in Hawaii

Land and politics in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii: The Democratic Years. By George Cooper and Gavan Daws. Published by Benchmark Press, 1985. 518 pp. ISBN 096150520 6. Price $U519.95.

This lengthy book is the “first full-length study of land and politics in Hawaii in the Demo cratic years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s”. It is axioma tic that there never has been a “ruling group in the history of Hawaii that did not base its power on land”. After the American annexation of the islands in 1898, Hawaii was ruled by a socio-economic oli garchy of expatriate Americans.

In 1954, however, the fulcrum of power began to shift quickly and dramatically in favor of the Democratic Party, which by contrast, consisted largely of Japanese-Americans, the sons and daughters of immigrant laborers, who were rising to the forefront of politics during the postwar era.

Cooper and Daws set out to discover and examine the “con ection between land and power in Hawaii” during the period of Democratic Party rule, and about the profile and configuration of that “generat ion of politically successful Democrats and their involve ment with land”. Indeed, land in Hawaii has always and still is owned by a few. especially local government and large estates.

The value of land appreciated considerably after 1959, the year of Hawaii’s admission as a state of the American Union.

The implementation of elabo rate and often complex land use laws provided a means and opportunity for those politically well-connected to broker their influence in negotiating, arbitrating, and litigating favor able government action on land-use change applications.

While the new political elite did not possess large landholdings, they exercised control over its use through the local bureaucracy. This provided a direct means of manipulating the potential value of raw land.

That value could be measured by the difference between un

developed beach-front proper ty and a multi-million dollar resort which could become a reality with appropriate govern ment approval. Therein lay the opportunity for political arbit rageurs, the would-be pathfind ers through the maze of govern ment regulations.

The book’s 13 chapters re construct famous and infamous land development schemes.

Opportunists were largely labor unions, small partnerships, lawyers, and, least of all, real estate brokers, each seeking something in return from such large corporations as Signal Oil and Gas, Amfac, Boise Cas cade, and Castle and Cooke.

More often than not, symbiotic relationships were formed be tween the large land-owner clients and their politically well placed patrons.

An alternative mechanism would be the formation of small, occasionally secret, but highly exclusive partnerships which would profit from quick turnovers in land transactions once its classification was changed to more intensive use.

With minor exceptions, the members of the political broker age system were Japanese- Americans. The authors account for this in simple and straightforward terms: “The evi dence of loyalty to ethnic group, to class, to local com munity origins, to old friends, can be seen everywhere in the public record of the Democratic years.” What may easily be termed a series of successful real estate transactions may also be clearly seen as the ethical failure of those in power.

While this work is historical in its scope, it cannot be termed a traditional history. But nor was it necessarily meant to be.

Rather, it may be more accurately described as an investigation, using the case method as a means of addres sing particular questions. The thoroughness of the research, and the soundness of its methods, do considerable credit to both authors.

Admittedly, this is a story of power and those in power, but it is also about land, that emot

ionally-laden commodity

whose value is determined not only by market forces but also by government intervention.

More needs to be said about land in Hawaii and its socio economic transformation result ing from changes occurring within land-owning groups.

Admittedly, the scope of this

study was purposefully nar

rowed to accommodate the ex tensive corpus of well-analysed facts. What perhaps is needed is some summation of land as ideology and how such an ideology changes to meet the goals and aspirations of those in power. Power elites come and go, but land is a thing that endures. — William Tagupa.

Books received

The Mariana Islands 1884-1887: Random notes of Governor Fran cisco Olive Y. Garcia. Translated and annotated by Marjorie G. Driv er. Published 1984 by Micronesian Area Research Center, UOG Sta tion, Mangilao, Guam 96913. No ISBN or price provided.

The Solomon Islands: An experi ment in decentralization. By Ralph R. Premdas and Jeffrey S.

Steeves, Published 1985 by Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, Uni versity of Hawaii at Manoa, Hon olulu, Hawaii. No ISBN or price.

Laya. By Bernard Gadd. Published 1985 by the Kahurangi Co-opera tive, 43 Landscape Road, Papa toetoe, New Zealand. ISBN 0 86477 021 9. $NZ12.95.

To Live in Peace. By Michael O’Connor. Published 1985 by Mel bourne University Press. P.O. Box 278, Carlton South, 3053, Austra lia. ISBN 0 522 84307 7. Price $A9.50.

Rifled Sanctuaries: Some Views of the Pacific Islands in Western Literature to 1900. The Macmil lan Brown Lectures 1982. By Bill Pearson. Published 1984 by Auck land University Press, Private Bag, Auckland, New Zealand. ISBN 0 19 648029 9. Price $NZ11.95.

Community School Expansion in Eastern Highlands Province. By Sheldon G. Weeks. Published 1985 by Educational Research Unit, Uni versity of PNG, Box 320, University P.O., Papua New Guinea. No ISBN. Price K1.75.

An Evaluation of the Viles Tok Pies Skul Scheme in the North Solomons Province. By Lisa D.

Delpit and Graeme Kemelfield.

Published 1985 by Educational Re search Unit, University of PNG, Box 320, University P.O.. Papua New Guinea. ISSN 0254-069X.

Price K4.15.