Opinion ID: 1182352
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hawaiian Usage Prior to January 1, 1893

Text: As indicated previously in this opinion, see pt. II.B. supra, central to Hawaiian culture prior to the advent of western influence was a sophisticated system of water regulation. Early Caucasian explorers, including Cook in 1778, Vancouver in 1798, and Campbell in 1809 commented with amazement and admiration on the complicated and technically advanced network of canals utilized by the Hawaiians in irrigating their crops. See Wadsworth 125. Modern historians of Hawaiian civilization confirm the existence of these irrigation systems. See, e.g., E.S. Handy & E.G. Handy, Native Planters in Old Hawaii 62-63 (1972); R. Kuykendall & A. Day, Hawaii: A History 9, 91 (1948); A. Perry, A Brief History of Hawaiian Water Rights 3-7 (1912); Wadsworth 125-36. It has been noted already that under the ancient system of land tenure, the konohiki of an ahupuaa or ili kupono was given control over the surplus water originating on the land, albeit subject to the king's ultimate power of disseizin. The konohiki had plenary authority to demand the production of labor for the construction and maintenance of auwais, and also to marshal the water resources of the ahupuaa or ili kupono according to his perception of the relative agricultural and domestic needs of the hoaainas living thereupon. Wadsworth 129-31. Traditionally, it was always within the power of the konohiki to divert water from lands on the ripa of a stream to other lands which were not appurtenant to the stream and which, indeed, had always theretofore been kula. See Territory v. Gay, 31 Haw. 376, 399-400 (1930); Hutchins 84-85. While it is true that these diversions from wet taro lands to kula lands for the most part occurred within the confines of a single watershed, this was probably only due to the absence of the technology required for the transportation of water across mountain ridges. [35] See Wong Leong v. Irwin, 10 Haw. 265, 271-272 (1896). As stated in Irwin, however, [t]here is no difference in principle between a transfer [of water] from one place to another in the same ahupuaa and a transfer from one ahupuaa to another [outside the watershed of the first ahupuaa]. Id. at 272. By hypothesis, both kinds of transfers assume water to be both the private property of the transferor and capable of permanent diversion from its original watercourse โ characteristics which are inherently inimicable to the theory of riparianism which was expounded in McBryde I. See McBryde Sugar Co. v. Robinson, supra 54 Haw. at 193-197, 504 P.2d at 1342-1344. [36]
With the advent of large-scale sugar cane cultivation in the last half of the nineteenth century, irrigation and water rights acquired a new dimension of importance in Hawaii. [37] The estimated requirement of a ton of water to produce one pound of refined sugar, 3 Kuykendall 62, made the securing of ample supplies of water essential for sugar producers. The first irrigation auwai built expressly for sugar cane was in 1856 on Kauai, and another was dug ten years later on Maui. See R. Kuykendall & A. Day, Hawaii: A History 119-20 (1948). While early producers made use of ancient auwais, the phenomenal growth in the number of acres of land under sugar cane cultivation during the period of 1874-98, [38] especially when much of that land was in relatively arid locales theretofore uncultivated, resulted in the construction of costly and elaborate new irrigation systems. The first such system of any size was the Hamakua ditch on the Island of Maui, built in 1878 for the purpose of irrigating sugar cane on the arid lands of central Maui with water from the northern side of the island. 3 Kuykendall 62-66; Wadsworth 144. A great many other aqueducts were built thereafter, at considerable cost and for the purpose of irrigating kula land both inside and outside the watersheds from which the water was drawn. See generally id. at 150-58. Indeed, by 1890-91, an irrigation system for the transportation of water from the Hanapepe Valley to Makaweli on the Island of Kauai was completed and in operation. See Territory v. Gay, 52 F.2d 356 (9th Cir.1931); 3 Kuykendall 66. It seems clear that the foregoing history of ancient and nineteenth century Hawaiian water practices, sanctioned by contemporaneous judicial precedent, see pt. III.D.1. infra, establishes an Hawaiian usage fundamentally at odds with the common law doctrine of riparianism. This being the case, HRS ง 1-1 does not compel the court to read that doctrine in toto into our legal system dealing with regulation of water rights.