LOST NAMES OF NEW ZEALAND.
COSMOPOLITAN DISCOVERIES. No. 11. (By CAXON NEVILL.) The South Island, or Middle Island, has had more changes than the Ixorth. idack in his "Travels' , ( 1831-30,.says: Scalar to relate, the centrical island h a S "existed hitherto unnamed. As a ffiinguishing mark it has been called Te Wai Poenamu, or the Waters of Preen Tale, from the time of Cook s surnbservEs. this name is appropriated to a a H proportion of the country on fjth the lake of green Ttnva. I have, in consequence, with a presumption that may in some measure fesian Pacific, with assured certainty that no modern Cook, be he subject or forever will feel disposed to deprive SrXrivc country of a name additionl v endeared to an Englishman abroad. fXel dW.) I nave found it imperaSelT necessary to give a distinctive Sation to this country, that within P rt few years will become as common I men's mouths as household words." mfortunatelv for him, Mr. Polack did S'rnake sure abou. getting h« name m the eeographers , r iaps, or the South Mand have anticipated Austria The only nation is his own, w he says "the south-west end of the tS of Victoria is bounded by elevated . Province, went for a short time by the ™» of Ahuriri; but apparently the S of vow P eU for to wans and the name was dropped and Members of the New Zealand Company In "New Zealand Papers" there are many papers dealing with the township of Petre, but apparently the name held few associations, for in the meeting of the Provincial Council at Wellington in February, 1854, among other Bills read the first time was one proposing to change the name of the present town of Petre to its original one of Wanganm (Whansanui). In the old missionary letters we get a mention of Gloster Town* (1813-37), tut I have not been able to locate it. It seems to have been somewhere near Keri-keri. There was also Marsden s Valley (or Vale). Another early corruption was "The Waiderup" for the Wairarapa. . . Milford Sound (Otago) was originally (1860) Milford Haven, which seems more appropriate to the Old Country. Eaast . says: "The highest summit ranges'running from the Taramakau to iSEHprd" HaTsn." ~- ■ • ' . , : Tie. Blue Mountains (Otago) : were so called by tHe.diggers in the sixties after .the range near, Bathurst, New South. Wales; but their early name was Te Papamii, corrupted to Tapanui, and the first surveyors called it Mount Valpy, after Mr. W. H. Valpy, one of the Otago eettlers. a Mr. H. Fildes, of Wellington, says . that Nelson land purchasers called Waitohi Newton Bay and Waikawa Bay Milton Bay, after two great Englishmen. He says, too, that maps of Hew Zealand dated 1835-37 show a harbour at what is ; now New Plymouth. In ignorance the directors of the New Zealand Company in London decided in 1841 to name it.'Port Eliot, after the Eliot, who was later Earl of St. Germans, and who had done much to promote colonisation. Tie name naturally disappeared on the discovery that there was no harbour there. "; Mr. Fildes alludes to another name about 1835 on old maps. That was Knowsley Bay, which was given to the. estuary of the Whanganui (and also Anna Bay). Arrowsmith's crude New Zealand map of 1837 also gives the name Knowsley River to Bluff Harbour (and Tewaewae Bay). The origin of the names is not known, and the only suggestive association is that they were given in England after Knowsley Park, Lancashire, the seat of the great Lord Stanley, fourteenth Earl of Derby, Secretary of State (1883). The "New Zealand Papers" are full of his letters and despatches at a later date. It *s curious that two warships at this date were also commanded by Stanleys—Captain O-ren Stanley, of the Britoinart (1840), and Captain Stanley, of tho Calliope, who took Te RauparaJia in 1843. « Ranzau was the old German name for Hope, Nelson, and was so called by the Messrs. Keeling Bros., who settled there in 1846. No doubt it was named after Connt Ranzau, a German (Silesian) nobleman interested in the Nelson German settlement. Sarau, a name given to one of the tJerman settlements at the Moutere. Newark, Mr. William Whiteley's mission station at Hokianga (1836), and so named in honour of his late English oircuit. The native name, Rakanae, now prevails. Mascarin Peak, or Le Pic Mascarfn (Mount Esrmnnt), was sighted by M. (Marion Thi Fresne, commander of the French discovery ship Mascarin, on March 24. 1772. and to it he gave the name Le Pic Mascarin, after the name of his vessel. Chevalier Bay. a name alleged to have been siven to Doubtless Bay by M. de Surville, the French navigator, in 1769, who also named Doubtless Bay as Laurirton Bay. Oddly enough, De Surville -was six days too late, as Cook had already named it Doubtless Bay. Banks Peninsula was once Banks Usland. and Stewart Island was till 1816 part of the South Island. Bluff Harbour was named Port Macquarie till about 1841, in honour of Governor Macquarie. of New South Wales. Thpn the township ,got the name of Campbell Town, in ' honour of T ja dv Gore Browne, who was a Campbell. Dr. Fulton says. New Jerusalem (Puni) was a name applied in irony to a villace not far from 'Mauku. It stuck fast for many years, to the ereat wroth of the denizens, •who wanted it called.South Mauku. It is now almost forgotten in the name Puni. Amongst some of the most lows are the names in Doubtful Sound, visitpd by the Spaniards under Malaspma in 1703. (See Wvld's map of New Zealand, 1841.) Point Fpbrero (February), when -MnWninn th" sound." Banza Island, at the entrance, named Mter the captain of the armed Wt of the Deseurierta, Don Ferdinand' Banzai Bhip.
Pendulo Bay, the north inlet, found not to be a bay, but the entrance to Thompson Sound. Point Espinosa, in honour of Don Jose Espii losa, who made observations on latitude and longitude. The meaningless name of Wood Head is now used on j the charts. , Malaspina Creek (the channel going to " the south). The Admiralty surveyors are much to be blamed for calling it Smith Sound, First Arm, and Crooked ' Arm. Nea Island, after Luis Nea, the botan- . ist of the Atrevida. Point Quintano, one of the points of Pendulo Bay, after Fernando Quintano, j the third lieutenant of the Descruierta. Here is a whole page of our marine ; history missing simpty because the British Admiralty was too dull a dog then to see the meaning and the real romance of names. In fact, a whole map of lost names could be made—Dutch, French, Spanish—which would give us . just that touch of intercourse with i Latin discoveries which we need to counterbalance Smithville, Sod Town, ' and names of that kind. I ________________
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Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 164, 12 July 1924, Page 25
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1,142LOST NAMES OF NEW ZEALAND. Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 164, 12 July 1924, Page 25
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