Statewide County HI Archives History - Books .....Chapter 07, Pages 40-42 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J Orr orr@hawaii.com August 9, 2009, 5:19 am Book Title: The Story Of Hawaii And Its Builders Builders page 40-42 The Story of Hawaii An Historical Outline of the Hawaiian Islands By Howard D. Case Chapter VII Page 40 HAWAII SINCE ANNEXATION The quarter of a century which has elapsed since the establishment of territorial government in Hawaii has been one of increasing progress and prosperity. Population has grown until today it has passed 300,000, and the city of Honolulu, the capital, is rapidly approaching the hundred thousand mark. There has been a tremendous advancement in business and commerce, and the principal industries, together with those of a minor nature, are in a sound condition throughout the islands. Many public improvements and enterprises were launched at Honolulu and elsewhere in the islands a good many years before thoughts of annexation to America had developed into anything tangible. By 1890 the development of the resources of the islands, under the stimulus of the reciprocity treaty with the United States, had surpassed all expectations, and production of the principal staples, sugar and rice, had increased to eight times what it had been prior to the treaty. The total value of domestic exports increased more than six times, and the total revenues more than trebled. Much of this new wealth was invested in public and private improvements, and the government was spending for schools and public health three times as much as it had expended prior to 1876. By a law enacted in 1896 the English language became the medium of instruction in all schools. On March 23, 1888, Honolulu was lighted for the first time by electricity. What is today the large line of steamers operating among the islands had its beginning in 1859 when the Hawaiian Steam Navigation Company was organized, and when, in the following year, the steamer Kilauea, 414 tons, made its first regular trip between Honolulu and Hawaii. In 1879 a railway on the Island of Maui, the first to be built in Hawaii, was begun. In 1881 the construction of a railway in Kohala, Island of Hawaii, was started, and the work was completed the following year. The Honolulu street tramway system was completed in 1889, and during the same year the first railroad on the island of Oahu was completed as far as the Ewa district. The first line of telegraph, which was later changed to telephone, was installed between Haiku and Wailuku, island of Maui, in 1878, and in 1882 telephones were first introduced in Honolulu and Hilo. Irrigation was begun in many localities, resulting in the reclamation to sugar culture of large areas of lands. In July, 1879, the first artesian well in the islands was bored at Ewa, near Honolulu. From 1873 until 1891 a number of new institutions were founded, including the Kamehameha Schools, the Lunalilo Home for Aged and Dependent Hawaiians, St. Louis College, the Kohala Girls? School, the Lihue Industrial School, the Bishop Home for Girls at Kalaupapa, Molokai, the Honolulu Library and the Young Men?s Christian Association Hall. ADVANCES IN COMMUNICATIONS Robert W. Wilcox, one of the leaders in the movement for the restoration of the monarchy, was elected Hawaii?s first delegate to Congress in 1900, and in the same year a coal depot which the United States government had established at Honolulu was raised to the status of a naval station. In 1901 the first radio communication among the islands was established by what is today the Mutual Telephone Co. of Honolulu, and the city saw the replacement of horse-drawn tram cars by electric street cars. On Dec. 28, 1902, the Pacific Commercial cable, linking Hawaii with the American mainland, was landed at Honolulu, and in the same year Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, Republican, was elected delegate to Congress, a position which he held for more than twenty consecutive years. Surveys of Pearl Harbor, with a view to the establishment of a naval station there, were also begun in that year. Page 41 In 1903 George R. Carter was appointed second governor of Hawaii, and the same year saw the beginning of condemnation proceedings to acquire Pearl Harbor for a naval station, the entry of the first vessel into the Pearl Harbor lochs, and the beginning of cable communication with the mainland. County government was established by a legislative act of 1905, and in 1907 Walter F. Frear was appointed third governor of Hawaii. The same year also saw the completion of the Mutual Telephone Co.?s radio station at Kahuku, Oahu, and in 1908 the American Fleet visited the islands on its war around the world, and work was begun on the construction of the Pearl Harbor naval station and drydock. Dredging for the Pearl Harbor drydock was begun in 1909, and in the same year municipal government for Honolulu was inaugurated with Joseph J. Fern as the first mayor. Introduction of aviation into Hawaii occurred in 1910 when ?Bud? Mars made flights at Honolulu, and the second federal census was taken, showing a population of 191,900. In 1921, on July 9, Congress passed the Hawaiian Homes Act providing for the rehabilitation of Hawaiians and part- Hawaiians by setting aside public lands for settlement by them, and in 1924 Congress enacted the ?Hawaiian Bill of Rights,? by which the territory was included in federal appropriations for vocational education, citizen rehabilitation, road construction and maintenance, and maternity and infancy hygiene. PROGRESS ON SOUND BASIS Such things as bank