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January 28, 2024 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Math’s Life Lessons

OK, I know some may recall seeing this – but I wanted to lighten up and remind us of some Life Lessons from my favorite subject … Math.

Some might suggest my passion is history (talk to any of my former history teachers and you’ll soon learn the truth – back then, history was not a subject that interested me.)

Actually, it’s Numbers that talk to me … they help me see and explain the world around me.

Many who know me think I am weird for my apparent insatiable passion for Math.

Math is not just the quest to solve for the unknown (as if that is not enough;) Math also helps describe how we should live our lives.

Bear with me for a few moments, while I either turn you to the Math Side, or confirm what many people already think of me. (BTW, I proudly live up to my reputation as the Duke of Dork.)

Here are some important Math Life Lessons.

Math’s equal sign gives us a lesson on EQUALITY.

From grade school through research involving the most complicated mathematical expressions, there is blind faith in Math’s equal sign.

Definitively different looking items on either side of this symbol are indisputably the same. Without second thought, we defend and protect the equal sign and proclaim equality of two distinctive things.

In life, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we looked at each other … whomever we are, from wherever we come, however each of us looks or whatever each of us believes … and unquestionably see ourselves as equal?

This simple Math concept can save the world.

While we are on the subject of the equal sign, Math also teaches us the GOLDEN RULE.

You know, he who has the most gold, rules … no, wait, that’s a lesson in compounding and the relationship of addition, multiplication and exponents; that’s not what I am referring to.

I am talking about the ethic of reciprocity – doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

We learn about this in Algebra – we call it balancing the equation, when we isolate a variable or solve an equation. If you do one thing (i.e. add, subtract …) to one side of the equation, you must do the same thing to the other side of the equation.

In life, the same is true. Treat people just as you wish to be treated and treat them equally.

Math teaches us the importance of WORKING TOGETHER.

This is illustrated in a tricky combination of geometry, trigonometry and physical science; so, bear with me, again.

Assume you need to get something from one point to another; say, up a hill.

In Math, we call it force to move a mass up a slope. Use all your might and you can eventually get the object to the top.

However, if you and a friend push the same object, each of you uses less of your own muscle power (force) because you are working together.

In fact, you two working together, using each of your individual maximum force, can move twice the mass.

In Math, as in life … working together, you can accomplish more.

Here’s another Math Life Lesson – PROBLEM SOLVING.

In all Math problems, from the simplest to the most complex, the solution is simply the systematic addition, subtraction, multiplication or division of only 2 numbers at time.

So, in Math, when faced with an extensive, complicated problem, you solve it by planning and breaking it down into small component parts; the process is called evaluating and simplifying.

In life, our so-called ‘big’ problems can be solved the same way – slowly and systematically – by looking for and addressing the simple component solutions. (It’s kind of like ‘baby steps.’)

There is LOVE in Math.

OK, for many, not necessarily love *for* Math; but, really … love is found in Math.

It is best seen in 1 + 1 = 2.

First, look at the numbers.

1 … a simple vertical line. By itself, it’s limited in character, scope and scale. 1 is the most basic, simplest and loneliest number that you’ll ever do.

But, put that 1 with another lonely 1 … and you get the most diverse, complicated integer of them all – 2 – a symbol made up of a curve, slope and straight line.

But, what does that mean?

OK, now, we have a little audience participation … do this in your mind’s eye.

Just as who we are and what we do reflects on others … take that 2 and imagine its left side is reflected up against a mirror. Can you see it?

That’s right. When you take a lonely one and put it together with another lonely one … you have love with a solid foundation.

Makes your heart skip a little beat doesn’t it?

Welcome to the Math Side.

$Math-2B2-mirror$

January 27, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Linzy Clark Child

“Born Aug. 14, 1887, Ogden, Utah, son of Austin W., and Mary (Thompson) Child; married Lena Conant at Kealakekua, Hawaii, July 5, 1913; children, Helen C., Madelane C., and Elmer Austin Child; member, Hilo Lodge No. 759, B. P. 0. Elks.”

