The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-03-25
The Postal Service.

Previous to the year 1850, there was no Post
Office in these Islands. Vessels arriving from for
eign ports, bringing mail matter-letters or
newspapers delivered the same at the counting
room of the consignee. There the bags were
opened, the contents tumbled out on a table, sur
rounded by a crowd of e~xpectant and excited
people, who shufied and picked and assorted to
suit themselves. Old residents will remember
that the store of Brewer & Co. (Which then stood
on Fort street, on the spot now occupied as a
grocery by Henry May) was generally the place
TO which the rails were taken on their arrival
" from home," and there the whole foreign popa-
lation of " the village . was wont to assemble
when the few and far-between letter bags were
known to have been received. In the scramble.
many a letter got into the wrong hands, and as
for newspapers, they were almost looked upon as
public prepertyoit was quite legitimate to carry
off as many as you could lay your hands on, with
the understanding however, that as public prop
erty they were to be g passed around"
In the matter of inter-island correspondence, a
still more delightful state of uncertainty existed.
There was no law on the subject of carrying
mails by the coasters, but the practice was for the
masters on their arrival at Honolulu, to leave all
letters previously uncalled for at the Custom
House, and the Collector thus became e~x-offcio
the ~st-mast But the custom was often UNI
observed through carelessness of shippers, and
punctuality in correspondence was difficult to
obtain. Letters were sometimes hidden away in
lockers until the perhaps important purpose for
which they were written was forgotten. We
recollcct an instance in which a gentleman en-
barking at Kona for Honolulu in 1853, CHANGING
to look into tue table drawer in the schooner's
cabin, found there a letter on business matters
that had been addressed to him from Hilo, bear
ing the date of l845. That letter had been on its
travels eight years, from port to port, for it was
nobody's business to see that it reached its desti-
nation.
1t is to private enterprise and energy that we
owe the establishment of a Postofice at Homo
lulu, and as a consequence, the organized postal
system throughout the Islands which we now
enjoy. In the year 1850, Mr.. 81. NJ. Whitney
obtained permission from the Government to par
titio1 of a portion of the publication room of the
's Polynesian . newspaper, to be used az a place
in which to- receive and distribute the foreign
mails. A few boxes were put up, lettered and
speedily leased by the public, who of course were
not slow to appreciate and avail themselves of the
Improvement. The difficulties met in the begin
ming Of the enterprise were many, and the
progress was slow, but perseverance and constant
application soon made the Post-of6ce So Unnecessary
an institution that people wondered how they
had managed to get along without. Mr.. Whitney
is unquestionably entitled to the honor of being
remembered as the father of the Hawaiian Post
Office.
In March, 1854, the Office, the business of
which had rapidly increased, was removed to the
House, where it has remained up to the
present week, a period of seventeen years After
filing the position of POSTMASTER for six years
from the commencement of the service, Mr. Whit
ney resigned in 1856, on the occasion of his
establishing the PAcIF1e CoNHERcIAL ADVERTISER,
md was succeeded by Mr.. j. jackson, who died
in 1859. Mr.. Alvah K. Clarke followed in the