HAWAIIAN NAPOLEON

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 956, 26 April 1930, Page 30

HAWAIIAN NAPOLEON

A mericaiis Hon our King Kamehameha

HONOLULU EXPOSITION PLANNED

(Written for TBE SUE) A RECENT issue of The Sun stated that Mr. Albert P. Taylor. Librarian of the Archives of the Territory of Hawaii, had suggested the holding of an international exposition in Honolulu in 1936. The purpose of this exposition will be to commemorate the bicentennial and the centennial of the birthdays of Kamehameha the Great, and Kalakau, the so-called “Merry Monarch’’ of Hawaii. As an area on the waterfront will probably be developed into a park by that year, Mr. Taylor considers that this site would be ideal for the exhibition.

Such a gathering would be of considerable interest to New Zealanders, apart from its historical significance. It can be safely assumed that the Americans will hardly disregard the commercial possibilities of an exhibition primarily designed to do honour to two great Hawaiians. The Americans have a unique facility for combining the historical with the commercial. In "Under Hawaiian Skies,” a chatty volume on personalities of historic interest in the former kingdom which Mr. Taylor published o lew years ago, he mentioned with all an American's pride the throne room in the palace of King Kalakaua at Honolulu. It was the only throne room, he declared, in the whole of the United States!

Mr. Taylor is an American, a Westerner by birth, who for the last 25 years, has been connected with the editorial staff of “The Honolulu Advertiser.” He is a recognised authority on Hawaiian history, and has written several books on the territory. As a young man he joined the Cuban revo iutionists. was arrested by the Spani ards. and eventually deported. Mr Taylor has known the mining camps of Colorado, made a name for himself as a newspaper correspondent with a graphic description of the United States transport Siam disaster, and also served as secretary to the Hawaiian Annexation Commissioner at. Washington. After a term as chief of the detective bureau in Honolulu he returned to newspaper work, and in 1924 assumed the duties of librar ian of the archives in that city, which has one of the most valuable collections of historical papers in the United States. Soldier and Lawgiver

Kamehameha 1., styled the Great, because of his wise and able leader ship, will be the first monarch hon oured by the exposition. Capable generalship enabled him to weld the various district and island kingdoms into one Pacific empire. But Kamehameha was a lawgiver, like Napoleon, his contemporary, as well as a soldier. “Get. the old men and women and the children lie down in safety by the roadside,” was one of his edicts, a law simple and direct, majestically phrased and undisguised by any legal ambiguity. Mr. Taylor has declared that the court of Kamehameha the Great was as brilliant, in a comparative sense, as that of the Little Corporal. Surrounded by great chieftains and generals of his own race, with an occas ional Englishman or American occupying some distinguished office, encompassed by ceremony and pomp, marked by a display of gorgeouslycoloured feathered helmets, cloaks and feather standards of royalty, he held audience, imposed penalties, or received homage from conquered chieftains. This writer says: "Napoleon roamed over Europe with his vast armies and brought potentates and princes to their knees; Kamehameha made similar campaigns and conquests all over the Hawaiian group and similarly brought kings and chiefs to their knees.” The monarch, whom the American pwners of Hawaii will now commemorate, died in 1819. a year before their missionaries reached the shores of Hawaii. HAWAII’S MERRY MONARCH

David Kalakaua. the second monarch to be thus dignified by the exposition, was the founder of the dynasty that bears his name. He reigned from 1836 to January, 1891, being succeeded by the ill-fated Liliuokalani, under whom the monarchy was abrogated in 1593. Liliuokalani died as recently as 1917. Seeking health that no country could give him, Kalakaua, the "Merry Monarch of Hawaii,” found death on the shores of the Golden Gate. Kalakaua toured the world in ISBI. Tn the principal foreign capitals he was received with royal honours. The German Emperor staged an important military review in honour of his Polynesian "brother.” The king was so impressed with what he saw abroad, particularly in England, where Queen Victoria's Crown jewels made him rather envious, that he determined to have himself crowned in European splendour on his return to Honolulu. A crown was specially ordered from Paris. A fillet of gold an inch thick was set with 120 diamonds;

also opals, emeralds and rubies. After the fall of Queen Liliuokalani, officers of the Provisional Government found their "regulars” gambling in the basement of the palace. They were using gems from Kalakaua’s diadem to match coins. One soldier sent the largest diamond he could find to his sweetheart in Missouri! It took ail the persuasive powers of the Attorney-General of that State to have it returned to the Hawaiian Government. SYMBOLS OF MONARCHY

For 35 years the battered crown remained sealed in its shattered leather case in the vault of the archives in Honolulu. Mr. Taylor tells how it was opened and examined by officials in 1924. The Legislature voted a sum for the restoration of the crown. Today, he says, it looks as good as new, although the jewels are synthetic.

Many Americans, principally tourists, still come to gaze “with admiring, yet dreamy eyes upon the symbols of monarchy which recall to the imagination grand receptions, levees and presentations amid gorgeous settings staged for the rulers’ State appearance before their subjects.” The etiquette of the Court of St. James, though modified to suit modern needs, was first adopted in the reign of Kamehameha Ilf. it was in this room, so vividly described byMr. Taylor, that the famous Roval Military Band, under the direction of the bandmaster, Kappelmeister Berger (sent to Hawaii by the German Emperor William), played before the court of the dusky potentates. From gilded frames portraits of all the monarchs from Kamehemeha 1., the founder, down to Liliuokalani, headstrong and imperious, now gaze upon the Senate of Hawaii in biennial session. Lous Philippe, King of the French, and the heavy-jowled Blucher, Marshal of Prussia—what a quaint combination—are among other notable uniformed spectators. The gilded eagle of republican America has replaced the golden crown of once Royal Hawaii.

With the disappearance of Queen Liliuokalani, who incidentally w-as an honoured guest prior to her accession in 1891, with Queen Kapiolani, at Queen Victoria’s jubilee celebrations, departed the last Hawaiian monarch. The only monarchy now in existence in the Pacific is that of Tonga. The Auckland-educated Queen Salote still rides with great dignity to open her Parliament. If Liliuokalani had possessed a little more of the good sense of Queen Salote of Tonga, she might have reigned for a few more years. But envious commercial eyes were regarding Hawaii speculatively and the conservative and by no means tactful Liliuokalani had to go. Her regime is interesting to Australians inasmuch as the Australian ballot system was adopted by this queen in 1592.

Liliuokalani is chiefly remembered —such are the vagaries of historyas the composer of “Aloha Oe.” Hawaiian instrumentalists have strummed it on every variety stage in the world. It is played when a steamer approaches Hawaii, and it is crooned as the vessel departs. Fritz Kreisler, when in Honolulu in 1925, ventured the opinion that it was founded on an Austrian folk song. Mr. Taylor does not say, however, upon what evidence the famous violinist based his assertion.

"La ohipakahi ia aku nei e ka Po,” is a saying of the Hawaiians—“ The night has taken them one by one.” The Maoris say much the same thing. One by one the figures of a civilisation unique in its way have returned to the darkness whence they came, unable to stand against a superimposed European culture, and against commercial greed. Mr. Taylor’s book serves a useful purpose in recalling to memory, breathing life into old Polynesian limbs, and depicting those beautiful islands—it was Mark Twain who said they were the most beautiful Ileet of islands anchored in the loveliest sea in the world —under their native rulers. The book, he insists, is a narrative of history, not an academic history. It is none the less interesting because of that fact. In view of the proposed exposition the book assumes a new interest. ERIC RAMSDEN.