Riley M. Moffat
In i870, the kingdom of hawaii faced a challenge: as a result of often poor surveying during the mahele process in the 1840s and 1850s, land records were chaotic. Uncertainty over boundaries and land ownership was a major hindrance to real estate sales, taxes, and the development of the kingdoms economy. Under the direction of the young William DeWitt Alexander, a new government agency was established to take charge of surveying and mapping operations in the country. The Hawaiian Government Survey (1870—1900) was an ambitious undertaking for the period. Although comparable agencies were well established in Europe by then, even the United States had not yet created an agency whose mandate was to map the entire country. Combining the best of a classical education, a pragmatic approach to problems, and a willingness to tackle rugged outdoor work in often miserable conditions, W. D. Alexander succeeded in shaping his small but dedicated staff into a mapping agency that achieved a remarkably high standard of proficiency. In doing so, Alexander made a decision that was both brave and wise, choosing not to emulate the work of European and American mapping agencies but to develop a uniquely Hawaiian approach to mapping the land. The legacy of Alexanders agency lives on today, as virtually all real estate transactions in twenty-first century Hawaii may be traced back in one form or another to work done by the Hawaiian Government Survey. In the course of executing their mission, Alexander and his staff left another legacy as well: they captured cartographically the vestiges of the traditional Hawaiian system of land tenure. Employing and consulting Hawaiians when working in the field, the government surveyors documented ancient boundaries and names of land units and the features within them. Because so much of Hawaiian culture was rooted in the relation of people to the land, the preservation of that land system was an important component in the preservation of Hawaiian cultu
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