The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1920-04-09

'NA wv uiAh q Ntlg DIdNt
warrior.
There were ~jealousies. friction and
trouble between the people of all the
islands. They were constantly at
war, thus neglecting their crops and
destroying property. Kamehameha
banded a wonderful army together
and after bloody and fierce battles,
they conquered first the rival chiefs
and their followers on Hawaii. and
gradually overcame those on the 9TH
er islands. Maui, Molokai, Lanai,
Oahu and last of all Kauai and Niihau.
1t is said that as many as sixteen
thousand men in canoes crossed the
channels from one island to another
in time of battles, and at one time the
beach at Kaunakakai was lined for
four miles with canoes.
Having conquered all the islands,
the land everywhere Kamehameha
made his own, and then divided it.
Order was established, and the laws
and customs of the different islands
were blended. Agriculture was IN
couraged, and roads made. Kameha-
meha was in the prime of his life
when Capt. Cook discovered the is
lands.
II Ahbu oN olfIl was really an eN-
preston of the political life of the
people and Kamehameha rigidly en-
forced it as a means of political con-
troll. The most trusted men in his
court were selected as governors of
the different islands, and loyalty and
ability had much to do with the estab-
lishment of the royal power on a
solid basis. In appointing the gov
| prnnrc Z rnah n,pIo o1r-,,-- I,l -
gard for fidelity and capacity rather
than to rank. The most radical
change made by him in the govern
ment of the islands were in the direc-
ton of centralizing all power in his
own person.
Kamehameha had several wives. but
the favOrite was Kaahumanu. She
was born on Maui about 1873 at the
foot of the hill Kauiki, on the eastern
coast of Hama. She was seventeen
years old when she married Kameha-
meha, who her was about fifty. She
was spr.ghtly, beautiful, engaging,
full of spirit and independence md
yet dign;fed.
She was made premier anu was her
husbands wise counsellor in all the
important business of the nation. The
questions of life and death and right
and wrong were for her to decide. She
received and acknowledged the rev
enue of the kingdom and delivered it
to the king. The words and acts of
the kingdom by the premier are the
bwords and acts of the king"-and
The king shall not transact public
business without the concurrence of
the premier"-were some of the laws.
The descent of rank through the
female line gave the women a place
of importance and often elevated her
to the topmost station. AS queen or
regent she had unlimited political pow
er, but even so there were strict laws
which forbade the highest woman
from eating with the humblest
nor food prepared in the same oven.
She was excluded from the interior
of the heiaus. For a to look
at an idol in front of a heiau even
accidentally, meant death, and they
had been hurled over a precipice fac
ing the sea onto the rocks below, for
| glancing into a gate of a tabu heiau.
Chicken and pork were tabu to wo-
men.
Because of Kamehameha's esteem
and affection for Kaahumanu, and the
lack of great qualities in his son Ii
hOliho, he originated the office of
premier for her. She shared almost
equal authority over the country with
Kamehameha and after his death, the
high rank and authority of Kaahuma-
nu, supported by several women of
noble blood, furnished the opportunity
which had not occurred before for a
J queen of such rank and power; such
extensive influence ver the whole
group, to assert the rights of women
and to protest against the %unreason-
able disabilities under which they had
been placed. Kaahumanu desired
equal privileges with the men in re-
spect TO eating and drinking, and
therefore wished to abolish the "tabu".
She made n decree abolisbing idola-
try and sent messengers to all Thesis
lands to proclaim the tabus at an end'
All the islands united in a jubilee over
their new freedom.
Liholiho wished to take back the
J lands for redistribution among his
lfavorites, but Kaahumanu wisely pre-
vented this, so that the lands in most
parts remained as Kamehameha had
divided them. Liholiho bore the title
of Kamehameha IL, but had not the
authority to do anything without the
consent of Kaahumanu. He discard
ed the good old counsellors of his
father and spent his time in idleness
and revelry. While on a visit to Eng
land he and his wife both died.
After the missionaries came in
1920, and started schools, Kaahumanu
Joined the classes and studied with
the humblest of her subjects. She
became very religious and tremendous
ly interested in learning to read and
write and sew. Never doing anything
by halves, she later started out with
a retinue of twelve hundred people in
small vessels and visited all the is
lands. travelling for nine months,
searching for, and destroying all the
idols left, and urging the people to
learn to read and write and learn of
religion. They gathered in great
| croUIc IN hear her