In 1903, Kaua‘i’s McBryde Sugar Co. sent Waioli-born William Rowell (1845-1916) to Wainiha to negotiate a lease with its Hawaiian owners, the Wainiha Hui, for the water power rights of Wainiha Stream and a site for a hydroelectric power plant.
In 1903, Kaua‘i’s McBryde Sugar Co. sent Waioli-born William Rowell (1845-1916) to Wainiha to negotiate a lease with its Hawaiian owners, the Wainiha Hui, for the water power rights of Wainiha Stream and a site for a hydroelectric power plant.
Rowell’s actual proposal, which the president of the hui supported, was to lease the water power of Wainiha from the Wainiha Hui for $1,500 a year, for a term of 50 years, along with sites for a powerhouse, pole lines, roads, etc.
A meeting at which a vote would be taken, to be followed by a luau, was arranged, and on the morning of that day, the president, eager for a favorable resolution to Rowell’s proposal, saw the luau cook and said, “I want you to see to it that this pig is thoroughly cooked! When the resolution is passed, then it will be properly done, not before.” And when he opened his palm to display a gold coin, the cook caught on and said, “sure.”
During the meeting, one hui member opposed to Rowell’s proposal expressed the opinion of some members when he said, “If you give the haole a foothold, it is good-bye to your independence.”
But others, dissatisfied with small earnings from their shares of Wainiha Hui, sided with another member when he stated, “If he will pay us for it, I say let him have it.”
Still others were more concerned with the unanticipated delay in cooking the pig than in voting, and grew impatient while the cook continued to tell them, one by one, “not done yet.”
At last, the cook informed the hui that the pig would “not be done until the resolution was passed,” and realizing it was a case of “no vote, no pig,” they passed it.
