Series HPO - Records of the Hawaiian Post Office

The first mention of a postal system in Hawaii was an enactment of the Legislature (4th Article, Second Act) on April 27, 1846, relating to the handling of inter-island mails. It was entitled "An Act to Organize the Executive Departments of the Hawaiian Islands," and stated:

"The collector general of customs and the collectors of the respective ports of entry and departure…shall be, ex-officio post masters, and entitled to receive and open, at their respective ports, the mail bags hereinafter specified. The minister of the interior shall appoint some trustworthy and discreet person, residing conveniently, on each of the islands where no port of entry and departure is established. to be the post master thereof."

The act further provided for furnishing leather postal bags, setting up schedules for closing of mails, and posting of lists of mail received by the postmaster.

With the United States Post Office initiating a regular mail service by steamship between the east coast and California and Oregon, and a subsequent treaty between the U.S. and Hawaii (ratified August 9, 1850) in which an article provided for the safe transmission of the mails between the two countries, the Hawaiian government decided that the 1846 statute governing internal correspondence was insufficient to handle foreign mails. The Privy Council, therefore, passed a decree on December 20, 1850, and the 1851 Legislature enacted a law that established a Post Office in Honolulu (temporarily in the Polynesian Office). The Council appointed a Postmaster, Henry M. Whitney, and set up rates for remuneration to ships' captains for carrying the mails.

Inter-island mails were handled free of charge until 1859. One of the early controversies of the Post Office was the question of initiating postal fees for inter-island mail. Postmaster Whitney represented the view that mails should be kept free as native correspondence was steadily on the increase and initiating charges would exclude a large share of these native letter writers. The Minister of the Interior (1854 Report, p.7) agreed, and added that it was important to encourage native correspondence as it contributed "in some degree to the advancement of the nation in civilization." The next postmaster, J. Jackson, argued that the present system requiring ships to carry inter-island mails without compensation resulted in non-punctual delivery and questionable safety of the mails. He suggested adopting a small inter-island postage fee, with the revenue derived to go to the vessels carrying the mail. The legislature (Civil Code 1859) amended the acts of the Post Office and adopted postal rates for inter-island mail effective August 1, 1859. The Minister of the Interior Report of 1860, notes that despite mail charges correspondence between native Hawaiians did not stop. (p.2)

The first postage stamps were the "Missionaries" issued October 1, 1851. A great problem in the 1850's and 1860's was the frequent lack of stamps - post offices would run out (because they failed to order enough or to reorder soon enough), and the mail carriers often had difficulty giving change because of the lack of coins.

The legislature in 1854. passed an act "authorizing the appointment of mail carriers in the remote districts of the Kingdom." They neglected to provide appropriations to carry out the law, instead stating that the islands could use any surplus money from the police appropriation to implement the act. The only island with a surplus was Hawaii, and they set up a mail route from Kawaihae to Hilo through Hamakua in 1854.

In that same year, the Post Office was moved to Honolulu House. In 1870, the Post Office building at Merchant and Bethel streets was built and the post office remained there until May 1, 1922, when it relocated to the King and Richard street site in the newly constructed Federal Building.

Initially, the mails were forwarded between the United States and Hawaii, and between the islands, by sailing vessels. These trips, dependent on the inconsistencies of weather, caused many scheduling problems and resulted in irregular handling of mail. By 1862, the introduction of steam communication between the islands facilitated the movement of inter-island mails and improved the transmittal of mails between the U.S. and Hawaiʻi by rendering "their conveyance by sailing vessels more regular." (Minister of Interior Report, 1862, p.12) ''The installation of a subsidized line of mail steamers in 1867 probably furnished the impetus for the drawing up of the first formal postal treaty (May 4, 1870) between the Kingdom of Hawaii and the United States." (Hawaii, Its Stamps and Postal History, p.81) The treaty went into operation on July 1, 1870, and remained in effect until Hawaii became a member of the Universal Postal Union, January 1, 1882.

Within the islands, the number of mail carriers and mail routes increased. A passage in the 1884 Report of the Postmaster General describes the mail carriers and their work in an appeal for increased salaries.

"These men are all native Hawaiians, and as they have to be regular in their service, starting promptly in all kinds of weather, and must own relays of horses or mules, to be always ready in serviceable condition, they are justly entitled to what they are paid. Some of them have been in this service for fifteen or twenty years, and have seen the mails increase from a small number of letters and papers weekly, that hardly filled a pair of saddle bags, to eight or ten heavy sacks, requiring sometimes two extra pack animals to carry them over the rough mountains and through deep gulches and streams. On all the routes they leave and collect correspondence at the numerous houses and villages scattered near the road, and have become a great public convenience, indispensable for properly distributing the twenty thousand Hawaiian and foreign papers which our publishers and newsdealers claim that they issue every week." (p.6)

The introduction of steam vessels, making possible regular mail service between the islands, can account for part of the increase in internal mails. Another part can be attributed to the increase in daily, weekly and monthly publications. "When it is remembered that all island subscribers to these publications are entitled by law to receive their papers through the domestic mails free of postage, one cause of the increased use of mails will be discovered." (Report of the Postmaster General, 1884, p.13)

The 1882 Legislature enacted a law to authorize the Postmaster General to establish domestic and foreign Postal Money Order systems, and by May 1883, a domestic money order business had begun. International money orders between the U.S. and Hawaii date from January 1, 1884. (Minister of Interior Report, 1884, p.33)

A few years later, on July 1, 1887, the Post Office opened a Hawaiian Postal Savings Bank.

"The Hawaiian Postal Savings Bank was opened...as a branch of this bureau, and has proved a remarkable success, all classes availing themselves of its advantages. The principal post offices throughout the islands have been constituted branches of the bank service and have proved a convenience to country residents. and have turned in a quite a large aggregate of deposits." (Minister of Interior Report, 1888, p.88)

By 1897, the postal system had grown so large that it was no longer possible to close down the Honolulu Post Office in order to handle incoming overseas mail.

"Formerly everything was on the occasions in question subordinated to the handling of mails, but the community has long since outgrown the village style where that sort of thing was tolerable... The time has surely arrived... when every branch of the Postal Bureau should be completely segregated, having its staff confined strictly to its own peculiar duties." (Report of the Postmaster General, 1897, p.3-4)

With annexation and the Organic Act, the postal service of Hawaii was superseded by that of the United State, taking effect June 14, 1900.

Following is a list of the records in the Postmaster General files, as well as a list of postmasters through annexation.

Postmaster Generals
H.M. Whitney (December 22, 1850 - July 1, 1856)
J. Jackson (July 1, 1856 - August 14, 1859) (Jackson died August 14, 1859)
A.K. Clarke (August 27, 1859 - June 30, 1863)
David Kalakaua (June 30, 1863 - March 18, 1865)
A.P. Brickwood (March 18, 1865 - July 20, 1881)
John M. Kapena (July 20, 1881 - February 13, 1883)
H.M. Whitney (February 16, 1883 - April 15, 1886)
J.L. Kaulukou (April 15, 1886 - July 31, 1886)
Luther Aholo (July 31, 1886 - October 15, 1886)
F. Wundenberg (October 15, 1886 - May 2, 1891)
Walter Hill (May 2, 1891 - April 1, 1893)
Jos. M. Oat (April 1, 1893 - April 30, 1905)