By Samuel King and Randall Roth
Bernice Pauahi Bishop (b 1831) was the wealthiest woman in Hawaii, a princess by birth and married to an American banker. Childness herself, she left her property to five trustees who would create and maintain schools for Hawaiian children. This book chronicles the origin, growth and eventual gross mismanagement of the Bishop educational trust by its trustees. It reads like a novel - shocking in the number and extent of abuses by the trustees. Good reading for anyone interested in Hawaii, education or trust management.
Hawaii is such a beautiful place, a gem of God's creation - but it has suffered from a whole host of problems in addition to the broken trust: in the 1890s, its unlawful annexation by the USA; exploitation by many US and other nations' business interests over the years; recent continual volcanic eruptions, and currently, flooding on the big island. God help the people of Hawaii...
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