The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-27

The proposal Tor a monument to
Kamehameha the Great, the Conquer
or, was made by Walter Murray Glib
son, and the Legislative Assembly Of
1873 made an appropriation of $4,000
to provide for the monument to COM
memorate the discovery of the group
by Captain James Cook, and special
committee consisting of Messrs. Glib
son, Kapena, Kaai Cleghorn and Ma
wahi, was appointed to carry out the
work.
The Boston artist, Mr.. T. r. Gould,
was commissioned to design the
statue Goulds reputation as an artist
rested on an admirable portrait statue
of the WAR Governor Andrews Of
Massachusetts and some other excel
lent works. J. w. Austin and E. M.
Brewer former residents of Hawaii,
on behalf of the committee, entered in
to a contract with Mr.. Gould for the
statue. It was stipulated that the
statue should be of bropZe, heroic size
The statue was to be eight feet six
inches in height from the p1inth to
the top of the helmet and was to be
placed on a. pedestal ten feet high. The
statute was to be of bronze but the
feather cloak, helmet and other por-
tions of the costume. of gold bronze.
The contract included the four bronze
tablets in bas relief to be let into the
sides of the pedestal.
The artist was furnished as model
material a copy of the original Kotze-
bue portrait of the Conqueror. an en-
graved portrait taken from life in 1916
and published in D'Urville's works,
photogra phs of several Hawaiians or
| fine physical proportions arrayed in
| the ancient royal feather cleak, he'll
] met, baldric and belt as worn by ka-
| mehameha and also designs of the an
| cient Hawaiian spear. The statue was
designed by the artist in Boston, but
| was executed in Florence. Italy, and
was shipped from Leghorn in 1880.
! In due time the statue was made
and shipped for Honolulu by "a sail
| ing vessel coming round Cape Horn.
Somewhere off the Falkland Islands
| the ship was burned and sunk, and the
| statue supposed to be hopelessly lost.
The statue having been insured, a
replica was ordered and paid for with
the insurance money. This in due time
arrived and was unveiled in its pres
! ent position in front of what is now
the Judiciary building, February IA
1883, a large crowd being in attendance
and an Grafton delivered by Mr.. Glib
son, who had become premier in the
then existing Ministry.
Meantime some enterprising person
had recovered the original statue from
the wreck. and it was bought on spec
/ uIation by the captain of ship calling
at the Falklands, and by him brought
to Honolulu.
The members of the government and
people generally were naturally very
much surprised at this resurrection OF
a work of art supposed to be at the
bottom of the sea. However, after
some negotiations, the government
bought the resurrected statue and II
was set up in Kohala, that being con
sidered, for historical reasons, the mos
appropriate place outside of Honolulu
King Kalakaua and several members
OF the government attended the inau'
guration of the statue at Kohala and
il was during the absence of John z
/ Rush. then Minister of the Interior
on this errand. that his wife was
killed by being thrown off a horse or
the Pail road
The Inauguration OF the statue was
made part of the festivities connected
with the coronation of the king.
THE HEIAU.
| According to Thomas G. Thrum com
paratfvely little is known, and less
has been published, concerning the
ceremonial of the heiau, or in particu'
lar the uses of the various portions
Of the heiau The naturalist Of the
Kotzebue expedition claimed TO have
taken part in some OF the heiau cere'
| ~~o,;aT ar5 his account Of vfia- ne
saw was published in Russian. Mr.
Thr,1m has just learned OF a German
| translation of this and has sent FOL
II. Fernandez wrote more or less or
the subject and DR.. Bond OF kohals
engaged in a newspaper controversy
with Fernandez on some points o.
-. r-ornnndnr.l M lolfshed thus pre-.