By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Some things I like about a new year are getting an up-to-date tide calendar, starting a fresh date book and reading another edition of "The Hawaiian Journal of History" published by the Hawaiian Historical Society.

My favorite article this time is called "God vs. Sugar" by Clifford Putney. It taught me why there is a street named Gulick in Our Honolulu. I also learned what rather prominent people in Hawai'i really thought of each other 125 years ago. It's delightful.

Heroes of the piece are the missionary Gulick brothers, so outspoken that other members of the Cousins Society were dismayed. Samuel Castle resigned in protest from the Hawaiian Evangelical Association headed by Luther, leader of the Gulick clan.

Luther Gulick referred to the aging missionary fathers as "old fogies." He showed as little respect for their offspring, who went into sugar planting and became wealthy.

He said his fellow cousins were "not ready to take up crosses. We are too respectable, too refined." Luther described the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society as "essentially a moonlight association of tropical sentimentality."

His shake-up of missionary complacency began with a determined effort to put Hawaiians instead of haole ministers into pulpits. "It will be hard for for the older missionaries to resign their complete control of their several dioceses," he admitted. But Gulick plunged ahead.

The number of Hawaiians in the ordained clergy rose from four in 1863 to 44 in 1869. A year later, there were only eight white pastors in HEA mission churches.

The Gulicks had strong opinions on almost everything and everybody. Missionary descendent Henry Whitney had founded The Pacific Commercial Advertiser in 1856 and the leading Hawaiian-language newspaper, Kuokoa, in 1861.

Whitney, the foremost newspaperman in Hawai'i at the time, put Luther Gulick in charge of Kuokoa. Gulick said of his boss, "Mister is not as sharp as he might be — but is plucky."

Gulick's opinion of Kamehameha V was even less complimentary. He considered the king autocratic and was appalled by his alliance with white sugar planters. Luther's harshest criticism, like that of his younger brother, Orramel, was reserved for Reformed Catholics (Episcopalians), whom he called Deformed Catholics and moral degenerates.

When Luther branded legislators "parasites" in Kuokoa for refusing to repeal the expensive horse tax, they put him on trial for "literary malfeasance." To his surprise, the community sided with him and against the Legislature. He got off with a slap on the wrist.

Gulick Street commemorates strenuous efforts to preserve Hawaiian culture, ferocious battles against the contract labor system and a lifelong dedication to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.

Correction: The number of Hawaiians in the ordained clergy rose from four in 1863 to 44 in 1869. A previous version of this column contained an incorrect date.