failures in Hawaii are virtually unknown. In fact, the modern history of Hawaii records but two instances. Panics, as the mainland knows them, are unknown in the territory. The credit of the island community is remarkably high. This is reflected in the ready market for territorial public improvement bonds. Prudent financing, careful husbandry of resources, and always the effort to develop the islands to the highest degree of fruitfulness, characterize the growth of this American territory. The manufacture of raw sugar, practically all of which is sent to the American mainland for refining, constitutes the territory?s largest and most important industry. The history of sugar manufacture dates back to 1819, the year before the arrival of the American missionaries, when Don Francisco De Paula Marin, who had come in 1791, made small quantities of sugar and molasses. In 1820 about 150 tons of sugar were manufactured and, as there is no record of export, it is presumed it was all consumed in the country. By 1828 a considerable amount of sugar cane was being grown in the neighborhood of Honolulu, and mills were built in Nuuanu Valley and at Waikapu, Maui. The beginning of the industry on anything approaching a permanent basis was in 1835 when Ladd & Co., a Honolulu mercantile establishment, obtained a grant of land from King Kamehameha III and started a small sugar plantation at Koloa, Kauai. It is reported that this mill produced two tons of sugar in 1836, and that in 1840 sugar valued at $18,000 was exported. From that time on the story of the industry is one of rapid growth, and today the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui and Kauai are dotted with sugar mills of the most modern type. Illustrative of the remarkable growth of the industry is the fact that in 1895 Hawaii produced 151,215 tons of sugar from cane grown on 46,399 acres, while in 1924 it produced slightly in excess of 700,000 tons from cane grown on approximately 115,000 acres. One must again turn back the pages of history to the time of Don Marin, the Spaniard, to find the beginning of the pineapple industry in Hawaii, for it was he who set out some pineapple slips in the Kona district, Island of Hawaii, in 1813, where they continue to grow in a semi-wild state and were highly regarded by the natives. It was not until 1882, however, that Captain John Kidwell came to Honolulu to lay the foundation Page 42 for the industry of today. In 1885 he planted a number of small fields in Manoa Valley to pineapples. During 1891 and 1892 experiments in the canning of pineapples where made, and the first pineapple cannery was started at Apokaa, now a part of Ewa plantation, Island of Oahu. The first small shipment of canned pineapple left the islands in 1892. The growth of this industry, now second in importance only to sugar, has been remarkably rapid in recent years. In 1903 canned pineapple to the amount of 1893 cases were exported, while in 1924 the total outturn was in excess of 6,000,000 cases. The twenty-five years which have elapsed since Hawaii became an integral part of the United States have seen the investment of millions of dollars, by both the government and by private enterprises, for the development of territory. Transportation among the islands has been developed to a high degree and the last several years have recorded remarkable progress in the growth of transportation between Hawaii and the American mainland. Each of the principal islands of the group has its railways, telephone systems, modern wharves and other utilities which indicated the steady advance of progress. Since annexation the territorial government, aided in part by the federal government, has developed harbors and constructed wharves in order to keep pace not only with the increase of inter-island commerce, but with the growth of shipping in the Pacific. Good roads are to be found on all of the islands. Honolulu with a population of almost 100,000, is a city that is modern in every respect. It has approximately four miles of developed waterfront, and its business district, now occupying an area of several square miles, has many buildings of the most modern type. In the territory today there are 1028 Hawaiian corporations with a total capitalization of $249,452,798, and of these corporations 108 were incorporated before August 12, 1898, and 920 were incorporated after that date. There are 29 banks, with deposits totaling $56,495,762. During the quarter of a century that Hawaii has been a territory of the United States, remarkable progress has been made in the development of the islands. Public utilities have been developed to a high degree, millions have been spent in the development of harbors and on road construction, and industries have prospered. A bright future lies before the ?crossroads of the Pacific.? (Author?s Note-In compiling this brief history of Hawaii, the author desires to acknowledge valuable assistance from Alexander?s History of Hawaii, the files of The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and Mr. Albert Pierce Taylor, librarian of the Archives of Hawaii.) Additional Comments: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. With which is Incorporated Volume III Men of Hawaii. An historical outline of Hawaii with biographical sketches of its men of note and substantial achievement, past and present, who have contributed to the progress of the Territory, edited by George F. Nellist. Published by Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/history/1925/storyofh/chapter09nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 11.7 Kb