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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 4 april 2018

Panel supports bill to help Hawaiians keep ancestral land

By AUDREY McAVOY, But commoners wound up
Associated Press receiving only 1 percent of
HONOLULU (AP) — A Ha- the land that was distrib-
waii Senate committee uted, about 28,000 acres
on Tuesday voted for a bill (11,331 hectares). Millions
that would force landown- of acres went to Hawaii’s
ers into mediation before royal family and the gov-
they are allowed to file ernment. In subsequent
lawsuits to acquire small decades, sugar and pine-
parcels awarded to Ha- apple plantations acquired
waiian commoners during large expanses of property.
mid-19th century land re- King Kamehameha IV sold
forms. the 3,000-acre (1,214-hect-
The bill was introduced af- are) ahupuaa, or tradi-
ter Facebook CEO Mark tional Hawaiian land divi-
Zuckerberg in late 2016 sion, where Zuckerberg’s This Jan. 15, 2017, file photo, shows public Pilaa Beach, center,
filed lawsuits to identify property lies to an Ameri- below hillside and ridge top land owned by Facebook CEO
owners of 14 parcels inter- can businessman, Charles Mark Zuckerberg, near Kilauea on the north shore of Kauai in
spersed within a 700-acre Titcomb, for $2,600 in 1863, Hawaii.
(283-hectare) oceanfront according to the Kilauea Associated Press
estate he owns on Kauai Neighborhood Association leana lands died without Healani Sonoda-Pale,
Island. website. wills. In many cases, own- whose family owns kuleana
His lawsuits aimed to help In 1877, Titcomb sold some ership today is split among lands on Molokai, said af-
him find the parcel owners of it to English Capt. John hundreds of descendants, ter the committee hearing
so he could buy them out. Ross and Edward Adams, many of whom are un- that the quiet title process
Critics say the so-called who established Kilauea aware of their shares. was akin to “legal stealing.”
quiet title lawsuits are dis- Sugar Co., The Garden Is- Families can lose parcels She noted only 8,205 Ha-
possessing individual Na- land newspaper reported. when one member sells a waiians received kuleana
tive Hawaiians of the little The sugar plantation, which small share to an outsider, lands in the 1850s and
land still in their control. previously owned Zucker- who then launches a law- many families have lost
The bill would require me- berg’s land, operated until suit seeking to identify the control of their lands since.
diation as a first step, as a 1971. other owners. The financial She said kuleana landown-
way to reduce legal costs The social media billionaire burden of hiring attorneys ers should be treated like
for small landowners and bought his estate in 2014 to respond to such lawsuits endangered plants and
to level the playing field for $100 million, Forbes re- can be too much for de- birds whose forest habitat
for those facing legal fights ported. fendants, who often find it is vigorously protected by
with wealthy property own- Many original owners of ku- easier to sell. the government.q
ers. Zuckerberg withdrew
his lawsuits last year after a
public uproar.
The state House passed
the legislation last year but
senators haven’t consid-
ered it until now.
The Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee amended the bill to
specify that the plaintiffs
bear the cost of the media-
tion. Plaintiffs may recover
costs from defendants, but
only what a judge deems
equitable, the amended
bill says. The bill now goes
to the full Senate.
The 14 parcels within Zuck-
erberg’s estate fall in a
category called kuleana
lands.
The lands emerged during
land reforms that the King-
dom of Hawaii pursued
in the 1800s called “the
Great Mahele.” Until then,
no individuals owned land
because it was collectively
cared for and used.
The reforms allowed com-
moners to claim title to
land they lived on and
farmed, usually about a
half-acre (0.2 hectares).