning lonely or solitary. The Kamehameha High­ way, however, is generally known as Kam Highway—with the a flat as in fat. This writer had hoped at one time to write all Hawaiian words used in this book, including place names, with their phonetic signals. That is really the only way to distinguish, for instance, between the first letters in the written word Ka-imu-ki (a neighborhood mauka of Diamond Head), which means the (that ka sound again) underground cooking oven, or imu, and Kai-mu (a village on the island of Hawaii), where kai means sea and mu is a gathering together, so that Kai-mu was a place where people gathered to watch surfing. The result of such conscientiousness, however, would have been a clumsy-looking page to the reader of English, interfer­ ing with the intended course of the writing. Following is a listing of names of some of the places mentioned most often PREFACE Xlll in the book, simply to indicate the richness of this resource. Again phonetic clues to their spelling and pronunciation are given, as well as indications of their literal meanings. Hanalei village on Kaua‘i (crescent bay) Honolulu city on O'ahu, capital of state (protected bay) Ho'okena village on Hawai'i (to satisfy thirst) Ka-‘ena point of land on O'ahu (the heat) Ka-hului town on Maui (the winning) Kai-lua town on O'ahu, also Hawai'i, also Maui (two sea currents) Kane-'ohe town on O'ahu (bamboo-sharp—cruel—husband) Ke-ala-ke-kua village, and bay on Hawai'i (pathway of the god) Kona leeward districts on most islands (leeward) Lahaina town on Maui (cruel sun) Llhu‘e city on Kaua'i (cold chill) Makaha village, valley, bay on O'ahu (fierce) P o‘ipu town, beach, on Kaua'i (crashing, as waves) Wahi-a-wa town on O'ahu (place of noise) Wai-klkl beach, tourist area, on O'ahu (spouting water) Wai-luku city, on Maui (destructive water) I Prologue: Hawaii’s Green Heritage ON the leeward coast of the island of Oahu there lies a stretch of land at the entrance to a beautiful valley that the Hawaiians called Makaha. The ocean shore at Makaha arcs to form a fine sandy beach, and a close-in reef breaks the waves high, ideal for surfing. Mauka, inland from the sea, the land rises slowly at first to enter a wide, lush valley between rugged ridges, steepening as it leads upward toward the peak of the Waianae mountain range. Several hundred years ago there was a quiet Hawaiian village in Makaha Valley, and a rough boulder trail came down toward it from the highlands above, dotted with houses along the way. One branch of the path led to a heiau, a tem­ ple, in the foothills; another went past the cluster of homes in the valley mouth and the lands on which the people grew taro and yam, later joining the coastal trail that circled the island.