IN FAIR HAWAII

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 56, 7 March 1930, Page 9

IN FAIR HAWAII

THANKSGIVING SERVICE

A PICTURESQUE CUSTOM

EARLY DAYS RECALLED

More than 100 years ago a little group of New England missionaries, having rounded Cape Horn in a vessel whose modest dimensions would amaze the ocean traveller of to-day, landed in the fair "Sandwich Islands," much to their own gratification' and to the astonishment of the natives. The more the newcomers saw of -the islands and the closer grew their acquaintance with the subjects of Kmnehameha the deeper became that gratification. For they found this a land surpassing the most vivid fancy iv its chai'm. They found it, too, a field fallow to their religious sowings, for the natives were friendly and receptive. In brief, writes M.T.G. in the "Christian Science Monitor," there was such . cause for thanksgiving as, back in New England, they had rarely known. We can imagine then what that first Thanksgiving Day, back in 1820, meant to the little group of intrepid voyagers, newly landed beneath the palm trees of these dream-like subtropical isles. A CHURCH AND A HOUSE. The islanders lived then in primitive dwellings of thatch not apt to be favoured by the white man. So the missionaries set up a little • frame house, which still stands almost in the centre of the modern city of Honolulu. By and by, as one of their first manifestations of thanksgiving, they built a church not far from the little wooden house. It was a large church, mostly of coral stone, constructed after the . old New England design. It ■was, beyond doubt, the largest church then existing in the Pacific, and men call it to-day—this- far-farmed Kawaiahao church in Honolulu—the '"Westminster of the Pacific." ' In the Kawaiahao church, first monument to missionary activities in the North Pacific, all sorts and conditions of men and women have gathered through several generations. The favourite wife of the first Hawaiian King, Kamehamcha the Great, having been converted to Christianity, was an attendant here. Is-, land chiefs of the old daj's, dignified and stately in brilliant regalia, mingled here with bold sea wanderers, clipper-ship masters, diplomatic emissaries to the Hawaiian monarchy from every land, sugar planters, and far-roving adventurers. And to the services of' Thanksgiving Day the islanders brought offerings of their best, the richest of the harvest, the finest of fruits, the sleekest of netted fish from the coral reefs. It was all heaped before the pulpit like a vast horn of plenty overflowing with the richness of one.of the fairest and kindliest lands, of earth. THANKSGIVING SERVICE. Such were the early Hawaiian Thanksgivings. And' although 100 years, fifty j-ears, even twenty years, have brought about marked changes in Hawaii and surrounded the "Westminster of the Pacific" ■with many a modern building and the clatter of tramcars and automobiles, yet the Kawaiahao church Still sands handsome in its modern renovation, dignified and four-square to all the world. Arid ■within it, on Thanksgiving morning, the earlier days are recalled almost, as one might say, lived again. For there before the pulpit are the offerings of the. best of. the harvest, the taro and the pineapples and the papaia. There in their individual chairs at the front are the .deacons of the church, venerable Hawaiians, some of them, who remember Kalakaua, perhaps even Lunalilo. Yonder is the place where once sat Liliukolani, and upon the wall is a marble tablet commemorating the conversion to Christianity here of the wife of Kamehameha the Great. . A long line of missionary preachers of New England extraction has occupied the pulpit of the "Westminster of the Pacific," but it found a successor years ago in the person'of a man of Chinese-Hawaiian extraction, one of the outstanding personalities of these fair mid-Pacific islands. It is he who determined to restore the Thanksgiving services of the old days with their harvest offerings and songs by the little children in the mellifluous Hawaiian tongue. It is he, too—the far-known and beloved Dr. Akaiho Akana —who has made the Kawaiahao church the pre-eminent monument of the old Hawaii, to the achievements of the pioneers and to all that was best in the life of the early days. On Thanksgiving morning, as on each Sunday, Dr. Akana preaches two sermons—one in Hawaiian and a counterpart in English.. The Hawaiian Thanksgiving, enjoyed, perhaps, under a very warm sun and at a temperature above 80 degrees, is, for the most part, quite similar to those back in New England. Its diversions naturally include some not altogether practicable "back home," for no holiday in Honolulu lacks its swimming contests at Waildki Beach, where the temperature of the water is the same on Thanksgiving as on Memorial Day, and the same on Christmas pB on the Fourth of July. FOOTBALL UNDER BLAZING SUN. But Hawaii has its Thanksgiving football quite as Boston or New York or Pittsburgh, ' and of late yearß it has become not less enthusiastic. Football at' 85 degrees, and under a blazing sub-tropical sun, may suggest a paradox to those accustomed to sit in some famed stadium or bowl wrapped in furs and muffled to tho ears; but most of the international audience which revels in the games at the Honolulu Stadium knows nothing more of freezing weather and flying snow than tho cinema screen has shown them, and craves no closer acquaintance. The Honolulu audience attends baseball games and football games and swimming contests under weather conditions which vary little, and expands in joy and enthusiasm under the warm sun tempered by soft trade winds. FAIREST OF THE FAIR. Hawaii, and especially its verdure-wrap-ped capital, is likely to be at its best at the Thanksgiving seasons. For much of the annual rainfall of forty inches or so comes during tho autumn, turning every bro^n spot on the liilliides and the extinct volcanoes into green, and adding a glowing sheen to palm frond and hibiscus leaf and sugarcane stalk. The numberless blossoms are at their fairest and most redolent' then, and the flower Bhops of Honolulu lend a greater brilliance to the always colourful streets. The soft hues of the many new buildings reveal themselves here and there through the masses of foliage as one wanders through the arbored residence streets, and beyond the ever blue sub-tropical sea, with its flecks of flashing surf, incloses like a well-chosen frame one, of the fairest pictures the world can offer* So, then, if the pioneers' of a century ago found it cause for thanksgiving when they at last landed in Hawaii, shall not ■we —though making our way hither in somewhat less arduous fashion—be similarly appreciative? Though the simplicity that greeted the missionaries has somewhat yielded to the sophistication of a modern community, yet has Hawaii much to offer us that was lacking then? We can, in point of fact, find anything here that we can find anywhere; and some few things wanting, perhaps, in other places. ' There is not, of course, any such thing as "the most beautiful spot in the world." But there is, it may be, the best climate; Can anyone suggest any real rival to Hawaii for that distinction? Climate was very likely one of the things uppermost in the thoughts of those who made their first thanksgiving in Hawaii a century ago, with the vivid recollections of the Cape Horn voyage in a 200-ton brig still fresh. And to all that lent particular ardour to that first Hawaiian Thanksgiving the years has added in measure generous and rich. Such of the cable news on this page as is so headed has appeared in "Tho Times" and is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by special permission. It should be understood fiat the opinions are not those or "The aimes jjniess expressly stated to be so,