PLACE NAMES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17981, 26 January 1924, Page 2

PLACE NAMES.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —Canon Nevill with the :iid of "The Press" has created great curiosity as to how the name of Woodend came because it is known it once was suggested as a probable chief town for Mandeviile —if not the hub of the province. In itself the name is fully descriptive and simple for the locality, the end of a Maori forest of antiquity of untold value £o the early Europeans. An old printed map of the Mandeviile, Cliristchurcli and Lincoln districts, issued about 1860, "printed on stone" by Bibbs and Collis, Collingwood, Melbourne, Victoria, "by permission of tlip Provincial Council of Canterbury." No township is shown on the main Toad or 011 the proposed line of the northern railway a line as straight almost as an arrow from the Waimakariri to the Ashley rivers. There are Kaiapoi and Kaiapoi old Pa, the' latter "at Waikuku marked now by the Maori obelisk where, at this time the old pa station windmill with water tanks would have stood. There was, however, neither: Woodend Junction nor Hag station at a point where it would then be expected the post office was about to be opened, and an hotel had Been erected which a few months later had a license for "The City of Canterbury," Woodend. Somewhere there must be an original plan of this township for those reasons. It was destined to become the official centre of Mandeviile from the Ashley to the Waimakariri. The electoral roll of that district for 1862 brings to light, out 'of its 86 names, that the following were enrolled freeholders with residence at Woodend—the names were: "F. Fuller, Beaconsfield, Woodend," John Raven, Eavenswood, Woodend, and those who described place of residence plain Woodend were B. Bailey, Thos. Booth, James, Edward and John Horrell, Arthur and James Gibbs, Charles Martin, Charles J. Nor' ton, and I>. Petrie. The Mandeviile Road Board came into existence in 1863. Its minutes show its headquarters were Woodend with office and resident clerk. The post office then opened at Booth's store. The name has been traced to the Methodist Church, and the mo'numents of the Anglican Church are to be examined to assist in clearing up this namiiig question before the crack of doom. — Yours, etc., A RECENT RESIDENT. TO THE EDITOK OP "THE PItESS." Sir, —In last Saturday's "Place Names" column Canon Nevill speaks of the origin of the name Bangor in Canterbury. The estate is so called from the Irish, not the Welsh, Bangor. Mr Hamilton Ward named the property from his family home in County Down. There are two related families in Ulster (Mr) Ward of Bangor Castle, and Lord Bangor of Castle Ward—a curious interchange! I may add that, apart from my own personal knowledge of these Irish families, and the town of Bangor and their connexion with Bangor in Canterbury, I have the authority of Mr Hamilton Ward's niece in writing this explanation. —Yours, etc., L. B. S.

Jan. 25th, 1924,