CORRESPONDENCE. TOWN OF RAUREKA.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1925, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

TOWN OF RAUREKA.

(To the Editor).

&' 1 ’ —-My attention has been drawn Jo n, Jotter in last Friday’s issue of .your valuable journal by “A Student of Maori” objecting to the. name chosen tor tho town which lias been laid out on the shores of Lake Kaniere. there are two mistakes in your correspondent’s letter, which .1 may perhaps be allowed to correct. The first is an implied assumption that the name has been coined, which, as 1 shall presently show, is not the ease. Tho second, for which “A Student of Maori” is not responsible, is that the name is not Rimrekit lit all. but Raureka. It was selected in order to commemorate tlio name of a lady of tho. Native race, who according to Maori tradition, many generations ago, crossed over the dividing range, traversing on the way the country at tile head oi Lake Ivaniero, (not Kanieri), from the West Coast to what is now Canterbury. Raureka, who was a. chief tailless of the Xgati-Wnirangi tribe, started from Araliura, and had only one attendant, a Iliale slave named Kapakelia, and after a long and adventurous journey arrived safely at her destination—a really notable performance. In an editorial article, in a recent number of your paper, the second and third letters of the name had become transposed, which no doubt Accounts ■ for your correspondent's mistake. The name Raureka. having therefore a historical interest, and also a local application, was proposed, find has been duly approved by the Minister of Lands. To cast about for a name for a place like Lake Kanioj'e, to finally decide upon “Sweet Hole.” to translate this surpassing idiocy into its -Maori equivalent, nnd solemnly to give the interpretation official .sanction and approval, would surely lie the extreme and ultimate limit of silliness and futility.

While on the subject of Maori place names, may I say that f have often been puzzled by a practice, peculiar to the West Coast, of making one word into two. Hnriliiiri, Iluru and Holio are cases in point. If you were to refer. Sir, to the capital of Kngland in your columns as “Lon "Don,” it would ho thought that a mistake had-been made, but if you were to continue to do so. lots of people would get: quite excited. Yet if. would lie just as correct, to write “Lon Don” as to write ITnri [lari or Itu llu, both of which are single words. A harihari is a lively paddling or rowing song, and rut'u is the Native name of the owl. 110 Ho is probably the most mutilated name on the Coast. It is a corruption of the word Tlouliou. the name of a shrub, Scliefilora Digitata, common to almost every forest ill the Dominion. Not content with eviscerating the poor word, the local pundits have split it. in two, after the manner of those blood-thirsty ministers of justice in bygone days, who, not satisfied with banging traitors, rebels and other malefactors, must needs also have them drawn and quartered. The elfcet of this mangled hash of a name on the sensitive Maori oar may lie imagined by supposing that the positions were reversed ; that we English acre the aboriginal natives, the Maori the conquering invader, that the local place name were “Poplar,’ and that the nearest, our masters and models oi civilisation and education could get to the original on their maps and railway stations was tho amazing rendering, “Pop La.” Afa n v other place names in Westland are incorrect. I<> give a few ol the most familiar, Koiterangi, Wailio, Waialoto. Mapourika and Kanieri. should respectively lie Kov.hitiraiigi. Waiau, AYaitoto, Mapoui'ik! and ICanierc. I. am etc.. AY. T. MORPPTII, Hokitika, 20th. April 1925.