Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 6, 1 June 1998 — Molokaʻi Ranch and Hale O Lono Harbor [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Molokaʻi Ranch and Hale O Lono Harbor

QUESTION: What do you get if you're a subsidiary for a multi-bil-lion dollar New Zealand company that owns moie land on Moloka'i than anyone else? Answer: Anything you want. On May 5, 1998, Moloka'i Ranch, a subsidiary of the huge, foreign-owned Brierley Investments Corporation, won the legislature's approval to tum Moloka'i's Hale O Lono Harbor into a private marina for its planned, new, upscale community, "Lono Harbor Village."

The Hale O Lono Resolution (HCR 103, HD 1 and SCR 1 16) was pulled out of the senate Ways and Means Committee in the 1 lth hour and passed on the senate floor. Representative Joe Souki and Senator Roz Baker sponsored the resolution approving this sweetheart deal. Ironically, their favor to the ranch comes less than two years after Moloka'i's Hawaiian community won a bitter fight to force Moloka'i Ranch to comply with a

state license requmng public access to the harbor. The ranch had illegally denied public access for 38 years. In 1958, Moloka'i Ranch got from the state a free, 40-year hcense to use the harbor. The Ranch needed the harbor so that HC&D could ship sand and gravel from mines on ranch land. Neither HC&D nor the ranch was required to pay a dime for the harbor. They made millions off their mining operations. The only "payment" required by the state for the use of this harbor was public access. In addition, the harbor was supposed to be kept in good repair. But neither the Ranch nor HC&D complied with the state license's requirements. From 1958 to 19%, the ianeh never allowed public access to the harbor. Hawaiian fishermen and campers were required to pay for keys to the ranch's

locked gates, and the ranch was picky about whom it would allow to go down to Hale O Lono. Onee a year, <vhen the annual Moloka'i eanoe races were held, the locked gates would be opened, and hundreds of Moloka'i people would eamp on the Hale O Lono beaches. The eanoe race were exciting, but the main draw for the loeal crowds was that this was the only time of the year when the public truly had access to the harbor. For almost four decades, eanoe racers from all over the globe had lfee annual access to Hale O Lono. But the rest of the

year, the Moloka'i eommunity was locked out. The harbor was returned to the state in 1 9%, after Moloka'i Ranch's request to take over HC&D's part of the license was opposed by the Moloka'i eommunity. Although the harbor was supposed to be retumed in good condition, it was in terrible shape. The wharfs are rotting, the navigational markers are falling apart and the entire area is in disrepair. And so HC&D and the Ranch

made millions off of their mining operations, the public got no access to Hale O Lono for 38 years and the harbor was never repaired as required in the license. But never mind. Moloka'i Ranch wants to develop an exclusive new town with a private marina on Moloka'i's West End, and it needs the only harbor on the entire westem half of the island in order to make the scheme work. And so it went to the legislature and had the audacity to aigue that it should get the harbor back because the harbor is in such bad shape. And guess what? The legislature paid no attention to the Moloka'i community. The ranch got the resolution. The fox is back in charge of the ehieken eoop. And the Moloka'i community is onee again left to wonder if foreign money will always win out over the voices of the Hawaiians who live on the most Hawaiian island. ■

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