OUR OWN HISTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 208, 3 September 1927, Page 22

OUR OWN HISTORY.

ROMANCE OF NEW ZEALAND NAMES. The greater amount of attention that is being given to the study of placenames in New Zealand is one of the signs that more interest is being taken in our history. To the person to whom history is a living thing the fascination of place names is endless. As Mr. Johannes Andersen says in the introduction to "Place-Names of Banks Penin sula," in such names large parts of a country's history lie embalmed. "England is full of such names—Roman, Danish, French, German, besides Celtic — and the boundaries of the tracts occupied by the various intruding peoples may, as shown by Isaac Taylor, almost be defined by the character of the placenames." The same sort of interest is to be found in New Zealand names. "Danne- . irke" perpetuates the Danish nature of one settlement, just as "Christchurch" does the English nature of another. Sometimes English names supplant Maori; sometimes the Maori survives. "Courtenay" is easier to say than "Waimakariri," but the Maori name holds the field. Banks Peninsula, the subject of Mr. Andersen's study, is particularly rich in associations. First came the Maori, then the whaler, then the French settlement at Akaroa, then the "pre-Pilgrim" English settlers, and finally the main stream of colonists. It is a fascinating country, this mountain mass at the sea edge of the Canterbury Plain, which early navigators thought was an island, and its names mirror the blending of three peoples and some of the country's very early history. Mr. Andersen has done his work with characteristic thoroughness. Indeed, the only criticism we have to make is that some of the details he gives of the history of places are not worth printing; in his zeal for completeness he has made the book larger than it need have been. It is, however, a valuable contribution to the literature of the kind. It will help to re-create the past. "Certain it is that, after the names of a district have been studied, the map is no longer a dead sheet covered with meaningless words, but men and women start to life, the whole district teems with energetic beings—a much denser population than the one at present occupying the country —Maoris, whalers, explorers, bushmen, settlers —all of whom have helped to make the country what it is, and whose history is therefore worthy of some record." The book is issued by the New Zealand Board of Science and Art, and published by the Government Printer.