Daily Archives: December 21, 2015

Mongoose, “a general destroyer,” 1883.

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[Found under: “EDITORIALS.”]

The Planters’ Monthly has lately been proposing the introduction of a little animals from India called the mongoose, as a destroyer of rats. He is a famous ratter, surpassing the cat or the ferret. He is described as a lively little urchin, about the size of a weasel, as having a snaky body, vicious looking claws, a sharp nose, a villanous eye and looks like “murder incarnate.” In speaking of his action in capturing rats, it is said that he crawls sinuously up to his victim until within easy distance for a rush, and then strikes with unerring aim, snapping the rat just at the base of the brain. The rat has not time even to squeak, so sudden and deadly is the onslaught. Wherever the rat can enter the mongoose can follow. Thus as a ratter this lively little Indian is incomparable, but the trouble is he will not confine his operations to what is deemed his legitimate business. Some writers have endeavored to save his credit as a poultry destroyer, but a naturalist, who has carefully observed his characteristics, says that he is a general destroyer, not only of everything under, but of many creatures over his size. When in a cage that sight of a small living creature made him frantic and whenever he escaped, as he sometimes did, he made a sensation in the poultry house. The mongoose is not content with maurauding forays in the yard, but he seems to pervade the house when domesticated. His manner for getting into objectionable nooks and holes is most perplexing, as for instance the leg of a pair of trousers or a skirt with the owner in them, quite come up to his views, as a desirable place for a roost or forage. The rat is unquestionably a great pest of the cane and rice planter and grain cultivator in all parts of the world. The rat pest was deemed so serious here some fifty years ago that an enlightened and enterprising Commisioner of the Hawaiian Government, sent in quest of Chinese coolies, deemed it a judicious venture in behalf of the agricultural interests of the Islands to procure a species of sanke famed as a destroyer of rats; but the Hawaiian people, whose sacred soil has been kept free from snakes and toads by some patron saint in influence to St. Patrick, conceived a holy terror of the snake, notwithstanding his possible utilities, and passed a decree that Hawaii would have no snake in her plantations. The destruction of rats in the cane-fields was hardly deemed a sufficient compensation to the Hawaiian mind for the probable presence every now and then of his snakeship in the thatch of the Hawaiian hale-pili. And we think that if the mongoose be as well understood as the snake, he will be as objectionable as the tempter of our first parents to the popular mind. This terrible Indian ferret is said to take a fancy to fasten on to lambs and suck away their very life-blood; and who knows if he may not ake a fancy once in a while to a baby in its cradle. Continue reading →

Mongoose, where it all began, 1883.

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[Found under: “NEWS OF THE WEEK.”]

Mr. W. H. Purvis, proprietor of the Pacific Sugar Mill and Plantation at Kukuihaele, Hawaii, who arrived in this city per Zealandia, after having completed a tour around the world, brings seven mongooses from India and Africa, and will introduce them on his place on Hawaii. Mr. Purvis has had an opportunity of observing just what the mongoose will do in its native home, and says that it will not molest poultry or come about the premises where people live to disturb anything, but has a perfectly insatiable appetite for killing rats. These are the first mongooses ever brought to these Islands and in all probability they will increase rapidly and prove very useful in destroying all kinds of small vermin.

(PCA, 9/29/1883, p. 5)

Mr. W. H. Purvis...

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Volume XXVIII, Number 14, Page 5.

Death of Miriam Kaaikala Pereira, 1915.

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MRS. MIRIAM KAAIKALA PEREIRA PASSED ON

Mr. Editor of the Kuokoa, Aloha oe:—Please insert in an open space of our pride, the topic placed above so that all of the family and friends of my elder sister living from the rising of the sun at Kumukahi to the setting of the sun at the pleasant foundation of Lehua Island.

At 6 o’clock in the morning, December 2, 1915, my dearly beloved older sister, Mrs. Miriam Kaaikala Pereira, grew weary of this life at her home on Kaumualii Street, and she left behind a sorrowful bundle of love for me, her younger sibling, and her beloved husband, and her children who are without a mother, and her whole family, who grieve for her. Aloha, aloha for my dear older sister who has gone afar!

Her sight before us is no more, is gone. How sad!

My beloved older sister was born on the 22nd of December, 1889, and she was 26 years old when she moved swiftly and silently on to sleep the eternal sleep of summer and winter.

Aloha to my patient older sister; she was a helping hand for all the good works of the Church and the Sunday School of Kalihi and Moanalua this past seasons.

She was a Sunday School student for the district of Kalihi Kai; she was industrious in the work for her beloved Lord in this unfamiliar land. She was a member of the Puula Church in Puna, Hawaii; she was a mother with a loving heart, she was welcoming and a parent for everyone who showed up before her.

Her work in this world is over, and she has gone to the bosom of her loving Lord. It is He who giveth and He who taketh away; blessed be his name.

She married her new husband, Vincent D. Pereira, on the 26th of December 1914, by Abraham Fernandez; therefore they were not married for a whole year before she left her beloved, a husband who is mourning after her.

With her first husband she has four children who are now living, and with her new husband she has one child. These children are bereft of a mother; these children without a parent have therefore gone under the care of the family of the deceased.

O Puna of the fragrant bowers of hala, where my beloved older sister found pleasure in her youth; no more will she smell your deep fragrance; no more will you drench her with your cool frangrances; She has gone; you will no more see her form; you will no more hear her voice; her toil is over; her grief is over; she has found relief in the loving bosom of her Lord.

O Kauai of Manokalanipo, where my dear older sister found enjoyment, this is the sad package of aloha, a bundle for tears, that you, my two elder siblings and I, your later born, grieve, for our loved one who has gone. How regretful for my dear older sister who has travelled afar. We will no more see her form and no more will we hear her voice.

She was sick for only four days; a doctor was sought out to make her better, but she did not find any relief and left us. According to the findings of the doctor, she had heart problems.

In the capital of Honolulu nei is where the light of the bodily house of my beloved older sister went out, and the earth returned to earth. Man’s life is a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away, and that is how my dear older sister grew and blossomed beautifully, and the stealthy hand of the angel fetched her like a thief in the night and took her spirit, leaving her earthly body for us, the family, to grieve over.

So with these loving thoughts dedicated to my beloved older sister, the words of my prayer to the Heavenly Father ask that He lighten our heavy hearts.

My unending esteem goes to Mr. Editor and the metal typesetting boys of your press.

Her younger sibling in sadness and grief,

MRS. ALICE M. K. KAEHA.

Kalihi Kai, Dec. 21, 1915.

(Kuokoa, 12/24/1915, p. 3)

MRS. MIRIAM KAAIKALA PEREIRA UA HALA

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke LIII, Helu 52, Aoao 3. Dekemaba 24, 1915.