When foreigners first came to Hawaii in the late 1700s, they brought with them an appetite for alcohol. To slake their thirst, they turned to an abundant local ingredient, the root of the ti plant, creating a fermented brew typically distilled into a potent liquor called okolehao.
Alcohol quickly spread throughout the islands, including Kaupo, where the locals often swapped ti for the district’s abundant crop: sweet potato.
One of the first references to alcohol in Kaupo appeared in an article by Maui Circuit Court Judge John Richardson in Ka Hae Hawaii on April 28, 1858: "Ua lilo kekahi poe ma Kipahulu a me Kaupo i ka hana i ka uala maoli a me ke ki i mea ona, haalele i ka hana a lilo ma ka lapuwale." (Some people in Kipahulu and Kaupo occupy themselves with converting sweet potato and ti into alcohol, abandoning gainful work and devoting themselves to worthless ways.)
Richardson goes on to describe a court case against an alcohol producer named Waiwaiole, a matter further detailed in the following issue of the weekly paper in an article that described three labels Waiwaiole created for his concoctions, Pooula, Hookomohaneri, Huikaaha, which loosely translate to “Red Head”, “100 Proof”, and "Party Time".
Waiwaiole was ordered to pay $96 in that case, but it appears that fines did little to deter bootleggers. Just 4 years, later, Kaupo's representative at the Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom pushed for stricter consequences, submitting a petition to the 1862 assembly requesting, "Aole e ukuia ma ke dala ka poe hana Wai Ona; aka, e hoohanaia i 2 makahiki ma ka hana oolea." (That those who make alcohol not be fined but that they perform 2 years of hard labor.)
The 1862 petition was tabled, and a number of articles over the ensuing decades bemoaned the increase in alcohol production and consumption in Kaupo.
On May 27, 1874, a Hawaiian Gazette article linked problems with liquor to governmental shortcomings: "Disturbances are frequently occurring in Kaupo district. Okolehao (native rum), distilled from sweet potatoes and the ti root, is virtually free to all. When the men, women and children get together and indulge in the maddening drink, then follow hulahulas and fights. One chief cause of this is because the district judge is absent in the Legislature, and his office is vacant. Even the police have abandoned themselves to drinking.” Commenting on the same problem, Nupepa Kuokoa summed up succinctly with, “Paani na iole i ka hele o ka popoki”. (The mice play when the cat's away.)
The drinking behavior of police continued as a common complaint. A Nupepa Kuokoa article from January 5, 1884, criticized a Kaupo officer named Kalolo: "O keia makai, he ona kana hana nui." (The primary occupation of this police officer is drunkenness.)
By 1889, there were three bars in Kaupo, as described in an article in Nupepa Kuokoa on June 21, 1890: "Ua hamama ka puka o na hale kuai rama o Kaupo, ekolu hale kuai rama, elua no ka pake, a hookahi no ke kanaka. Ua kahe awai ka rama o keia mau hale mai ka makahiki 1889 mai a hiki i keia la." (The doors are open at three saloons in Kaupo. Two are run by Chinese and one is run by a Hawaiian. Liquor has flowed like water at these saloons from 1889 up to the present day.)
Note that none of these bars were legal. In 1890, no liquor licenses had been issued in Kaupo, although the district's representative, Philip Kamai, unsuccessfully pushed for a liquor license for Kaupo in that year's session of the Legislature.
In the August 31, 1889, issue of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, someone writing under the pen name Mr. Malihinihele (Mr. Pilgrim) described the bartering between alcohol buyers and sellers, with exchanges that bring to mind a smoke-filled speakeasy during U.S. Prohibition.
"E inu ana kekahi poe, e noi ana kekahi poe ia Apo pake, O ka olelo nui nae i na kanaka o Kaupo, ua hoolilo lakou i ka omole waina he Oka. Nolaila, ua maopopo i ka pake ia huaolelo he Oka i lawa no a noi aku i ka pake Alo! Apo. Good my Friend please you give me one bottle Oat I give you half dollar, all right. O ke kii aka la no ia o ke aikane pake me ka imo aku no o na maka."
(To obtain their alcohol, some people turn to Apo, a Chinese person. The main request of the people of Kaupo is to buy bottles of wine called Oat. Therefore, this Chinese person knows what is being asked for when he hears the word Oat. "Hello, Apo, my good friend! Please, you give me one bottle Oat, I give you half dollar, all right?" Then the Chinese fellow would wink his eye and fetch it.)
Apart from saloons, parties were a common venue for drinking alcohol. As reported in Ko Hawaii Pae Aina on March 21, 1891, a party at Puuokipahulu, Kaupo was supplied with "ekolu pahu ki nona ka nui he 75 galani a oi aku a emi iki mai paha, me na umeke uala i hoawaawaia." (Three barrels of ti liquor equaling 75 gallons, more or less, along with bottles of sweet potato wine.)
The party was predictably lively. The author continued, "Ua inu na kanaka me ka lealea, ua nui ka ona me ka haunaele pu." (The guests drank heartily, and there was a great deal of drunkenness and rowdiness.)
These alcohol-fueled parties could also turn violent, even deadly. In March 1862, a man named Keawe was found dead at the bottom of a cliff after a party at Waiha, Kaupo. In an article in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa on April 12, 1862, the correspondent entertained foul play, writing, "Elua mea i manao wale ia: ua make oia no ka ona i ke ki o ke kumu ia o kona lele ana i ka pali, a make oia no ka pepehi maoliia e na hoa inu ki. (There are two theories: he died because he was drunk on ti and fell from the cliff, or he was killed by his ti-drinking companions.)
Perhaps the most bizarre alcohol-related death occurred in 1909. A news brief in Kuokoa Home Rula on October 8 of that year reported on a drunken domestic fight that led to a fatal infection.
"I kela pule iho nei i make ai a Kapanaia ma ka Halema’i Malulani, Wailuku. Maui, mamuli o ke nahu ana o kana wahine a kaa e kekahi hapa o kona manamana lima uuku ma ka lima akau. No ka ona uala, ulu ka hakaka a nahu’a ka manamanalima. Ma Kaupo Maui, kahi o keia hewa i hana ia ai, he mau mahina ae nei i hala, ua pii nae ka aai o kahi i nahu ia a kua hoolawehala maoli, hele okoa i ke halema’i."
(Last week, Kapanaia died at Malulani Hospital at Wailuku, Maui, due to his wife biting off part of his right pinky. The fight and biting of the finger was due to being drunk on sweet potato. The incident occurred months ago in Kaupo, Maui. The infection at the site of the bite progressively worsened, at which point he took himself to the hospital.)
