title: Harry and Charles: Henry Ernest Whitaker and Charles Stanislaus Stafford at Te Aroha

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Harry Whitaker was a member of a prominent political family, and Charles Stanislaus Stafford came from an Anglo-Irish landowning family. They both invested in mines in the Te Aroha district, Whitaker being particularly active in promoting the interests of the mining industry. But he was also seen as manipulating the share market to benefit himself and as assisting Josiah Clifton Firth’s ‘clique’ to control the field, meaning that for many residents some of his actions were deeply unpopular. 
Both men acquired and traded in land both within and outside the settlements, and developed their Wairakau estate, all profitably. Whitaker also established the Te Aroha News, and in a variety of ways was a leading member of the community. As a member of the county council he tried to help the district, but once again was seen as working too closely with Firth for their mutual benefit. Stafford also tried to assist local development.
Both men were prominent socially, notably in horse races and various sports. Whitaker in particular was renowned for his lively personality, personal charm, and elegant attire, but unusually did not marry nor, apparently, flirt with the opposite sex, which may or may not be significant.
Whitaker left Te Aroha for Auckland and, later, Africa before returning to Auckland in 1918 for one last involvement with mining. After farming at Whakatane, Stafford became prominent in Kalgoorlie during the mining boom of the 1890s before retiring to London and making a late marriage. Unlike Whitaker, he ended his life a prosperous man.

text: Harry and Charles: Henry Ernest Whitaker and Charles Stanislaus Stafford at Te Aroha Harry Whitaker was a member of a prominent political family, and Charles Stanislaus Stafford came from an Anglo-Irish landowning family. They both invested in mines in the Te Aroha district, Whitaker being particularly active in promoting the interests of the mining industry. But he was also seen as manipulating the share market to benefit himself and as assisting Josiah Clifton Firth’s ‘clique’ to control the field, meaning that for many residents some of his actions were deeply unpopular. 
Both men acquired and traded in land both within and outside the settlements, and developed their Wairakau estate, all profitably. Whitaker also established the Te Aroha News, and in a variety of ways was a leading member of the community. As a member of the county council he tried to help the district, but once again was seen as working too closely with Firth for their mutual benefit. Stafford also tried to assist local development.
Both men were prominent socially, notably in horse races and various sports. Whitaker in particular was renowned for his lively personality, personal charm, and elegant attire, but unusually did not marry nor, apparently, flirt with the opposite sex, which may or may not be significant.
Whitaker left Te Aroha for Auckland and, later, Africa before returning to Auckland in 1918 for one last involvement with mining. After farming at Whakatane, Stafford became prominent in Kalgoorlie during the mining boom of the 1890s before retiring to London and making a late marriage. Unlike Whitaker, he ended his life a prosperous man.

year: 2016

title: Ensembles of nested dichotomies for multi-class problems

authors: Frank, Eibe

abstract: Nested dichotomies are a standard statistical technique for tackling certain polytomous classification problems with logistic regression. They can be represented as binary trees that recursively split a multi-class classification task into a system of dichotomies and provide a statistically sound way of applying two-class learning algorithms to multi-class problems (assuming these algorithms generate class probability estimates). However, there are usually many candidate trees for a given problem and in the standard approach the choice of a particular tree is based on domain knowledge that may not be available in practice. An alternative is to treat every system of nested dichotomies as equally likely and to form an ensemble classifier based on this assumption. We show that this approach produces more accurate classifications than applying C4.5 and logistic regression directly to multi-class problems. Our results also show that ensembles of nested dichotomies produce more accurate classifiers than pairwise classification if both techniques are used with C4.5, and comparable results for logistic regression. Compared to error-correcting output codes, they are preferable if logistic regression is used, and comparable in the case of C4.5. An additional benefit is that they generate class probability estimates. Consequently they appear to be a good general-purpose method for applying binary classifiers to multi-class problems.

text: Ensembles of nested dichotomies for multi-class problems Nested dichotomies are a standard statistical technique for tackling certain polytomous classification problems with logistic regression. They can be represented as binary trees that recursively split a multi-class classification task into a system of dichotomies and provide a statistically sound way of applying two-class learning algorithms to multi-class problems (assuming these algorithms generate class probability estimates). However, there are usually many candidate trees for a given problem and in the standard approach the choice of a particular tree is based on domain knowledge that may not be available in practice. An alternative is to treat every system of nested dichotomies as equally likely and to form an ensemble classifier based on this assumption. We show that this approach produces more accurate classifications than applying C4.5 and logistic regression directly to multi-class problems. Our results also show that ensembles of nested dichotomies produce more accurate classifiers than pairwise classification if both techniques are used with C4.5, and comparable results for logistic regression. Compared to error-correcting output codes, they are preferable if logistic regression is used, and comparable in the case of C4.5. An additional benefit is that they generate class probability estimates. Consequently they appear to be a good general-purpose method for applying binary classifiers to multi-class problems.

year: 2004-07-04

title: Genre and authentic written discourse in Maori and their relevance to the education of students in upper secondary and tertiary Maori-medium educational settings

authors: Houia-Roberts, Ngaere

subjects: Māori medium education

abstract: I report here on part of a research project whose primary aim was to investigate a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of the search for commonly occurring organisational and cognitive patterns, and to consider the pedagogic implications of this investigation in terms of the teaching of writing skills in Māori-medium educational settings. An examination of a range of text segments written by educated and highly proficient users of Māori suggests that, in terms of textual relationships, there are characteristic patterns of organisation that characterise the three genres that appear to be most commonly required of student writers in Māori-medium upper secondary and tertiary educational contexts, that is, the genres of arguing, explaining and describing. Another part of the project – an examination of whole texts in terms of overall, structuring – is reported in the next issue of this journal.

text: Genre and authentic written discourse in Maori and their relevance to the education of students in upper secondary and tertiary Maori-medium educational settings I report here on part of a research project whose primary aim was to investigate a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of the search for commonly occurring organisational and cognitive patterns, and to consider the pedagogic implications of this investigation in terms of the teaching of writing skills in Māori-medium educational settings. An examination of a range of text segments written by educated and highly proficient users of Māori suggests that, in terms of textual relationships, there are characteristic patterns of organisation that characterise the three genres that appear to be most commonly required of student writers in Māori-medium upper secondary and tertiary educational contexts, that is, the genres of arguing, explaining and describing. Another part of the project – an examination of whole texts in terms of overall, structuring – is reported in the next issue of this journal.

year: 2003-09