“Educated in schools of Utah, Mr. Child came to Hawaii in 1908 and entered the employ of H. Hackfeld & Co., at Kailua, remaining in the branch office and store there after it was taken over by American Factors, Ltd.”

“On October 1, 1918, he was promoted to the managership, which position he still holds. He is active in the civic affairs of the Kona district and is postmaster at Kailua.” (Nellist)

“From 1900 to 1917, the largest business in Kailua-Kona was H. Hackfeld & Co. Ltd. The name changed to American Factors in 1917 and to AmFac in the 1960s.”

“Its two-story building sat at the entrance to Kailua Pier on the current site of King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. It served as company headquarters, general store, post office and employee housing.”

“There were also a coffee mill and a large diesel generator used to make ice. By the 1930s, American Factors had established a lumberyard on the site as well. … the warehouses of Amfac dealt with practically everything else for decades: ice, food for man and beast, building materials, hardware, fuel and kitchen sinks.”

“[B]ecause Kailua’s shallow water pier was impossible to tie up to, lumber was floated, paddled, and swum ashore and then hauled up to dry on the white sands of Kamakahonu Beach.” (Kona Historical Society)

“This arduous task, floating huge beams and rafters ashore, happened for well over a century at undeveloped Kona ports such as Kailua, Keauhou, and Ho`okena. Henry N. Greenwell’s shipment of northwest fir for his Greenwell Store arrived at Kealakekua Bay before 1870.”

“His initials – H.N.G. – painted in black on each piece of timber identified his wood so when athletic Hawaiians swam it ashore at Napoopoo, it could be piled in one place.”

“That was when Napoopoo ‘was a really happening place’ with Amfac’s wooden store dominating the front street, large metal tanks holding fuel looming amongst the palm trees, and warehouses filled with Kona coffee, Kona oranges, and bananas advertised Kona’s agricultural wealth.”

“And, live beef on the hoof was to be found penned up near Hikiau Heiau, awaiting their one-way trip to Honolulu’s slaughterhouses on board the Humu’ula.”

“Freighters arrived in Kailua Bay laden with fuel, a long hose or pipe was connected from the ship to the shore to enable gasoline to be pumped directly into Standard Oil’s large white fuel tank. Fifty gallon drums full of oil were simply floated ashore.”

“When ‘rafts’ of bundled lumber made it onto the beach, Mr. Linzy Child, Amfac’s Kailua branch manager, had men grade (select with no knots, rough clear), segregate, and carefully stack each plank to dry with laths in between each piece.”

“Local villagers would be hired to do much of the work on steamer days, a good chance for able bodied men and boys to earn some ready cash.”

“Takao Katoku earned a penny a piece to swim lumber ashore and drag it onto the sands of Napoopoo Beach in the early 20th century.

“Kona, in the 1920s, enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. Large sums were invested in equipment and machinery, acreage was expanded, and new homes were built. Farmers obtained credit for these improvements and they borrowed heavily.”

“Those outside coffee farming – those who provided goods and services – prospered. The Y.K. Aiona Store, owned by Sam Liau’s family, was one of many stores that enjoyed a brisk business. The Manago Hotel, now a Kona landmark, expanded its facilities and services.” (Kona Historical Society)

Hopes continued to soar. But, when coffee prices fell, Kona’s people, too, fell deeper and deeper into debt. The hopes and dreams of many were shattered.

Between 1929 and 1938, the number of farmers decreased by an alarming 50 percent. Relief was obtained only in the late 1930s. Farmers, storekeepers, and others united in an effort to save their community.

Usaku Morihara was one of many who participated in this effort. “People started running away because of the depression. So we started negotiating with American Factors. I told Factors to reduce all of the debts.”

“I told them the people would remember this and be loyal to them until death. I told them the coffee business would be doomed otherwise, and there would be no farmers in Kona, so it would be their loss as well as ours. I told them let us be free of our debts.”

