MAORI NAME FOR THE CABBAGE TREE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 185, 3 May 1929, Page 11

MAORI NAME FOR THE CABBAGE TREE

Sir, —I am obliged to “E.P.T.” for his informative letter in the matter of Maori names for the cabbage-tree. Hitherto I have always trusted to my memory of picked-up knowledge of things Maori, from association with them for many years in the Manawatu district. Your correspondent’s letter sent me post-haste to the Government Printer, for “Williams’s Maori Dictionary.” I am now minus a pound note, and plus a fuller knowledge of what I knew before. I find on page 571 of the dictionary, the following:—“Whanake (1) Moye onwards or upwards; so, grow, spring up. Kua whanake te tai (the tide has flowed); (2) n. Steam: Ka huhu ake te whanake: (3) Cordyline australis, palmlily, so-called cabbage-tree; (4) A rough cloak made of the leaves of the above plant.” On looking up the word “Ti” on page 484, I find Williams mentions it together with awe, kauka, kouka, pua, rakau, and whanake, all of which are Maori names for the cabbage-tree. All this makes me sorry I spoke, but the fact remains that “whanake” is the name that all my Maori friends use, and it is certainly much prettier and easier pronounced than al) the others.—l am, etc., „ “ARBOREUS. . Wellington, May 1.