Showing 389 results

Established by Act 324, SLH 1989 from two predecessors.

Two agencies, the Historical Commission and the Historical Sites Commission, established 30 years apart, were made responsible for historic preservation. For approximately 16 years after the second agency was established, responsibility for historic preservation resided in two places until it was unified in the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) in 1967.

The Historical Commission was established by Act 120 of 1921.

The function of the Commission was to accomplish four tasks: to write a comprehensive general history of Hawaii, to revise an apparently existing elementary history of Hawaii for use in the public schools, to compile a history of Hawaii's role in World War I, and to report to the legislature on places of historical importance for the purpose of marking them.

The law provided for a three-member commission and the employment of "such competent persons as are necessary for the compilation of the said history." The Commission wanted a trained historian to fill this job, involving as it did, the planning and writing of so much history, and in April, 1922, offered the position of executive secretary to Ralph S. Kuydendall. Kuykendall accepted and began work in September, 1922.

The Commission's authorizing legislation was amended by Act 139 of 1923.

The Commission began first the writing of the elementary textbook. When that had been well started, they began the longer-term work of writing the comprehensive history. This project eventuated in Kuykendall's three volume History of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1778-1893. In response to Kuykendall's idea that the history should place Hawaii in a world context, rather than concentrate purely on island affairs, the Commission first surveyed what records existed in Hawaii for the purpose, and then began concerted searches elsewhere. Kuykendall personally examined libraries in the United States and Canada with major holdings relating to Hawaii, especially the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, the provincial library of British Columbia, the Oregon Historical Society library, Harvard College Library, and the U.S. State Department archives.

The Commission also contracted for copy work in the British and French government archives, again, for diplomatic correspondence relating to Hawaii. In addition, the Commission secured copies of documents relating to Hawaii from the Mexican government archives, and copies of the correspondence of David S. Gregg, Peter A. Brinsmade, Robert G. Davis, William L. Lee, and Sanford B. Dole. The law provided that it was to deposit all the documents it collected in the Territorial Archives.

The Commission was abolished in 1932 and its functions transferred to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii (Act 9, Second Special Session, 1932).

Some of the historic preservation functions assigned to the Commission date from 1921, when they were created by statute and assigned to the earlier and separate Historical Commission upon its establishment and transferred to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii in 1932, when the Historical Commission was disestablished.

These same functions were assigned to the Commission on Historical Sites when it was created in 1951, but remained concurrently assigned to the Board of Regents.

It was succeeded by the Division of Territorial (later State) Parks in 1959, which also absorbed the related functions of the Board of Regents in 1967.

The earliest records of shipping and harbor affairs date from 1841 and were kept by the Officer of Customs, entitled the Harbor Master, and placed under the Treasury Board in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1845, an act to organize the Executive Departments, the Treasury Board was dissolved and its functions were taken over by the newly created Ministry of Finance.

The Honolulu Water Works was established by Section 192 of the Hawaii Civil Code of 1859, which made the Minister of the Interior responsible for the pipes and conduits of water to supply the town and harbor of Honolulu, for the establishment of rates of supply for same, for making rules as necessary and for appointing a superintendent of the water-works. The latter was responsible for maintaining the system and collecting rates. The Act of August 18, 1860 empowered the Minister of the Interior to take possession of such lands as were required for the use and maintenance of the Honolulu Water Works.

Under the Organic Act (sec. 75), the Ministry of Interior was disestablished and the agency came under the Department of Public Works.

The Honolulu Water Works was disestablished by Act 138 SLH 1913, which transferred its functions to the City and County of Honolulu effective July 1, 1914. It was succeeded by the Board of Water Supply of the City and County of Honolulu.