“I told them the farmers would start working hard when everything started fresh. And those who’d run away would come back since they liked Kona better than the sugar plantations and any other place.” (A Social History of Kona)

“[I]t was my grandfather Linzy C. Child who was the manager of American Factors Kailua during that period that negotiated and spoke to Mr. Morihara and others about helping the farmers debt problems.”

“Getting on a ship to Honolulu he was successful getting top management of American Factors to forgive 98% of the debts; this was unheard of. I believe the action taken by Grandpa and American Factors saved the Kona Coffee industry and changed the way banking was done in Hawaii in dealing with other ethnic groups!” (Linzy Hotz)

Linzy Clark is also credited in helping to start Kona’s Kai ‘Ōpua canoe club. (Kai ‘Opua) “Grandpa was a humble man who rarely spoke of his life while living in Kona since the early 1900s.” (Linzy Hotz)

January 26, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

First Descriptions of the Islands and the People

“On the 19th (of January, 1778,) at sunrise, the island first seen, bore east several leagues distant. … At this time, we were in some doubt whether or not the land before us was inhabited; but this doubt was soon cleared up, by seeing some canoes coming off from the shore, toward the ships”.

“In the course of my several voyages, I never before met with the natives of any place so much astonished, as these people were, upon entering a ship. Their eyes were continually flying from object to object …”

“… the wildness of their looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance about every thing they saw, and strongly marking to us, that, till now, they had never been visited by Europeans, nor been acquainted with any of our commodities except iron …”

” Of what number this newly-discovered Archipelago consists, must be left for future investigation. We saw five of them, whose names, as given to us by the natives, are Woahoo (O‘ahu,) Atooi (Kauai,) Oneeheow (Ni‘ihau,) Oreehoua (Lehua) and Tahoora (Ka‘ula.)”

“Besides these … which we can distinguish by their names, it appeared, that the inhabitants of those with whom we had intercourse, were acquainted with some other islands both to the eastward and westward. I named the whole group the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich.”

“The inhabitants are of a middling stature, firmly made, with some exceptions, neither remarkable for a beautiful shape, nor for striking features, which rather express an openness and good-nature, than a keen, intelligent disposition.”

“Their visage, especially amongst the women, is sometimes round; but others have it long; nor can we say that they are distinguished, as a nation, by any general cast of countenance.”

“Their colour is nearly of a nut-brown, and it may be difficult to make a nearer comparison, if we take in all the different hues of that colour; but some individuals are darker.”

“They are vigorous, active, and most expert swimmers; leaving their canoes upon the most trifling occasion; diving under them, and swimming to others though at a great distance.”

“It was very common to see women, with infants at the breast, when the surf was so high that they could not land in the canoes, leap overboard, and without endangering their little ones, swim to the shore, through a sea that looked dreadful.”

“They seem to be blest with a frank, cheerful disposition; … They seem to live very sociably in their intercourse with one another; and … they were exceedingly friendly to us.” “(T)hey spoke the language of Otaheite, and of the other islands we had lately visited.”

Men wore a ‘maro’ (malo,) “pieces of cloth tied about the loins, and hanging a considerable way down.” “The only difference in (women’s) dress, was their having a piece of cloth about the body, reaching from near the middle to half-way down the thighs, instead of the maro worn by the other sex.”

“The habitations of the natives were thinly scattered about … (part of Cook’s crew) had an opportunity of observing the method
of living amongst the natives, and it appeared to be decent and cleanly.”

“Though they seem to have adopted the mode of living in villages, there is no appearance of defence, or fortification, near any of them; and the houses are scattered about, without any order, either with respect to their distances from each other, or there position in any particular direction.”

“Their amusements seem pretty various; for, during our stay, several were discovered. The dances … from the motions which they made with their hands, on other occasions, when they sung, we could form some judgment that they are, in some degree at least, similar to those we had met with at the southern Islands”.

“They did not, however, see any instance of the men and women eating together; and the latter seemed generally associated in companies by themselves.”

“They eat off a kind of wooden plates, or trenchers; and the women, as far as we could judge from one instance, if restrained from feeding at the same dish with the men … are at least permitted to eat in the same place near them.”

