The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-02
Another Addition to Contributions
on The Subject.
DATE AND CAUSE OF DESIGN
Symb oliSm of the COlOrs-Wh.te,
Red and Blue-Union Jack.
a Change Made.
(By Jas. w. Girvin.)

The Hawaiian Flag was invented
about 1913 at the suggestion of an Am |
erican. Prior to that date the flag of
Great Britain was used as the ensign
of Hawaii There is no doubt or the
friendship which existed between Ka-
mehameha and the great explorer, Van
couver, who had shown much kindness
to him and his people and probably on
receipt of a present of a British nag
the King was pleased TO adopt it as the
ensign of his country. On the break
ing out of the war of 1872, between
Great Britain and America, kameha-
meha / was solicitous that he be not
considered an ally of either of these
great powers, with both of whom he
was in friendly relations He, there
fore, decided to adopt an ensign which
at once should show his friendship to
both and at the same time would dis
play his independence of either.
The inventor of the flag was no
doubt the King, himself, and the MAX
err of it under his directions, was Capt.
Geo. C. Beckley, an Englishman who
had been made high chief, and whose
descendants are still amongst us.
The King said that the adoption OF
the Union Jack" was to demonstrate
his friendship for England. The
Union jack named so from it's being
a union of the crosses of st. George, ST.
Andrew, and ST. Patrick, and which
was called the meteor flag of England"
was invented after the union with Ire
land in 1901.
BY adopting the stripes and tricolor
of America he showed his friendship
to that country, and the tout ensemble
of the flag linked his with the two
greatest commercial countries of the
world.
The King understood the meaning of
the three colors better than he did that
of the three crosses.
He ordered white, Symbolical of pur-
ity and sincerity, for the uppermost
stripe, nothing being higher than the
sun from whence emanates the brill
liant white light by which all things
are discerned. The ancient priests in
variably wore white tapa garments
when officiating at any propitiatory
sacrifice
In ignorance of the wisdom of Ka-
mehameha, the Great, in adopting
white for the upper bar, many natives
of late years have acclaimed against
it, saying that it presaged that the
white man would eventually rule the
land. Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III,
had no such presentiment. The motto
he adopted for the Hawaiian coat of
arms, "Ua mau Ike ca ka alma i ka
pono" the breath of the land is con-
tinued through Righteousness is the
highest sentiment to be found on the
escutcheon of any of the nations of
the earth. Had the Hawaiian rulers
lived up to it the whites would never
have dominated the land.
The King ordered red as the color for
the second bar, as it was a color very
highly priced by the people, it being
symbolical of blood, (which is the life"
Singular it is that this is the only color
which will not fade and has been held
in as high esteem by royalty as purple
among the nations. The best red we
know of is manufactured from the
cochineal and is in reality the blood of
that insect.
He ordered blue for the lowermost
stripe, blue being Il symbol of continu-
ity, in the hope that his Kingdom would
continue forever From the azure vault
Of heaven which encircles the globe and
IDS Qeep DluS sea WHICH
the Islands his idea of continuity was
obtained.
These three stripes were thrice re-
peated. AT the present time the legally
adopted flag of Hawaii is minus the
lower or blue stripe, as the Hawaiian
Flag, as seen and described by Capt
de Freycinet, floating at Kawaihae and
over the fort at Honolulu in 1917.
At what time this last bar was
dropped, or why, history sayeth not.
II may be that some ingenious person,
wishing to make a more symetrical
flag, or one of better proportions,
dropped the ninth bar and soothed the
Hawaiians by suggesting that the eight
remaining bars represented the eight
inhabited islands of the group This
was absurd, as late discoveries have
proven that Niihau was as much an in
habited island as Kakoolawe. How
| ever, we have the Hawaiian Flag as it
| is and It has been universally admired.
| We trust it will long remain the State
| Flag of Hawaii. 1t is a singular CO.
| incidence that at this period OF the
| worlds history when the great Anglo
Saxon nations, Great Britain and Am
erica, are approaching so near to one
| another in great alliance, that the
| latter should have annexed a people
| whose flag was combination of those
OF the two, and probably just in time to
| save that flag from being absorbed by
| an aggressive oriental nation.
JAMES w. GIRVIN.