Place Names.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17750, 30 April 1923, Page 8

Place Names.

In his efforts to record the derivation and meaning of New- Zealand placenames, other than those of Maori origin, Canon Nevill, of Dunedin, deserves the assistance of all who are able to give it. Something at least of the history of a country can be read in the names, distorted b«* use (or misuse) though they may be, attaching to dis■tricte or settlements in towns, and

though this is more the case in connexion with the Old Country than with a comparatively newly settled country like New Zealand, even here it will often he found that an historical interest attaches to a place-name. Such nomenclature in a ngw land is seldom the result of organised system or method-names where they are riot purely descriptive often the name of some settler whose farm is associated in the minds of the people living in his district with a particular road, or piece of hush, some ford or creek or-hill. Sometimes, and this is especially the case, we fancy., in Canterburv, the name of a place recalla the birthplace of some pioneer who gave to his holding the name of the English village or farm, itself derived, perhaps, from Saxon times, which he had left to seek his fortune on the other side of the world. Such names help to preserve their close connexion with the Ola Country, which has always been one of Canterbury's characteristics, and it is well that their derivation should be ascertained and recorded while those who are able to give the information are still among us. On the whole this province has been fortunate in its nomenclature. Most of its personal place-names are linked with honoured settlers, and in the adoption of English place-names there have been very few instances of such atrocious misapplication as was indicated when the musical name, Ngaruawahia, in' the Waikato, was grotesquely altered to Newcastle t We have also escaped the. too-plentiful use of the affix "ville" which-* disfigures the map of the United States. There is a movement on foot in New Soutn Wales to ascertain and set on permanent record the correct spelling, pronunciation and meaning of the aboriginal place-names in the State, the Governor, Sir Walter Davidson, having suggested to the Royal Australian Historical Society that it should undertake this duty. The matter would, of course, have a certain interest, especially in a country where aboriginal place-names are as common as they are in flew South Wales. But in Canterbury British largely outnumbers Maori placer-names, in spite of the fondness of one or two Government Departments for labelling with Maori names places which have borne British appellations for many years. The Maori never played the part in Canterbury since the beginning of settlement here that he did in the North and it is unfortunate, we think, that Mpori names have been officially tacked on to places with whioh they have no historical connexion, or so little to make their retention a matter of no consequence. : We presume Canon Nevill intends to publish the results of his investigations, which will therefore be preserved for the -use of the historians of the future. The work which he has undertaken should enlist the sympathetic support of the New Zealand Historical Society, which must depend, in" pari, upon sucfi records as the Canon is collating, for its usefulness in the future.