Lucky 13
November 7, 2007 12:54 am > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays Lucky 13 |
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VEGAN MONTH
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY – Aloha: reply
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.
( There is life in a kindly reply)
November 7, 1851: Maui receives the first batch of stamps from the new Oahu post office. Henry M. Whitney established the first state government post office in 1850, and became Honolulu’s first postmaster general. He immediately set about designing stamps.
Initially, he created three – the 2, 5 and 13 cent stamps – in October, 1851, and by the end of that year they were in widespread use throughout the islands.
Whitney was a son of missionaries, had experience as a printer, and this group of three stamps became known as the “missionary stamps” collection.
Hawaii being even more remote to the world then than it is now, it did not offer many opportunities for these stamps to circulate outside the state. Thus, today there are not very many original missionary stamps, and those in good condition are extremely valuable. About three years ago, the Honolulu Advertiser, which had a small collection of missionary stamps, put them up for auction. Three stamps garnered $9.5 million.
In 1900, the United States Federal Government took over the Hawaii State Post Office. Some say it’s been downhill ever since. Many Maui residents still don’t know that if you mail a letter to a town resident within that town, the letter stays in town. However, if you mail a letter from, say, Wailuku to Kahului, it gets flown to Honolulu first for processing, then flown back to Maui for delivery. How about that for efficiency?