“It was found, that they burnt here the oily nuts of the doee dooe for lights in the night, … and that they baked their hogs in ovens”.

“They met with a positive proof of the existence of the taboo (or as they pronounce it, the tafoo), for one woman fed another who was under that interdiction.”

“They also observed some other mysterious ceremonies; one of which was performed by a woman, who took a small pig, and threw it into the surf, till it was drowned, and then tied up a bundle of wood, which she also disposed of in the same manner. The same woman, at another time, beat with a stick upon a man’s shoulders, who sat down for that purpose.”

“They have salt, which they call patai; and is produced in salt ponds. With it they cure both fish and pork; and some salt fish, which we got from them, kept very well, and were found to be very good.”

“Fish, and other marine productions were, to appearance, not various; as, besides the small mackerel, we only saw common mullets; a sort of a dead white, or chalky colour; a small, brownish rock-fish, spotted with blue; a turtle, which was penned up in a pond; and three or four sorts of fish salted. The few shellfish that we saw were chiefly converted into ornaments”.

“Of animal food, they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run, without restraint, about the houses ; and if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these seem to be very considerable. The great number of fishing-hooks found among them, showed, that they derive no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea.”

“Judging from what we saw growing, and from what was brought to market, there can be no doubt that the greatest part of their vegetable food consists of sweet potatoes, taro, and plantains; and that bread-fruit and yams are rather to be esteemed rarities.”

“(T)he vale, or moist ground, produces taro, of a much larger size than any we had ever seen; and the higher ground furnishes sweet potatoes, that often weigh ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen pounds; very few being under two or three.”

(This summary comes entirely from the Journals of Captain Cook, explaining what he saw immediately after contact.)

View of the Sandwich Islands_Webber-Achorage at Atooi

January 24, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palikū

O‘ahu Island consists of a volcanic mass of two primary formations, including the Ko‘olau Formation in the east (windward) and the Wai‘anae Formation in the west (leeward). These volcanic eruptions occurred approximately 1.8 to 2.6 million years ago.

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within the moku.) Ko‘olauloa is divided into 23-ahupua‘a (traditional land division); Ko‘olaupoko is divided into 11-ahupua‘a.

Palikū is in Ko‘olaupoko where it joins Ko‘olauloa. This is now known as Kualoa. The generally narrow coastal area has been gradually accumulating since that time around the base of this volcanic core as a result of gradual erosion and weathering of the uplands.

The coastal beach, however, is a more recent formation. Sea level returned to its modern level sometime around 2,000 years ago, at least a 1,000 years before Polynesian colonists first set foot in Hawai‘i.

The earliest evidence of human occupation at Kualoa Beach is dated at about AD 1040 to 1280, in the most landward portion of the peninsula.

The early radiocarbon date is from charcoal recovered from a firepit that also contained a few discarded basalt flakes, the tip component of a two-piece bone fishhook, and dense shell and bone midden.

The calendar date range of AD 1040 to 1280 ranks among the earliest in secure archaeological context for windward O‘ahu, but it post-dates first settlement in the archipelago by up to a few centuries. The earliest human activities may have been in the more stable coastal plain landward of the Kualoa peninsula.

At the time of Polynesian settlement in the Hawaiian Islands, accretion of the Kualoa Peninsula probably was only in its beginning stage. The landscape at the time, therefore, must have been dominated by steep cliffs near the coast. (Carson and Athens)

This area had an older name Palikū that referred to the “vertical cliff” characterizing this land, and the newer name Kualoa refers to the “long back” of a mo‘o or moko (giant lizard) slain by Hi‘iaka.

The renaming possibly implies knowledge of the ancient landscape prior to coastal growth out into the ocean and substantial accretion, apparently concurrent with the earliest period of human settlement.

“Paliku (Erect cliff), the male, mated with Paliha‘i (Broken cliff), the female. Eight generations later appear Papaluna (Stratum above), the male, mating with Papailalo (Stratum below), the female. (Their counterparts Papa‘una and Papa‘a‘o appear in Marquesan genealogical creation.)”

