8 Director's Anjuial Rcpo?i. 



one within the limits of Honolulu has been ground up to make 

 roads, others more distant have been utilized for mill foundations, 

 and the one ruin most intimately connecfled with the earliest known 

 intercourse of foreigners with natives is in danger of destrudlion 

 to make way for a railroad. Cook's heiau, if no other, should be 

 preser\'ed. No plans or definite measurements exist. Who knows 

 anything of the heiau so sadly connedted with the massacre of 

 Messrs. Gooch and Hergest of Vancouver's expedition ? It still 

 exists buried in a dense growth of lantana, and the work of several 

 men for several days would be required to make it accessible for 

 stud}'. This Museum should have plans and photographs of every 

 existing ruined heiau or puuhonua in the group before the Diredlor 

 can complete the account of ancient Hawaiian worship proposed 

 for the Musevim publications. Important as this is there are 

 equally pressing matters awaiting our .study, matters that cannot 

 well be worked out by private enterprise, — as the ancient system 

 of irrigation by tunnels and canals,— all traces of which are 

 rapidly being obliterated by the more modern, but not more won- 

 derful methods of plantation irrigation. 



The picfture writing, not uncommon on all these islands, has 

 not yet been critically examined as to date, origin or meaning. 

 Near the heiau of Wahaula, on Hawaii, are the very di.stinct re- 

 mains of a considerable village, better preserved than any others 

 that I know, of which we should have careful plans. The few 

 remains of old Hawaiian houses in the remote valleys of Kauai 

 and Molokai .should be photographed and their stru(5lure noted. 



It will be evident to the Trustees that none of these things can 

 be done if the staff is bound to be in the Museum to protect it and 

 the colledlions it contains from even the unintentional danlage of 

 careless or ignorant visitors, and yet it seems undeniably more 

 important that this real work should be done than that a few hun- 

 dred pleasure seekers should be amused. 



Since the last report the Museum staff has been reduced by 



[200] 



