Hawaii Holomua-Progress Archive

The Hawaii Holomua has a complicated publication history. On May 2, 1891, publication of the Hawaii Holomua began in four versions:  the daily and weekly Hawaiian language editions and the daily and weekly bilingual Hawaiian and English versions. In 1893, the Holomua Publishing Company purchased the Hawaii Holomua, and the first issue of the paper's English-only daily was published on September 18, 1893. This version replaced its bilingual daily and weekly editions, but the Hawaiian language daily and weekly editions continued to be published.  Titled the Hawaii Progress Holomua, the English-only edition was published every afternoon except Sundays and holidays. In four to five pages, each issue contained local news, editorials, advertisements, legal notices, schedules (including mail service, ship arrivals and departures, and sports), and various columns (including personal notes and church services). Circulation of its various editions was estimated to be 5,000.

Throughout its history the Hawaii Holomua supported the Hawaiian monarchy. First appearing nine months after the overthrow of the monarchy, the English edition opposed the Provisional Government, established in 1893 after the overthrow and the Republic of Hawaiʻi, launched in 1894. It was the only paper in Hawaiʻi to publish deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani's protest against the overthrow and her appeal to the U.S. President Grover Cleveland. Edmund Norrie, editor of the English edition, labeled the new regime a "Bogus Hawaiian Republic" and a "fraudulent government." He wrote that most people in Hawaiʻi opposed the Provisional Government and observed in the December 21, 1893, issue, "For the provisional government to pretend to represent the Hawaiian people is an outrageous absurdity, induced by their fear of taking a vote of the people, knowing that it would overthrow them." In the February 13, 1894, issue of the Hawaii Progress Holomua, Norrie complained about the annexationists' economic boycotts against opponents: "[The annexationists] have in their business relations as shown done all in their power to injure parties who differ from them [sic] political opinion."

Between 1893 and 1895, due to its fear of opposition papers encouraging a counterrevolution, the Hawaiʻi government created libel laws to discourage papers from "indecent and seditious language" and "conspiracy and restricted freedom of speech. For expressing his views against the government, Norrie was arrested five times and was made to pay a fine of $100 three times.

The Hawaii Progress Holomua abruptly ceased publication after its last issue of January 5, 1895. The next day a three-day counterrevolution to restore the Hawaiian monarchy broke out in Hawaiʻi. As a result, the government jailed Norrie and other nationalist journalists. Upon his release, Norrie served as the editor of the Independent from June 1895 to 1902 and continued to support Hawaiian nationalism and to attack the non-Native government of Hawaiʻi.