“The Kumulipo recites 28 more generations (36 following Paliku) before there first appears the name Haumea, who is Mother Earth (sometimes called Papa), she ‘of myriad forms’ (of vegetation) who mated first with WVakea (Kanehoalani}.”

“There follows, as a narrative within the genealogical sequence, the account of the union of Haumea and Wakea, ‘dwelling in the House of Wakea’ (Ka hale ‘i‘o Wakes i noho ‘ai) and the birth of Haloa, the progenitor of mankind.”

When the land was known as Palikū, the goddess Haumea and her husband Wakea were the progenitors of the Hawaiian people, and they made their home at Palikū.

This place can be associated with the beginning of human life, the founding generations of certain Hawaiian genealogies, and the formation of traditional religious practices.

Handy and Handy noted that: “The land now called Kualoa was formerly Paliku (upright cliff), for its salient feature, the great cliff at its back. It was here that the primordial goddess Haumea battled alone against the warriors of Kumuhonua in legendary times preceding the great tidal wave that inundated all the coast from Kualoa south to He‘eia.”

“Here was built the high shrine to Lono … who saved Wakea and Haumea in the flood.”

Palikū is recognized as the place of the first heiau (traditional Hawaiian religious temple) during the time of Haumea and Wākea and associated with an ancient cultural context that later underwent significant evolution.

When a great tidal wave swept Haumea, Wākea, and all of their followers out to sea, Wākea was instructed, presumably by the god Lono, ‘to cup his hands together to represent a heiau, then he caught a humuhumu-nukunukuapua‘a fish [triggerfish with a pig-like snout] . . . and stuck it head first into the cupped hands to represent a pig’. (Handy and Handy).

The followers repeated Wākea’s actions, and then the sea washed all of them ashore.

In gratitude to Lono, a temple was constructed at Palikū, and an order of priests called Mo‘o-kuauhau-o-Lono (literally “genealogical line of Lono”) was responsible for religious proceedings at this temple. (Malo)

Handy and Handy reported that the priestly order known as Palikū formerly performed rituals at heiau (temples) called māpele.

Māpele is defined as ‘thatched heiau. (temple) for the worship of Lono and the increase of food’ (Lono was god of abundance as well as of rain and storm). (Handy and Handy)

The area was partly in Ko‘olaupoko and partly in Ko‘olauloa. The tax collectors of Ko‘olaupoko accompanying the symbol of Lono came only to the northern border of Kualoa at Paliku and turned back. Those of Ko‘olauloa came south to Ka‘a‘awa on the north side of Kanehoalani (the summit of the ridge at Kualoa) and turned back. (Handy and Handy)

“The fact that the land strip Kualoa, called formerly Paliku, with Kanehoalani towering at its back, was a land so sacred that no canoe could pass by at sea without lowering its sails …”

“… would seem to justify the conclusion that it was at the base of the cliff called Paliku that the ancient mapele shrine dedicated to Lono was located. This undoubtedly was the seat of the hierarchy of the priestly order of Lono”. (Malo)

Kualoa (formerly called Paliku, after its sacred cliff) has a broad lagoon inside a solid barrier reef, but hardly any beach. Having no streams, it was for the most part unsuitable for taro growing.

However, the late Albert F Judd, in whose family the ranch lands of Kualoa have long been included, recalled that his father, Dr. GP Judd, once said that the Kahola-Iele Pond was excavated from a long abandoned taro lo‘i.

This pond is in the flatland named ‘Apua near the boundary between Kualoa and Hakipu‘u. The land was anciently famous for the wauke (paper mulberry) grown there for the making of bark cloth (tapa).

North of Kanehoalani is the valley of Ka‘a‘awa (Turning passage). The name apparently refers to the ‘passage’ through the reef formed by the stream which empties through two channels some distance apart. There is a narrow beach and broad lagoon, not very well protected because the passage (awa) through the reef is so broad.

