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Honolulu Lite
HAWAIIANS have what should be a simple question for the state: You know that land we gave you to save for us all those years ago ... where is it? Running in circles
over ceded landAnd the state has a fairly simple answer: We don't know.
Apparently the state has lost thousands of acres of ceded land, which is no easy trick. I mean, you can lose your glasses, your television remote control and even your mind, but how do you misplace Diamond Head?
That land, wherever it is, is worth millions of dollars to Hawaiians. The trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, when not engaged in food fights and other nonsense, have been trying to get the state to inventory all ceded lands here so they can figure out just how much money Hawaiians have not been paid.
The state hired an engineer to figure out just how hard it will be to find all this land and he came back with a report that said, basically, "really hard." It's like, they know the land is out there. It's gotta be. It couldn't have gone to New Jersey. But how do you find it? It could be on Maui. It could be on the Waianae Coast. Heck, you could even be standing on it.
To figure out which lands are ceded and which are owned by everyone else is a monumental task. Apparently, it was not a monumental task for the state to lease out large tracts of ceded land to public and private enterprises, like, say, that big old money-making Honolulu Airport, for instance.
The state auditor says that to inventory all ceded lands would involve title searches, surveying, mapping, digitizing, a brand new pack of pencils, the Space Shuttle and Albert Einstein's brain. And, oh yeah, lots and lots of money. A half a million bucks just to peek at the first maps. Then, god knows.
The trouble with land is it's all over the place. And it's covered with trees and buildings and stuff. Walk around your house and try to figure out your property boundaries. Now try to do the same thing for Kauai.
IT'S just sort of mysterious that with all the state departments dedicated to nothing but keeping track of sales, titles, deeds and everything in the land-related line, that the state has misplaced so much land. At least, it can't tell OHA exactly where it is or how much there is of it. This problem has been going on for years, mainly because it is to the benefit of the state and to the detriment of Hawaiians. If the situation were reversed ... wait, the situation is reversed all the time. Every time a Hawaiian family tries to camp on state land, the state promptly sends the cops in to kick them off. The state doesn't send in engineers and surveyors. It just comes in and says, get off our land.
Hawaiians have been more than patient for years while the state has stalled and made excuses. They know that this missing land phenomenon eventually will come to a head and the state will have to cough up an enormous amount of money to pay for it, enough money to make the embarrassingly rich Kamehameha Schools envious.
Kamehameha Schools, formerly known as Bishop Estate, had no problem keeping track of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop's land, which is why it is the richest private school in the country.
Here's how to solve the problem quickly: Stop all commercial activities on known ceded lands until the inventory is completed. I have a feeling the mapping would be finished tomorrow.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to cmemminger@starbulletin.com.
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