The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-14
FINE FARE
OF HISTORY
DR.. Alexander on Tonga
Two Contributions
From Boston.

Three highly interesting papers were
read before the Hawaiian Historical
Society last night, with a fair attend
ance of ladies and gentlemen present,
the publication of which as ordered
will make one of the best numbers of
that organizations records yet issued
THE HAWAIIAN FLAG.
First was a paper entitled, 'The
Reversal of the Hawaiian Flag" writ
ten by Howard NJ. Ballou of Boston
and read by his brother, Sidney NJ
Ballou Of Honolulu. From this paper
it would appear that the ensign of
the Territory of Hawaii had passed
through more changes than the form
Of government of the Hawaiian Is
lands itself
1.-THE conventional arrangement of
the three colors comprising the eight
stripes of the Hawaiian flag" Mr.. Bal
lou opened, his essay by saying, would
lead one to expect the familiar order,
red, white, blue, red, white, blue, red,
and white, whereas it is found exactly
reversed, starting with the white and
followed in order by red, blue. white,
red, blue, White, and red"
Thrum Is then quoted in his article of
1880 as saying: Capt. Hunt, who was
here in the Basilisk in 1845, is said to
have changed the relative position of
the colors of the stripes by placing the
white on top instead of at the bottom,
though there is possibility of this
being the time of adding the eighth
stripe, Jarves and Byron mentioning
only seven,
Then Thrum in 1888 quotes from the
Polynesian of May 81, 1845, that, "At
the opening of the legislative council.
May 25, 1S45, the new national BAN
ner was unfurled, differing little, how
ever, from the former with heraldic
description showing the flag then as
now known.
IAN incident related to the writer by
Mr.. Gorham D. Gilman, for many
years Hawaiian Consul General to the
United States the essayist proceeds.
throws new light on the question, and
dates the change two years earlier, in
1843, at the time of the restoration Of
the sovereignty Of the islands by Eng
land. Mr.. Gilman, then the only white
boy on the islands, is now, at the age
of eighty-two, probably the sole sur
viving witness of the events Of that
time.''
Mr.. Gilman's story has it that when
Lord George Paulet secured the ces-
sion of the islands to England in Feb,
1S43. he ordered all Hawaiian flags to.
be destroyed. The order was so strict
ly obeyed that when, in the following
July, the U. S. frigate Constellation.
Commodore Kearney. anchored off Ho-
nolulu and invited the young princes
aboard, not a flag could be got from
shore when the commander desired one
to, use in paying royal honors to his
guests. Commodore Kearney accord
ingly was obliged to have one made
bv his sailmaker, which. hoisted at
his fore was saluted by royal sa-
lutte of q guns as his guests arrived,
much to the joy of the Americans and
the cha grin of the English
John Ii informed Mr.. Gilman that,
at the time of the restoration of the
sovereignty by Rear Admiral Thomas,
lit had been decided to reverse the
order of the stripes in the flag, putting
the color formerly at the top at the
bottom, thus emblematizing the recent
overturn of government Mr.. Gilman
gives the exact words of Judge Ii in
their translation being:
'The time of Lord George has pass
ed the new times have come in. we
intend to reverse the flag of Hawaii.
What was formerly the upper stripe
will be placed at the bottom"
MI Ballou says that a systematic
search through all Of the literature
likely to contain mention of the Ha-
waiian flag has brought to light
dozen descriptions, most of them not
noted by previous investigators. No