RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events

Kickshaws.)

(By ]

The ocean may be Pacific all right, but it looks as if the islands won’t be much longer. » » • A test of rough-riding, it is stated, is to take place at Gisborne, but. for the life of us, we cannot understand why, seeing that Waterloo Quay is in Wellington. » » » The Labour Party in Australia declares that, if it comes into power, it wilt reduce taxation. It is just this sort of promise that keeps us folk in New Zealand smiling. » « <■ “I get a lot of information from your column, and also considerable amusement,” says “Inquirer.” “As you seem to know everything worth knowing, perhaps you can tell me whether there is such a word as ‘alright.’ I cannot find It in the dictionaries, but frequently come across it." [The correct spelling is "all right.”] “As you are so often quoted as the most reliable source for information, would you kindly reply to the following questions?” asks “A.L.M.” "Is the President of France elected by the people? If not, by whom? Is Mr. Neville Chamberlain a son of the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain?” [The President of France is elected at a joint sitting of the Deputies aud the Senate. It is, moreover, an accepted custom that no President shall seek re-election. Mr. Neville Chamberlain is the second son of the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain.]

If the controversy concerning the proposed iron works is going to be extended to the correct way to spell the place, there is no telling where the matter will end. Maybe, the folk In Whanganul are burning to enter the fray. You folk who. live iu Pet-one rise up in wrath. For too long have the invading folk from Britain played havoc with your fair name. The folk of Pito-one must surely be possessed of a burning zeal to see correetitude. where at present there is premeditated slovenliness of speech. The seagulls that stand for ever beside the sewers of Ngahauranga know full well that they, heard the Maoris call the place Ngauranga. Their cry goes up to Kuiwharawhara, a berry which the birds of the land love to eat, not knowing the virtues of edible offal that conies through the sewers. Let us, by all means, give our iron works their correct spelling, but the steel will enter the souls of the old-time Maoris if the purge does not extend to other moder; horrors.

The truth is that we in New Zealand are bewildered by the names that places have been given. We may laugh, ho ho, because there is such a place, but we cannot laugh, ha ha, because there isn’t. We may live at Oeo or Oio or One. We may cross the Jam river or pronounce the longest placename in New Zealand, but suddenly we are stopped, to. contemplate Drunken Bay or Misery Hill. The contrast is too great. We have neither Maori names nor British names, but a bit of both. Few travellers can help feeling beauty in lanthe, and some still continue to roll Le Petit Carenuge about their tongue like a good cigar. Who gave that lake the name of Alabaster, and who named Whaka, for short? For that'miit'ter, who gave us the name of Monowai? Some say it should be Manowai;. a.reference, to’disaster that came on the deep-running water. Others say that Monowui.is u hybrid invented by a surveyor-general meaning “Mono." "lonely,” in the Greek language, an I “wai,” the -Maori for water.

Away back iu the past a Maori chief was captured by his enemies. He was sentenced 'to death by. fire. When the edges of his cloak were so hot as to lie bursting into flames, a rescue parly turned up in good old film serial style and rescued their chief. They named the place Remuwera, which means "hot rim of cloak,” but the pakeha turned the place into an naroniantic suburb and called it Remuera, which means nothing at all. One may, perhaps, ask why we gave to our lovely harbour the name of a British chiettain. But the vessels that float on the harbour, resting awhile before they depart for far-off places, have many curious names. One may well ask why not Manuwal, bird of the sea, rather than Monowai, that meant nothing in the Maori language? That great canoe we call Raugitiki, has no name known to lhe Maoris. We may interpret it as “chief of the gods.” In a country where the sky is now the limit, surely this vessel might be ehanged to Rangitikei, meaning "high sky,” which, after all, is close enough to “sky high.”

For some reason we folk in Wellington have acquiesed in mutilating the names we found when we arrived first on the waters of the harbour. If we had to change the name of Pito-one, why not call the place "Sandy End”? —a fair translation of the Maori name, or isn’t it? Indeed, why not, and also why Waiwetu when it should be Waiwhetu, meaning, so it is said "star water"? Tihakori is another hill of mystery. "Tina” appears to be the Maori phonetic for the word dinner, and “kori," a contraction of the word "kahore," meaning “no.” One version is that Tinakori was so named afier the track to Karori was widened when the Maoris came without food, thinking that it would be provided. But even the white man has provided many incongruous names for places iu New Zealand. At the entrance lo Pelorus Sound we have Alligator Head. This reptile never lived in New Zealand, and no navigator ever saw alligators at Alligator Head. Cook gave us Chicken Island and Blue Duck, Who then, gave us Yneyea Bay? All we can say is that there Is Paradise enough in New Zealand, having, as we have, no fewer than two.

Having written-about the most controversial subject in New Zealand. Kickshaws now sits back awaiting a Hood of corrections, suggestions, alterations and devastations. There is nothing like stirring up opinions. With thatend in view the "Whittling From Wanganui” at lhe foot of this column may stir memories in some of onr pioneers. The verse has been attributed to nearly everybody alive at the time. It is believed that the Hon. J. A Tole was ,the perpetrator, although readers may care to offer other sugestions. This man took as his theme the rivers that flow into the sea as one travels along the beaches beyond Paekak —no Picock. Here is what he says:— "O how shall I cross the swift river Ohan? Waikanae not swim to yon shore? Otaki a boat now and steadily row, in the Manawatu did before. Oroua way gently, for life in a boat Is a Hsrov&beaua afcit”