148 TUTTLE ENGINEERING NOTES ON HAWAII. 



ones as they die off. The effect of the increasing loss of forest area is 

 shown in the drying up of what were formerly swampy areas and the 

 running dry of streams before considered as unfailing. 



Water for irrigation purposes has a higher value on these islands 

 than anywhere else in the world, and the absolute dependence upon 

 it and the recognition of the relationship existing between dry season 

 run-off and the preservation of the forest area are awakening a great 

 deal of attention to the subject of forestry. It is the common idea on 

 the islands that the loss of woodland has resulted in a diminished rain- 

 fall, but an analysis of the rain records for many years fails to sustain 

 the belief. 



Government Land Survey. No reference to the engineering works 

 of Hawaii would be complete without including a reference to the 

 Government Land Survey. In the early days of the monarchy, title to 

 all of the lands was vested in the King, but in 1848 there was a 

 division into four parts, one part being assigned N to the Government, 

 another to the Crown, another to the Chiefs, and the remainder to the 

 common people, as kuleanas or homesteads. The Crown and Govern- 

 ment lands are now merged into one, and belong to the United States; 

 they comprise about 1 720 000 acres, or about 40,%* of the total 

 area, and of this nearly 75% is either high, forest, or rugged and 

 barren land. A part of the area is leased as cane land, but the 

 greater part of the cane is grown on land that was originally assigned 

 to the Chiefs. 



In this division of property there was a manifest intention to give 

 each of the Chiefs every variety of land, for the grants thus made 

 were usually long, narrow strips extending from the sea to the sum- 

 mits in the center of the island; each such grant was called an 

 ahupuaa. The kuleanas were the little patches occupied by the 

 natives, where they raised taro for their sustenance. These lands 

 were usually well watered and include the richest of the Territory 

 This division was crudely fixed, and in verifying titles it soon became 

 necessary to call in the engineer. In 1870 a general survey was begun, 

 using the system followed by the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, some of the instruments used by which bureau were loaned 

 to the Hawaiian Government. Since this date the work of the 

 Surveyor-General has been devoted to locating and triangulating the 

 various islands and mapping them in considerable detail, the work 