At Ka‘a‘awa there was a small stream that flowed only in rainy weather, but the flat and sloping habitable area of Ka‘a‘awa and Makaua must have been good only for sweet potatoes, and no doubt there were coconut trees along the shore. There is hardly any beach, but a high shore and a well-protected lagoon make this a good fishing locality. (Handy and Handy)

January 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Marcus Douglas Monsarrat

I like maps, especially historical maps.

One of my favorites was a map of Honolulu drawn by Marcus Douglas Monsarrat, Hawaii-born surveyor. He prepared it in 1897.

I like it, not only because it represents the nature of the City at that time, but, more importantly, he also depicts homes and buildings, and includes the names of the owners.

Born on March 29, 1857, on his paternal side Monsarrat is descended from Nicholas Monsarrat, who went to Dublin, Ireland, in 1755 from France.

His father, MC Monsarrat resided in Canada before coming to Hawaii, having been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, June 18, 1844, and in the Islands he served as deputy collector of customs, later with Dowsett & Compauy, lumber dealers, which subsequently became SG Wilder & Company.

His father (Marcus Cumming Monsarrat became a bit notorious in the Islands. Prince Lot had invited Marcus Monsarrat, who lived nearby, as a guest at a dinner party on January 15, 1857. When dinner was over, Monsarrat bid his goodbye and left. …

Soon after, one of Lot’s servants said the tall, handsome Monsarrat was in Victoria Kamāmalu’s bedroom. Prince Lot burst into Victoria Kamāmalu’s quarters and discovered her in compromising circumstances with his guest Marcus Monsarrat (he was ‘arranging his pantaloons.’) He was banished from the Islands.

The incident was embarrassing to the court because efforts were underway to arrange a marriage between Victoria Kamāmalu and Kalākaua; these plans were quickly aborted. Monsarrat returned; he died in Honolulu on October 18, 1871. Some suggest Monsarrat Street near Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) is named for Monsarrat; others say it is for his son, James Melville Monsarrat, an attorney and Judge.

Through his mother Marcus Douglas Monsarrat is a descendant of Captain Samuel James Dowsett, a native of Rochester, Kent, England, and a commander in His Majesty’s Colonial Service, who, as owner and master of the brig “Wellington,” came to Hawaii from Sydney July 27, 1828, and established his family in Honolulu. (Nellist)

Monsarrat studied at O‘ahu College (now Punahou School, 1866-70 and 1872-73) and St Alban’s (now Iolani School, 1870-71). His first employment was with James Dowsett.

Monsarrat worked for the Hawaiian Government Survey from about 1874 until 1877. The Office of Hawaiian Government Survey was established under the Interior Department in 1870, when the Minister of the Interior, F.W. Hutchison (who had the care of public lands and by law had the authority to have them surveyed), asked the Legislature for $5,000 for “Government Surveying.”

Its formation was prompted by the increased public demand for additional grants of government land in the late 1860s and the government’s corresponding ignorance of the amount or location of government land still available for lease or sale.

It was also surmised that a survey and its resultant maps, besides determining the extent of remnant government lands, would prove useful to private individuals and other government agencies, especially tax assessors, boundary commissioners and the courts, since no district maps then existed and island maps were still based on the charts of Cook and Vancouver.

Consequently, an Office of Survey was begun and its primary object was “to account for all the land in the Kingdom by its original title, and indicate such accounting on general maps, and while having no authority to settle boundaries, to require the surveyors to lay down such boundaries on maps to the best of their ability with the abundant information at their disposal.” (DAGS, Survey)

Monsarrat surveyed the Island of Lanai. After working for the government, Monsarrat opened his own surveying firm. He served as Crown surveyor from 1878 until Hawai‘i’s annexation with the US. (Geographicus) He also had a contract to survey Molokai.

During his long and active career, he personally surveyed a large portion of the Hawaiian Islands. From 1902 to the time of his death, he served as commissioner of boundaries for first and second judicial circuits. (Siddall)

Monsarrat married Florence Ellen Luce, at Honolulu, June 1, 1882; they had three children, Kathleen Douglas, Mildred Myrtle (deceased), and Ethel Florence. (They later divorced.) Monsarrat died October 23, 1922.