MAORI NAMES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12696, 30 December 1901, Page 2

MAORI NAMES.

ATTEMPT TO PRESERVE THEM Itf CANTERBURY.

Mr H. G. Ell, M.H.R-X following up a question put by him to the Minister of Lands, in the House of Representatives,, is taking active steps to collect the Maori names of rivers, streams , and historicalspots in Canterbury. He has obtained, from the Lands Department some maps on which a number of Maori names appear, and, has also obtained information from other sources which has enabled him,to make out a fairly long list.

Tho Rev W. Stack some years ago stated that the Maori name for the lower part of the Avon River was Otakaro, and of the Christchurch section Olaitahi, this being the name of a Maori chief whose grave was in the sandhills beside the place known to the early settlers as " The Bricks." Kennington's store and cottages on the higher ground at the back, and the houses to the south in the immediate neighbourhood occupied the site of the . Maori village fi which was at one time 'the home of the old Maori chief 0 Taitahi.

Tho Maori names of the Heathcote were Opawaho, towards the Estuary; Waitnpkihi, higher up in the part running through Spreydon district; and Te Heruokahukura, towards the source at the back of the Asylum. This, probably, is ail allusion to the numerous sources of the main, stream in, the swamp lands. "Kahukura" comes from the "atua," or god, of the . tribe Ngaitahi. The meaning of "Opowaho"is not very apparent, but Mr Stack thought! that-it,'referred to the fishing station'towards the month of the river, and " waho " may mean outside or towards the coast or mouth. "Waimokihi" means "the'.yrafb stream," in allusion to the flax-stick'Vaftis used in Maori navigation. The Maori name of Charteris. Bay was Tewharau; of Quail Island, Otamahua; or Erskine Poirit, Tapoa; Lyttelton, Anaohukai; Cass Bay, ; Motukaneti; Rapaki Bay, Paua-o-te-rua; the site of the wharf at Governor's Bay, Otoromiro; Governor's Bay itself, Te-whakaraupo; Church Bay, Ka'i-o-ruru; the Halswell River, Tau-awa-a-maka; Mount Herbert, Te-ahu-patiki; ai small stream which runs down a valley into Lyttelton, Okete-Opoko ; Mount Pleasant, Tau-iuuvu-korokio; the lagoon near the eastern end of Lake Ellssmere, Motu-motu-ao; the mud-bank near the southern bank of the. lake, Otuweruweru; and ihe peninsula opposite Quail Island, Moepuku.