A native of Brazil, Christmas berry was first recorded in the Hawaiian Islands in 1911. By 1930 it had established itself in the Hawaiian environment. It grows like a weed in lowlands and arid upland forests of Hawaii where it is now a serious pest, especially in waste areas and the dry mountain gulches, sometimes forming dense thickets. Often it is found growing in the same places as other mountain weeds like guava and lantana.
The Christmas berry is a close relative of the California pepper tree and has a similar pungent peppery odor. Unlike the pepper, however, its branches do not hang, but are rangy. It is a small tree or shrub that grows to heights over 20 feet. Its gnarled, furrowed trunk supports branches which bear five to nine paired dark green leaflets with an extra, larger one at the tip. The leaves are from one to three inches long. In older specimens the tree can assume gnarled and twisted forms and is very picturesque. The young trees look like shrubs.
Christmas berry male and female flowers are segregated on separate trees. The small yellow-greenish to white flower clusters usually develop in summer on the female trees. In fall, abundant bright red clumps of berries follow and last well into December. It is a prolific fruit producer and the berries are well-loved by birds, so the trees are widespread. The berries contain a single sticky seed.
Even though it is very aggressive, this tough plant remains a desirable ornamental. Humans like the red berry clusters which cover the female trees and collect them during the winter holiday season to use in wreaths and garlands as a substitute for holly berries. Its Hawaiian name, wilelaika, honors Willie Rice, a local politician who was governor of the island of Kauai under the monarchy. He favored woven hat leis incorporating the red Christmas berries. On the Big Island, the plant is also known as "nani-o-Hilo," (the beauty of Hilo).
The Alexander House Settlement was a charitable organization that occupied 11 acres in the center of Wailuku town. It was named in honor of early Wailuku missionaries William Patterson Alexander and his wife, Mary. Among a number of other accomplishments, Alexander was a long-time pastor of the Hawaiian Board of Missions' church at Wailuku, where, in 1863, he started the Theological Society. Their daughter Emily was one of the organizers and supporters of the Settlement House in the early 1900's and for the first half of the 20th century, it was the main provider of social, welfare and recreational activities for the island of Maui.
Emily Alexander married Henry P. Baldwin, another offspring of missionaries. H. P. was instrumental in crowning sugar as "king" on Maui. Both of them were among the most benevolent of the plantation owners of the time, famous for their care for their workers and for the people of Maui. (Emily's brother Samuel was the other half of the Alexander and Baldwin partnership that evolved into a major modern corporation in Hawaii.)
As it evolved, the Alexander House was the continuation of the ideals of the missionary ancestors of many of the organization's major supporters who had names like Atherton, Baldwin, Castle, and Cooke. (It was also an important way to help immigrant workers assimilate into life in the land of sugar plantations.)
The settlement house movement began in London slums in 1884 and soon spread to depressed areas of the United States. The idea, which was originally a socialist concept, was brought to Maui by a couple of schoolteachers, Nancy J. Malone and Charlotte L. Turner. The two women toured the settlement houses in New England and Chicago during a trip to the Mainland. Once it reached Maui, however, the idea took a very different turn.
Both women had worked as teachers at Waihee School and Miss Turner took charge of the Chinese mission in Wailuku in 1896. The women saw the need for alleviating the harsh conditions many of the plantation workers' children faced daily. The settlement house idea seemed like the ideal way to facilitate this.
When they returned from their trip, Malone and Turner went from one side of the island to the other on horseback looking for support and for funds to build a facility for the new settlement house. Their first project was to be a kindergarten for the children of immigrant workers. Wailuku Sugar Company donated the land for the settlement house. At the time Market and Main Streets were unpaved dirt roads that often turned into mud bogs during the rainy season.
The Alexander House Settlement originally encompassed the Chinese mission on Market Street and a kindergarten on the southwest corner of Market and Main Streets. When the kindergarten opened in 1901 it had 33 pupils. The number of children grew. Women who taught at the Settlement kindergarten roomed at a boarding house further along Market Street. The teacher's rooming house offered private and semi-private rooms for the school's young single teachers, each including a small desk and other homey furnishings.
As the children who attended the school got older and their parents became more involved in the activities provided by the settlement house, instruction at the Alexander House included sewing classes, clay modeling, mechanical drawing, and English classes for Chinese and Japanese immigrants. There were popular story-telling sessions for small children as well as a reading room and library open to all.
Home visitors were deployed to the secluded homes of many of the recently arrived Chinese and Japanese immigrants to help them become a part of the community and to guide the workers and their families through the complexities of life in a foreign land. Alexander House also promoted Christmas celebrations every year and it became a center for Boy and Girl Scouting activities as well. All of these things were designed to help the children of the immigrants and their parents adapt to their new world.
During the latter part of the first decade after Alexander House opened its doors, it was decided that sports was to be considered a "moral and health influence." A gymnasium and a "swimming tank" were added in 1911, using funds donated by H. P. Baldwin. The first public basketball game took place in that gym. Later other athletic facilities, including a bowling alley, were added as the Alexander House continued to encourage all kinds of sports.
Over the years Alexander House provided assistance to the fledgling Maui County Fair and Racing Association and they sent personnel to the public schools to help develop programs in physical training and in athletics. They encouraged the public schools to provide adequate playground space for the children as well.
In 1924 the original kindergarten building was demolished and two new Spanish-mission-style buildings were added to the southwest frontages of Main and Market Streets. By then the streets were paved. The expanded facility offered learning space for "80 bright little kiddies," according to the Maui News.
Meanwhile when the Carnegie Foundation gave funds to the Territorial library and a librarian was employed, the two front rooms of the Settlement building were used to house a library.
Throughout the years of its existence, Alexander House hosted concerts, parties and entertainments as fundraising events. Echoes of that practice continue into modern times, when almost every public event and festival is a fundraiser for some worthy cause or other and is put together by armies of volunteers.
Community outreach programs in health care and physical education were developed by Alexander House and the complex housed the Chamber of Commerce, the Red Cross, Community Chest and other public service groups. Among its many outreach programs Alexander House started a "fresh air camp" for undernourished children who were vulnerable to tuberculosis. The camp was later made a permanent institution at the Kula Sanitarium.
By 1950, when Alexander House closed its doors, Maui had changed fundamentally. The paternalistic plantation system was dying. Charitable organizations had proliferated and there were many other public service groups working towards bettering life for Mau's people (most of whom were no longer immigrant plantation workers). Alexander House was replaced by the National Dollar Store and by American Security bank. (Later the corner bank site was redeveloped as an office building.)
In 1972, the old Alexander House Settlement House organization finally died. Mr. Ten Sung Shinn (the founder of Ah Fook's Supermarket in Kahului and a man noted for his community service) was the last president of the Alexander House Settlement. He took charge of transferring that entity's assets to the J. Walter Cameron Center, another noted Maui public service facility that was developed by the descendants of missionaries.
In bowl, combine soy sauce, mirin, ginger juice, and garlic. Thinly slice beef steaks, and marinate for about an hour. In saucepan, heat vegetable oil, add beef, and quick fry. Flip slices, pour marinade, and let simmer until cooked. Enjoy with 2 scoops white rice.
A native of Brazil, Christmas berry was first recorded in the Hawaiian Islands in 1911. By 1930 it had established itself in the Hawaiian environment. It grows like a weed in lowlands and arid upland forests of Hawaii where it is now a serious pest, especially in waste areas and the dry mountain gulches, sometimes forming dense thickets. Often it is found growing in the same places as other mountain weeds like guava and lantana. 
The Alexander House Settlement
Braddah-Nics Lexicon
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