By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

A new book suggests that the Great Mahele was not the controversial land rip-off of common Hawaiians that many historians have painted it. All things considered, commoners got a fair share. The rip-off came later and historians missed that, too.

"Most people remember that 99 percent of the land went to the king, the government and the high chiefs as a result of the Great Mahele," said Robert Stauffer, author of "Kahana, How the Land was Lost." "The conventional wisdom is that common Hawaiians got cheated with less than 1 percent," he said.

Instead, Stauffer's figures show that the 28,000 acres awarded to commoners constituted 43 percent of the total land value distributed in 1848. That's because each parcel was a developed kuleana in full production while the land awarded to landlords was mostly undeveloped acreage of little value.

In the past, historians have lumped all the land together as if each parcel had the same value. Stauffer came to understand the importance of land values while doing original research into Kahana Valley land transactions.

He cited examples of how much difference land values make. The Damon Estate recently sold 115,000 Big Island acres to the National Park Service for $22 million. One acre in Kahala sells for the same price. Kamehameha Schools owns 350,000 acres of land. A quarter of its income comes from a few acres in Waikiki.

The 28,000 acres that went to common Hawaiians in the Great Mahele was in garden plots worked by extended families. The mahele law stated that they could not claim land that was not being worked. Traditionally, an 'ohana worked the same kuleana generation after generation.

So the Great Mahele accomplished what it set out to do: give Hawaiians their land. "You could put more than 100,000 families on the 28,000 acres today if the families had hung onto the land," said Stauffer. "It wasn't until the 1880s that they lost it almost all at the same time."

He said most families had previously refused to sell their land, taking advice from the king and Judge William Lee at the time of the Mahele. The rip-off was accomplished by means of a law sneaked through the Legislature in 1874 that took mortgage transactions out of the courts and into private hands.

The law permitted the owner of a desirable kuleana to hang onto his deed, as the king had advised, when he borrowed money on the land. The kuleana owner didn't realize that the law also permitted the lender to foreclose without notice and rig an auction to buy the land. The deed became worthless.

Stauffer said banker Charles Reed Bishop presided over the Legislature that passed the law. Samuel Wilder introduced the bill. Stauffer said he couldn't understand why so many kuleana changed hands at this time until he discovered the little-known law.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.