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Natural History

‘ULEI, HAWAIIAN HAWTHORN
(Osteomosis anthyllidifolia)

‘Ulei is an indigenous native Hawaiian plant that belongs to the Rose family (a cousin to the hawthorn and the common apple) which got here on its own without help from people.  ‘Ulei grows on all of the main Islands with the exception of Kahoolawe and Niihau. Other plants of the same species grow naturally in other places and can be found in other parts of Polynesia and in the Bonin and Ryukyu Islands near Japan.

One of the toughest and most versatile of the native plants, it can be found from the coastal areas up to 8,000 foot elevation.  It has adapted to salty, windswept coastal areas, very dry, open places and to moist, lightly shaded forested lands.  ‘Ulei grows happily in places that have been overrun with aggressive alien weeds. The sprawling plants can spread out like ground cover or grow into large erect shrubs or even small trees in well-protected places.  They have long trailing branches that can arch to touch the earth up to five feet from the woody base.

They have glossy green compound leaves that consist of from 11 to 25 oblong leaflets that measure about ½ inch long.  The leaflets are arranged in pairs on the flexible stems with an extra leaflet at the tip.  On young shoots the compound leaves are arranged in a spiral up the brown branches.  The shiny dark green leaflets are lighter underneath.  Clusters of white, five-petaled, gently fragrant, rose-like flowers are followed by small, white round fruit with a bluish tinge.

The fruit have a sweet-tasting pulp that range in color from white to purple.  They have five hard seeds called stones.  The seeds germinate sporadically over a long period of time – a good tactic for a plant to survive in a dry place where consistent rain may or may not come and the offspring have to be prepared for whatever falls from the sky.

In ancient times, the leaves and roots were gathered for use in medicine for dressing  cuts that were not too deep.  Contemporary haku lei makers follow traditional practices by gathering both the small clustered white fruit and the white flowers to use in lei.  The berries provided a lavender infusion for dyeing kapa (bark cloth). 

However, the very strong and pliable wood of the plant was used most extensively. The twining, woody stems of the low-growing plants are supple and flexible when they are young, tough and strong when they are mature. They were used to make ‘ukeke, a native musical bow with two or three strings which were strummed, as well as bows for shooting rats.  Long branches were also stripped of their bark and tied to the rims of fish nets that were about 25 feet long and sewn into bags.  The branches, acted like a hoop to the mouths for the net bags open.  Hawaiians used the hoop nets to catch opelu, a fish that swims in schools and is a favorite for eating either when freshly caught or after it has been dried.

The strong, dense wood of the plants that grew into trees was also used in ancient times for spears and digging sticks.

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Arts & Culture

THE LAHAINA COURT AND CUSTOM HOUSE

By 1850 it was clear that a new courthouse and a custom house were needed to serve the town. There was chronic warfare between the teetotaler missionaries and their followers and the rum-soaked, carousing sailing crews who often irritated the resident population. As in all port towns of the time, smuggling was rampant.

In 1857, for example, one respectable resident in Lahaina noted in a letter to a mercantile house, “Yesterday (the 14th) and the day before have been celebrated for riot; between two and three hundred drunken sailors and five to eight hundred natives in close combat. Yesterday they fought with clubs and stones; some fifty stones would be flying in the air at once. Several black eyes and bruised heads was the result. The police was overpowered, and prisoners rescued, and the sailors took the town, fair play...For four hours yesterday, no person could venture into the streets without endangering his life.”

The austere two-story Court and Custom House was built facing the harbor. Much of the stone materials was recycled from an old two-story stone building with a tin roof that was the first attempt by Hawaiian royalty to build a palace in the style of European royalty. This building, the ill-fated Hale Piula, “House of Iron,” was constructed during the reign of Kamehameha III, Kauikeaouli. Kamehameha III died before his “Brick Palace” was completed. The new king, Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV, moved his official residence to Honolulu and the former royal headquarters was converted into a court house.

Eventually this building had to be demolished in 1859 and the stones and coral blocks were hauled over closer to the port and used to construct the new building. The new building cost less than $10,000 to build. It housed a court, a jury room, and offices for the sheriff, governor and district attorney. It was also the custom house, the center of the anti-smuggling effort during the latter days of the whaling era.

The Courthouse was constructed primarily of plastered coral rubble and some lava rock. (The lava rock was primarily used to reinforce the corners of the building.) The stone was laid with lime mortar and the window and door lintels were made out of wood.

The original two story lanai on the side facing the sea was five feet wide and framed with wood. The building’s first roof was almost flat and hidden behind parapet walls. Both the roof and the lanai had to be extensively repaired five years later because of faulty construction.

By the 1920’s time and insect pests had taken their toll. In 1925, the building was extensively remodeled by contractor Moses Akiona, following plans designed by noted architect William D’Esmond. During the redecation, the large concrete columned entrance on the seaward side was added as well as smaller entrances facing the town. The almost flat roof became a hipped roof covered in mission tile and a basement was created by extensive excavation under the building. The post office occupied most of the first floor at that time, the second floor continued to be used as a courtroom and the town jail was in the basement.

