[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 84 (Monday, June 10, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6041-H6042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     KING KAMEHAMEHA DAY IN HAWAII

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I have just returned from my district, 
and in doing so I always have to go through the State of Hawaii. Today, 
the State of Hawaii is celebrating Kamehameha Day, they call it every 
year, in honor of the great King of Hawaii, Kamehameha.
  I want to share with my colleagues some very interesting tributes to 
this great Polynesian Hawaiian king, whose statue is right here in 
Statuary Hall 

[[Page H6042]]

as it was a gift from the State of Hawaii commemorating this great 
island ruler.
  Kamehameha had to prove not only his kingship by birth, but he also 
had to prove his kingship by merit. His rivals were just as big as he. 
I do not know if my colleagues realize, Mr. Speaker, but the statute 
that we see here of King Kamehameha is supposed to be life size. This 
great King of Hawaii was almost 7 feet in stature, weighed almost 300 
pounds, and can my colleagues just imagine that his rivals were just as 
big as he, and having a fleet of some 16,000 canoes, and the population 
of the Hawaiian community at that time was some 300,000 native 
Hawaiians that lived during his time.
  Prophesies were made before Kamehameha was even born that he would be 
truly a king of chiefs, and that is why his name is aptly called, The 
Lonely One, and I ask my colleagues to go see the statue of King 
Kamehameha in Statuary Hall.

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