VALE, WAARI!

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 7

VALE, WAARI!

ENTER SUNNYVALE.

NOTICE IN THE " GAZETTE."

PLACE NAME NEAR HENDERSON. A notice contained in the "Gazette" that the name of a little place near Henderson has been changed from "Waari Hamlet" to "Sunnyvale" has unearthed rather a curious little story. It is simply an illustration of the vague way in which names become attached to a locality, and, despite all efforts, stick. Some six months am the Waite-mata County Council, in whose area the district is, received a petition from some fruitgrowers living there that the name should be changed. The County Council had not much interest one way or the other. Ihe members simply endorsed the petition and sent it on to Wellington. Now. after the lapse of a time officially deemed siidi -ient. the change has been gazetted. There i.< a way of doing these things. The procedure is to apply section 3 of the Designations of Districts Art. 190 S. This has been done, and now there is no such place as Waari Hamlet.

But here is the emiou- fact. Officially there never has been sncli a place. Over -•> years ago a block of i rown land near Henderson was subdivide:!. One piece was called Waari ssml the other Iletana. These were the Maori equivalents of the names of two of \"ew Zealand's Premiers, Sir Joseph Ward and Richard Seddon. In some way. a little district on the block whose name perpetuates that of Sir Joseph, took on (lie name of "Waari Hamlet." It was not official; it was j'ist called that, and nobody cared. Another name was not suggested, and there it was—and there it has been for 2."> years. Now, apparently, the fruitgrowers there want it to be" called •Sunnyvale." Well, for the first time the district is oflicialy on the map. In the same casual way. while the name Waari has persisted, the name of the other block lias fallen into disuse. It is written on a map in the Lands Office, presumably, but no one else cares much that land near Henderson was called after a famous man. Mr. C. A. t aw kwell, the county clerk, who knows the history of the countv, and who supplied this information, said there were other instances somewhat similar. Some years ago a district near Kaukapakapa. known as "White Hills," came officially designated as Pine \ alley. ' "So far. so good." said Mr. Cawkwoll. "but n.> one ever calls it by its official name. It is still White Hills. Letters are addressed as such, and they are never returned, marked place unknown.' though actually there is no such place." He came to a good example nearer home. "Who ever calls the \\ aterfront Road by anv other name"'" he asked. "How often do von hear it called by its official name. Tamaki Drive?"

And so Waari Ifamlet is to be effaced from oiKcial nomenclature for the more prosaic Sunnyvale. Three inches is given in the New Zealand "(oizette" to effect the extinction forever of Waari. to establish and christen Sunnyvale. "Ceorge Vere Arundell, Viscount Cai way. the (iovernor-tJeneral of the Dominion of New Zealand, in pursuance and exercise of the powers and authorities conferred upon him." has proclaimed and declared that Waari Hamlet "shall be, and the name is hereby altered to," Sunnyvale. "God Save the King!" A little hamlet sleeps peacefully in the eun.