The Courthouse was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. It was redecated again in 1997 when the finishes were restored and an elevator installed, and yet again in 1990. The Lahaina District Court was moved to the Lahaina Civic Center in the mid-1980’s, but the courtroom with its judge’s stand and witness box remain on the second floor. .

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: Stop fooling around!
BRADDAH-NICS: Eh! No fut around!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Gosh, it's hot!
BRADDAH-NICS: Ay, ka hot!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Will we finish in time?
BRADDAH-NICS: What? Goin' pau?

* * * * * * * *

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Local Grinds

Carrot Pineapple Cake

Ingredients:

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
• Sift flour with soda, cinnamon and salt.
• In a large bowl or electric mixer, combine sugar and salad oil.
• Add half of the flour mixture and mix.
• Beat in carrots, pineapple, vanilla and nuts.
• Add remaining flour mixture and beat.
• Beat eggs into mixture one at a time.
• Makes approximately 16 servings.

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Spotlight On…

Makawao

The majority of tourist-type guidebooks will tell you that Makawao is a "paniolo" (cowboy) town. Not any more. However, the vestiges of its history as a service center for the ranches, plantations and homesteads that surround the area remain in the local-style Dodge City look of the old buildings along Baldwin and Makawao Avenues and their retro-looking mates. The paniolo tradition continues, as well, in the theme for the Fourth-of- July parade that trundles through town from the Makawao Veterans Cemetery to the Eddie Tam Memorial Gym every year before the start of the annual Makawao Rodeo, the Maui Roping Club's biggest, drawing rodeo fanatics from all over the world.

Every once in a while, some brave soul will still venture through town on horseback. (Long-time townspeople still remember what an adventure it was to be walking through town. The advice used to be, "look down and lift your feet." Horses leave "horse apples." Enough said.)

Nowadays, if you were to make a survey of the shops and businesses lining Baldwin and Makawao Avenues, the two main arteries of the L-shaped town center (which is basically only one building wide on either side of the two streets), what you would find are fancy boutiques, art galleries and craft stores and excellent eateries. Tucked among more mundane things like real estate offices, hair stylists, a general store, bakery, bar, liquor shop, convenience store, and assorted financial wizards, are colorful shops and services for folks who are into alternative lifestyles and holistic medicine.

Some folks date the change from paniolo country to a more eclectic ambiance from the concert by Jimi Hendrix on July 30, 1970, before 800 people gathered in a field above Seabury Hall in Olinda. They say that concert, about a month before his death, marked a turning point.

Certainly, there was an influx of colorfully clad young people who wandered around the landscape irritating the neighbors by swiping fruit and going on little mushroom hunts in the cow pastures. Eventually some of these free-wheeling youth became semi-solid citizens, starting ephemeral businesses -- here one day and gone the next -- or buying land in the boonies together and becoming hardworking farmers of one sort or another. Many of them were artists as well and that had a profound effect on the town's character too.

The activity died down again, and for a while, it looked like Makawao was on its last legs. Once again, an influx of a more cosmopolitan and sophisticated sort of seeker, those looking to get away from all that 80's and 90's hustle-and-bustle and taking-care-of-business, came through, leaving their mark on the town. Old-timers have reached the point where nothing phases them any more...not even the thought of Makawao being a tourist destination.

Scattered through town, there's a public library, the town's post office, the upcountry branch office of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the town cop's headquarters, housed in a small old house on Baldwin Avenue. The banks all moved to Pukalani, alas, but there are ATM machines dotted around town.

Makawao is an interesting walking town, but you don't want to be near it around 7 in the morning or around 2 on most afternoons when parents and the drivers of buses full of the students attending Makawao Elementary School and the Montessori School on Baldwin Avenue, St. Joseph's School on Makawao Avenue, Seabury Hall on Olinda Road, Kalama Intermediate School on Makani Road and King Kekaulike High School on Kula Highway are all trying to get through the traffic snarl.

By 8 or so in the morning, the bike riders who have signed up for the ride-down-the-mountain tours reach Makawao. There's a steady stream of them all day long down the Haleakala Highway and the back roads of Olinda, through town and on down winding Baldwin Avenue to Paia town: lines of assorted-sized people riding the touring bikes more or less steadily and mostly in line, shepherded by a gesticulating guide. They are followed by big fat vans with trailers that all have signs saying they will pull over.

Besides these folks, there are also the independent bikers who hug the edges of the no-shoulder roads between the Haleakala National Park start-off and Paia, doing the tour on their own. And then, there are the bikers who are going the other way. It gets interesting, sometimes, at the three-way stop intersection where Baldwin Avenue meets Makawao Avenue and becomes Olinda Road.

The parking situation has been eased somewhat by the public parking lot off Makawao Avenue next to the public library, but you do have to time it right.

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