Act 56: How the Territorial Government Legalized Land Theft by Lea Kamakawiwoole

Wondering Who is Rep. Robertson?

lea333 — 2024-04-27 10:56:48 UTC

^{Source: Men of Hawaii: being a biographical reference library, complete and authentic, of the men of note and substantial achievement in the Hawaiian Islands}

1896 Jun 2 Legislative Joint Resolution

lea333 — 2024-04-27 11:02:21 UTC

^{Laws of the Republic of Hawaii Passed by the Legislative Assembly, Regular Session 1896, LLMC Digital.}^{https://llmc.com/OpenAccess/docDisplay5.aspx?textid=25752097}

1895 Dec 18

lea333 — 2024-04-27 22:03:19 UTC

According to Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer, "William Smith returned from New Zealand, having conducted a formal investigation of its system of land title and registration. The colonial government in both New Zealand and Australia had been successful in dispossessing natives of land through the Torrens title system."

^{Beamer, Kamanamaikalani. “6 Beyond the Occupation.” In}^{No Mākou Ka Mana: Liberating the Nation}^{. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi: Kamehameha Publishing, 2014.}

1895 Aug 8 Legislative Joint Resolution

lea333 — 2024-04-27 22:46:54 UTC

1898 Feb 23 House Resolution 4

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^{House Journal 1898, page 37.}

Wondering who Rep. Achi is and why he is interested in land title registration?

lea333 — 2024-04-28 00:16:32 UTC

^{Source: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 1/1/1902}^{https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1902-01-01/ed-1/seq-40/}

1898 Mar 8 House Report #24 by Rep. Achi

lea333 — 2024-04-28 00:38:40 UTC

^{Source: Journal of the House of Representatives, Regular Session of 1898. Republic of Hawaii. Volume I.}^{http://punawaiola.org/generalrecordsleg.html}

1898 Mar 31 House Report #62 for HB #49 Limiting time to recover land

lea333 — 2024-04-28 01:29:08 UTC

^{Source: Journal of the House of Representatives, Regular Session of 1898. Republic of Hawaii. Volume I.}^{http://punawaiola.org/generalrecordsleg.html}

1898 Apr 26 Report #108 on Resolution #4 Registry of Deeds and Land Transfer

lea333 — 2024-04-28 01:59:27 UTC

^{Source: Journal of the House of Representatives, Regular Session of 1898. Republic of Hawaii. Volume I, page 339.}^{http://punawaiola.org/generalrecordsleg.html}

1903 Governor Dole's Message to the Legislature

lea333 — 2024-04-28 02:19:45 UTC

^{Source: A Message to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii 1903. State of Hawaii Archives, Series 228 MFL143-9.}

1903 House Bill #9 / Senate Bill #115 An Act to Provide for Registering and Confirming Titles to Land

lea333 — 2024-04-28 02:51:15 UTC

^{House Bill No. 9 An Act to Provide for Registering and Confirming Titles to Land. State of Hawaii Digital Archives, Series 228 MFL143-10.}

^{Journal of the Senate, Regular Session. Territory of Hawaii.Journal of the Senate, Regular Session. Territory of Hawaii. State of Hawaii Digital Archives, Series 228 MFL-143-7.}

^{Journal of Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Second Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii in Regular Session. Google Books.}

1903 Mar 25 Senate Report #31 for Senate Bill #115

lea333 — 2024-04-28 04:18:26 UTC

^{Dickey, C. H., et. al., Report No. 31 The Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii Senate Session 1903. Committee on Miscellaneous Petition on Senate Bill No. 115. Hawaii State Digital Archives, Series 228 MFL143-9.}

Section 19. Who may register title

lea333 — 2024-04-28 08:12:30 UTC

Warning: Laws by nature are complex, thus, this is full disclosure that this interpretation is from an untrained and non-legal professional perspective.

Section 37 Applicant does not have absolute title

lea333 — 2024-04-28 08:14:13 UTC

38. Possessory Title May Be Registered as Fee Simple

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Registered Acres at 1938 and 1986

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^{Mulholland, P. H. Land Court Registration in First Progress Report, An historic inventory of the social and economic and industrial resources of the Territory of Hawaii.}

^{Mardfin, Jean Kadooka. Two Land Recording Systems.}

Registered Acres as a Percent of Total

lea333 — 2024-04-28 11:04:11 UTC

Land Court Application 1590 of Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Ltd.

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Background - Lānaʻi Lands

lea333 — 2024-04-29 04:31:52 UTC

^{Munro, George C., The Story of Lānaʻi.}

Act 56 Highlights

lea333 — 2024-04-29 05:44:07 UTC

^{Laws of the Territory of Hawaii Act 56 An Act to Provide for Registering and Confirming Titles to Land.}

Examiner's Report

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Fraud? Fraud!

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^{Dole Plantation Archives, Hawaiian and Pacific Collections, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library.}

lea333 — 2024-04-29 08:57:04 UTC

Unfortunately, even if there is evidence of fraud, the law limits the time for recourse to one year - yet another way the law works against kānaka. Act 56 perfected these thirty-one titles when the court issued a certificate of title. It was a permanent erasure of history - of the story of Kaleo and his descendants. This photo is of my great-grandmother, Lucy Kamalu, mentioned in the letter as the deceased sister that left surviving children. The child in the photo is my grandmotherʻs sister, Kanonohi, mentioned in the letter as being settled with by HPCO for $25. My grandmother never received compensation and, instead, went to her grave thinking "my uncles when cock-a-roach the land." She was right about something, the land was cock-a-roach but not by her uncles. It was fraudulently taken by the biggest cock-a-roach in Lānaʻi history - Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

Background

lea333 — 2024-04-29 18:16:06 UTC

The Kuleana Act of 1850 provided for the rights of native tenants in lands. Approximately 8,200 Land Commission Awards of fee simple title were issued to native tenants for a combined total of 28,000 acres of land. While many more kānaka attained fee simple government land grants as provided for in Section 4 of the Kuleana Act, these lands held none of the deep physical, spiritual, and emotional connection of a homeland as the kuleana land did.

The Role of Act 56

lea333 — 2024-04-30 01:57:12 UTC

Act 56, An Act to Provide for Registering and Confirming Title to Land, worked in concert with other land reform initiatives, such as the Land Act of 1895 (the homestead act) and Act 19 (limitation of time to recover land) to incentivize white settlers. The role of Act 56 toward this goal, as discussed in the legislative journals, was to eradicate the "evils" of title discrepancies that, purportedly, was increasing the cost of land title researches associated with land transfers. In truth though, in the words of Robert Torrens, the creative force behind the land registry system the territory based Act 56 on, the chief benefit of the land registry system is "restoring to its intrinsic value a large amount of property depreciated or unmarketable through defective evidence or technical imperfection of title." In other words, to dispossess land by erasing the history of the native tenants who were originally awarded the land in order to enhance its value, usefulness, and worth for those who desired to capitalize it.

^{Torrens, Robert R., A handy book on the Real Property Act of South Australia.}