PLACE NAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 106, 7 May 1934, Page 5

PLACE NAMES.

ENGLISH AND MAORI.

GEOGRAPHIC BOARD'S WORK.

LAKE WAirAKA HISTORY.

An example of mistaken enthusiasm in paying compliments to distinguished persons at the expense of our ancient Maori place-names occurs in a passage of the report concerning Manuka or Pigeon Island, the local popular names for a hilly island in Lake Wanaka. On this island, high above the level of Wanaka, there is a little lake. The board has rechristened the island Harwich and the small lake Arethusa Pool, out of compliment to our ex-Governor Lord Jellieoe and the memory of the Navy in the Great War. The dragging in of the war and the fighting ships to a tar inland lake seems a trifle unnecessary. But worse still, the body which is supposed to have a knowledge of original place names is ignorant of the fact that both the island and its lakelet have traditional descriptive and historical names. The island is Te Mou-a-Hou, meaning Hou's Islet (mou is short for motu), and the lakelet is Mou-timu, meaning the place of the ebbing tide. The explanation of the latter name is that the surface of the little lake sometimes falls and rises again like the tide of the sea, without any apparent cause. A chiet named Hou, of the Ngai-Tahu and Ngati-Mamoe tribes, lived at Wanaka in the days when there were several Maori villages around the lake, and this island was one of his homes, and it was he Mho named, the small lake.

In the light of this bit -of local history, gathered many years ago from the Southern Maoris, the board cannot reasonably expect its rechristening to be accepted. Very many Westland names are misspelled on the'maps. A few are corrected in the Bulletin, including Laice Kanieri, which should be spelled with a final "e" instead of "i." This correction (first recorded by -the jppesent wjiier

some years ago) is not of importance except that it preserves the right form of a phrase which refers to the olden craft of sawing greenstone. Eegarding that famous resort of Captain Cook, Ship Cove, in Queen Charlotte Sound, it is noted that the Maori name adopted for the place is Meretoto. No authority for this name is given. The literal meaning is "bloody club." One would like to know more about it. Among the miscellaneous namings and renamings, it is noted that in the suburb I of Ngaio, Wellington, three streets have I been" named after the three Maori ! knights, Carroll, Pomare and Ngata. j The 5 wrong spellings of a few Wellington street names have been corrected. The worst of the lot, "Waripori," which should be Wharepouri, while noted as incorrect, is regarded as "so well established that it must be adopted." This is inconsistent with the board's practice in other names. Wharepouri is a celebrated name, and a wrong spelling is no more to be condoned than a perversion of Wakefield. Te Wharepouri and Tu Puni were the leading chiefs who sold the site of Wellington to the New Zealand Company in 1839. It would be perfectly easy to establish the correct form. The style of some of the minor name rules proposed is open to questions on the score of sightliness. The Nun's Veil, in the Southern Alps, is run into one word thus, Nunsveil. Many alpine and other names may suffer if this practice is largely adopted on the maps. But the board leaves the matter open. "Names consisting of more than one word may be connected by hyphens or combined in one word, as may be advisable." The sensible plan will be to leave well alone. There is a wide field before the GeooTaphic Board in the investigations of names in other parts of the Dominion, including North Auckland. There are important local names which do not yet appear on any map, and there are misplaced names,. If the board is open to suggestions, It would do wisely to make its proposals known to the public for discussion before adopting names as correct and condemning others as incorrect Such changes are the concern of the whole people and'not only of the members of the board, who, as shown in this article, may not always be possessed of accurate information. Moreover, the original source of an authority for the names recorded should be given wherever possible, "..-■ i ■ (Concluded.) ' , i