From Our Files

HONOLULU Magazine and Paradise of the Pacific, chronicling the Islands since 1888.

March 1924:

Paradise of the Pacific, predecessor to HONOLULU Magazine, reports that the 15th Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii is now in session. “No session of recent years, perhaps none other, has been composed of more representative or more able men, all sincerely and earnestly working for the best interests of the Territory and its people,” writes Paradise, singling out R.W. Shingle, shown here, as an example. “He has held the position [of Senate president] so long that he could quote Rules and Regulations by heart.” The Legislature’s big issues? Regulating boxing, then recently legalized in Hawaii, and imposing a gasoline tax.

March 1934:

Paradise of the Pacific interviews Honolulu Police chief W.A. Gabrielson for the scoop on new policing strategies. “Much attention is being devoted to the so-called gangs,’” writes Paradise. “These groups are composed of idle young men who are not vicious, but who are easily led into petty crime if not controlled. Through association with the playgrounds and playground directors, the department is organizing these groups into clubs and providing them with work or play—something to think about other than crime.” Shown here, HPD officers lined up for inspection.

March 1949:

Paradise of the Pacific features Honolulu’s newest landmark, the U.S. Army’s Tripler General Hospital, “now well into its first year of operation.” Writes Paradise, “Few people realize just how big a job it was, and how much of Hawaii’s natural resources … went into the construction of the project. The main raw materials that went into construction were sand, rock and cinders. The rock, 345,526 tons of it, came from Moiliili quarry. More than 92,000 tons of sand for the job came from Kahuku. The cinders, 9,500 tons of them, came from the slopes of Tantalus. About 1,000,000 bags of cement were used, too, but they were shipped here from the Mainland."

March 1954:

“One of the most authentic representations of Hawaii on the Mainland is the Waikiki Room in the Hotel Nicolette, Minneapolis,” says Paradise of the Pacific. How did the heartland come by such authentic—by 1950s’ standards—Hawaiiana? The hotel manager hired Honolulu architect Thomas A. Litaker, AIA, to design the room and spent $150,000 (about $1 million in today’s dollars) buying materials from Don the Beachcomber of Honolulu to create the restaurant shown here.

March 1974:

A gasoline shortage has changed life in the Islands for the worse, as this cartoon from HONOLULU Magazine demonstrates.

March 1989:

Hawaii state legislators were faced with an unusual problem, reports HONOLULU Magazine—what to do with a $487 million budget surplus. Gov. John Waihee advocated using the money to fund The Hawaii Plan: Educational Excellence for the Pacific Era. That plan, writes HONOLULU, “calls for … major reforms [including] decentralizing the school system, shifting significant power from the state Department of Education to local community boards, principals and teachers; … granting more power to teachers and principals, along with more accountability; restructuring the state’s high schools to enable students to master the core curriculum by the 10th grade and … painting and repairing older school buildings.” The budget surplus is long gone. Education reforms are still on the table in the 2004 legislative session— remarkably unchanged and unimplemented.