CHOOSING PLACENAMES.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20906, 13 July 1933, Page 8

CHOOSING PLACENAMES.

WORK IN CANTERBURY. expressing the character OF MOUNTAINS. Choosing a name for a place—a mountain peak, a pass, or any other natural feature—is about as difficult a task as naming a baby. The similarity of the two problems may be only partial, but for each of them many rival claims have to be considered, and what seems right now may appear to be utterly unsuitable in 20 years' time. To make sure that no new place names are given without due thought, and to provide a cenlral body to give official recognition to them, is the function of the Honorary Geographic Board. In Canterbury the board's work is mainly concerned with the naming of hitherto unnamed mountains, for there is little likelihood of new .settlements being established, or of new coastal features requiring a name, although even now there is some duplication with names in other parts of the Dominion. An incomplete list of such names in Canterbury includes Fernside, Flea Bay (Akaroa), Hillsborough, Hikurangi, Kaikoura Island, Kaituna, Karaka Bav, Magnet Bay, Mount Stewart, Waimate, Waibi, Saltwater Creek, Motunau Island, The Ninepins, and Robin Hood Bay.

Much Present Activity. The great revival of mountaineering activity in Canterbury in the last few years lias resulted in a grr>at increase of knowledge about the mountain region of the province, ajul many peaks have been climbed for 1 lie first time and given names. The board has already dealt with some claims to name mountains, but a great many have not yet been submitted to it, although they are in current use among mountaineers. Where a claim is made the board collaborates with the Lands and Survey Department, which generally desires photographs to be sent in with, wherever possible, a compass bearing from some known point, to make accurate identification possible. Many names of mountains appear to have been ineptly chosen, apparently without any consideration beyond commemorating the name of a person, even though that name may lack euphony and have no meaning to anybody apart from the person bestowing* it. Mountaineers have been heard to say that they would not mind suffering a major accident on Tasman, or Aspiring, or even on the B'Limit, but that the last thing they wished was for anything to happen on Mount Percy Smith (intending, however, no disrespect to the man after whom the mountain was named).

Vivid and Poetic Names. General opinion favours as the beat names those that combine vivid description, which may help recognition, with a touch of poetic vision. Such names as Aspiring, Silberhorn, the Minarets, Proud Peak, Isolation, the Lookers On, the Remarkables, and Acolyte (a subsidiary peak), could scarcely be bettered, and have each a strongly individual quality. Description alone is very effective. Rotten Tommy is merely the end of the Mount Cook range opposite tlie Hermitage, but the name has a tang of its own, and fittingly describes the tumbledown mass with its loose scree slopes. Then there are The Thumbs, Jumbletop, Split Open (Mathias region), Bastion Ridge, Cornerpost, The Amazon's Breasts (two snow domes, one smaller than the other, in the Rakaia region), and the White Pyramid. Poetical names are pleasing, provided they are not too far-fetched. Many of the best of these were given in O'tago, and others by West Coast surveyors. They include Star-gazer, Moonraker, the Sapphire, and Radiant glaciers, Full Moon Pass, and Our Lady of the Snows (Milford region). Classical names have been used to effect in Somnus, Nox, and Chaos, and in Hydra creek for a many-headed stream. Named in Annoyance. Many names have been given in annoyance, the best example being the B'Limit peak at Arthur's Pass. At the Pass also, a party of climbers, having gone astray in their attempt to reach Mount Gizeh, as they had intended, ended up on April 1 on a very minor mountain, wnich they named April Fool's peak. However, the Geographic Board rejected the name, and the peak was called Mottram, after a pioneer surveyor. Another peak, in Otago, was called Headlong, commemorating a mishap to a member of a climbing party. Naming mountains after persons can easily result in . something meaningless and inappropriate. Names like Cook or Tasman have universal and lasting meaning, but the same qualities do not adhere to many of the other personal names that have been given, especially when the persons concerned have had no interest in the mountains. The names of many New Zealanders who were prominent in former times are preserved in the mountains—as, for example, Ballance, Bryce, and Stout, while explorers and scientists include Dobson, Haast, JoJlie, Hutton. Samuel Butler's name is attached to a comparatively minor so recent parties have given name Erewhon to a col at the fc *ad of the Ramsay glacier.

For Political Leaders. Though the names of both the present political leaders of the country appear in the mountains, the name Forbes was really given long ago, not for the present Prime Minister, but for a scientist who did pioneering work in the study of glacial movement. The newly-named Mount Coates appears in happy juxtaposition with Mount Forbes, but this is the result of pin accident. Enthusiasm for the work of their leader has prompted many climbing parties with a desire to record hig name on a new peak, but nine times out of ten the leader has exercised his authority to put a stop to any such proposal. Members of the Canterbury Mountaineei'ing Club have followed the principle, in giving names, of commemorating the work of early climbers in any particular district, and failing that, of describing the peaks.