EUROPEAN PLACE NAMES

Evening Star, Issue 18399, 6 October 1923, Page 2

EUROPEAN PLACE NAMES

[By Canon Nevill.] Helen Falls, Castle Mount.—Messrs Sutherland, Pillans, M'Kinnon, and F. Muir, in their report of 1888, state : " Immediately behind the hill came circling down a charming waterfall over ouo solid block of massive granite; the water had worn a deep groove for itself from (base (o .summit, over which the emerald-tinted waters canto sporting down. This fall was named the Helen Fails, Other extracts from this report are of interest. Lake Ida, Lake Mintano.—“We passed two lakes, which we named Lake Ida and Mintano respectively.” St. Quintin Fall.—" Opposite our camp a waterfall issued from some forestcovered cliffs of about 300 ft high, which was named the St. Quintin, after Quintin M'Kinnon.” Mount Atkinson.—" The mount we called after our worthy Premier we feel satisfied will, like tire major, never be got over.” “A grand range of mountains skirt the valley of the Clinton _ all the way, the most conspicuous of which we named after leading public men, but chiefly after members of tiro present Ministry.” If this is so, the 1888 Ministry has vanished from tbs Clinton Valley even in the survey maps. Mount Fisher might do for a fishing md, rising as it does for nearly 5,000 ft without a departure from the perpendicular, and almost overhanging the river. Mounts Whitaker, Stevens, Fergus, and Tlislop are all vanished, like, the snow, from the map of Clinton galley. They add that Mounts Richiardsoirund Mitcheson are perhaps the most massive. “We called a grand old warrior after Sir 1 Maurice O’Rorkc, our greatly-respected Speaker. We also named a stream after the hon. member for Rangitikoi, Mr Bruce.” Mount Dunne.—“Wo did not forget to name a bold mountain after our worthy mayor, Mr J. Dunne, of Balclutha.” Clematis Point. —“ At one point on the Clinton River the flowers were so numerous that wo named it Clematis Point.” Ribbonwood Flat was named by .Mr Adams, who, with Mr Brodie, formed part of the expedition. Eglinton River and Point Eglinton, To An, 'in, seem to have been named at the same time, hut by whom is not said. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, in an exploring tour, mentions the following names Terror Peak, Grant’s Gates, The Castle Mount, The Danger Mount, Mount Hall, Mount Daniel, Barron Slopes, Stirling Fall, Lion Hill. Joe’s River. Sir Thomas says, was named after a dog, but Mr Adams gave it the prettier Maori title of Waihohepa. It is still Joe’s luckily. The Poseidon was named by Sutherland himself Mount Hart. —On the left there is another fine rocky mountain named Mount Hart, after Mr Hart, the photographer, of Invercargill, who was the first visitor to sec the falls. View Mount.—" Following the (rack from Birch hut you come upon a little hill which Mr Adams has appropriately named View Mount, and which seems to have been placed there for the express purpose of affording iffo tourist a view of the falls.” . ■What I still want are Llawrenny Peaks, Rheerdown Hill, Lake Quill, Roaring Burn, Clod daw River (probably by the same, Welshman who gave Llawrennv), Meale River, Damn Mountains, Thurso River, John o’ Groats River, Clinton River, Worsloy Stream, Mount Philipps (query, was'Philipps the Welshman?). Caroline Bay, Timaru, was named after the whaler Caroline, which w - as commanded by Captain Cherry, of Waiknuaiti, who gave his name in turn to Cherry Farm, ouo of Mr Johnny Jones’s farms at Waikonaiti.

Sir Frederick Chapman says, a note I/O my last article on 1 Place Names ’:

“ When the present King and Queen were in Dunedin I explained some of the points about Cape Saunders and his connection with Cook to (hem. Then 1 wnfte this article and sent it to Canada, with a request to publish it when they arrived there. This was duly carried out,”

Apropos of Black Jack Point, Sir Frederick says: “Possibly this same man was a member of Bishop Sohvyn’s boat’s crew. Ho became incorporated with the Maoris at Moerald, I think. I believe Mr Charles Turnbull, of Leith street, told mo about him. Tuawaiki, whose name aj.ipea.rs in a bay in the south, was an inoffensive man, but his one sailor adjective cropped up so often that he got this unpleasant name from the whalers., I do not suggest that ho was Black Jack «{ the point; the two have probably become confused in myth and legend.” As to Snowy Mountain, Sir Frederick says: “ I am pretty sure that Swampy Hill is the Snowy Mountain. Travellers from north passed along the whole length of it There was a road up from Blueskin, but when coming from north they took a track up a spur near Cherry Farm. Mr Justice. Lemon (?) told me he used to ride that way coming from Christchurch on circuit to Dunedin. The clump of trees is known to all botanists. Purdy and Buchanan collected there. The Lion. C. M. Thomson must know it well.” Sir Frederick thinks the Wa.verloy story is shaky—like the bridge. He says that Otakou moans a refined red ochre need only by chiefs and gathered in small streams by being caught in a flax fence. Hero it is a persona! name. Hopulai seems doubtful ; the others arc correct. Sir Frederick adds that there were old whalers living in his time who always called the harbor “the river.” If Dunedin had a Maori name at all it was probably Otepoti, while the Lower Harbor was Otaknu.

Ham’s Head, Sir Frederick suggests, may have had a double, origin. There was a Barn’s Hoad near Plymouth. Sir Frederick named a fall, he says, coming down the M'Kinnon Pass “Jane Eyre Falls,” “because her veil was rent" (see ‘ Jane Eyre ’). When he suggested the name to the guide, he at once “spotted” the itasori, and said he would porjictualo it. “It is a curious fall, like a veil of lao-o split down the middle. ] think it is near the Jcrvois Glacier, to tho right of the pass.” fl could not And it on tho survev, hut it deserves record,— K.N.] Mr H. Beattie says, as to Mount Valpy, that in 1849, ascending tho hills, Mr Valpy reached the top first, and called out to the others that lie could see a fine mountain in the distance. Mr Kettle, id honor of the first man who set eyes on it, named it Mount Valpy. When the party returned Mr Valpy asked the Maoris at Waitapnpa (Henley) the name of the mountain ho had seen. They said it was Te Papanui, a name which the surveyors afterwards erroneously placed on the map as Tapanui. If this is so, it is only another of those bogus Maori names so common on our maps. Tho English name of Mount Valpy was adhered to until 1051, when the gold diggers came along, and, because they had come from Bathurst, in New South Wales, called the range the Blue (Mountains, after the beautiful range seen from Bathurst. As to Henley, I have no shadow of doubt in my own mind that, as Mr W, 11. Valpy lived at Horn shoe Bush, Wailiola., in '1849, ho called Henley what wo •still call it. He carao from the Forbury, Reading, and his wife from Oaversham, both on the beautiful River Thames, with the celebrated Henley only a little way up tho river. Henley was at that time one of the localities for the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, though not so famous as it has since become for its regatta. The unfortunate part of tho name Invercargill is that “Inver” means “at the mouth of’’—certainly not “at the mouth of the Cargill,” for tho creek on i which the town is built is the Waihopai, .and the Cargill never existed on a map.