PLACE NAMES.

Mataura Ensign, 6 August 1912, Page 7

PLACE NAMES.

SOUTHERN NEW ZEALAND INTERESTING RESEARCHES

7 (fiy Mr H. Beattie.) paper was recently eaa Before the Gore Literary and Debating Society by Mr H. Beattie: « * ® omme »cing a subject such as this, words by way in introduction niay not be amiss. Most people appeal' t aiu the nomenclature j localities in which' they reside and. many an argument has taken place over the reasons why certain towns or places have their names ; or over the spelling of the words, maybe, much controversy has ensued. We in New Zealand can in most cases supply the in- . formation as to who named the various parts and when, but even in our young land_ a certain amount of haziness is beginning to accumulate round the ongin °f SO me of our place-names. In the Old: Country, where most of the places were named centuries ago, great wseussions centre round the etymology of the various names and also round the precise shade of meaning that was in--13? • ' bestowal of the names, ior mstanpe, London is said to be a and to mean "an open space._ It is surmised that tho name was given by a band of Celts who had straggled through the dense forests :Or Sussex and had come to the comparatively open country in the Thames valley. The river was named Thames, the meaning of which word is given as "a sluggish stream." The Celts built a village at London, and when the Romans came they Latinised the name to Londinium, and so the word was preserved to ns long after the Celts had passed away. The essayist recently noticed a list of Scottish towns whose .■names were derived from the ancient Celtic or Gaelic speech, and he thinks the matter so interesting that he does] not apologise for introducing a few* of the better-known names and their "meanings into this essay. Dumfries' means "the hill of brushwood"; Glasgow, "the dark valley"; Greenock, "the sandy hill" ; lona, "the isle of waves"; Killicrankie. "decayed wood" ; Lanark, "a*, green,' bare place in the wood"; Simquhar, "the old fort"; and Tweed, "the border stream." Of course there are inahy more that might be traoted but enough has been said to show that the meanings of names which in the mouths of the unthinking are simply names and nothing more, can by of thought and research bQ tfi&de one of the most fascinating pursuits possible in the literary world. Whilst not intending to follow up the etymology of the various names the essayist thinks it would be interesting to glance at the nomenclature of the south of New Zealand and consider why the names were attached.

The Navigators. Some years ago, Tasman, & sea raptain. employed bv the patch East India Company, left Java in two tiny shifts and investigated the coast of New Holland, now called Australia. He discovered Van Diemen's Land, noncalled' Tasmania, and pushing into the unknown seas sighted the Southern Alps, and so discovered New Zealand for the Europeans. He left a few names xm our map, the best known being Murderers' Bay, Cape Maria Van Dieman, the Three Kings Islands, and the name of our Dominion. Strange to say, he first called our country Staten Land on the wild supposition that it ran right across to the land of that- name at the foot of South America, but he afterwards altered the name to tliat we now- use —New Zealand. Captain Cook is said to have named New South Wales because its appearance reminded him of South Wales at Home; but Tasman could not have this excuse for his name of New Zealand, as he records the fact that the land he had discovered was of great height, whereas the original Zealand is as flat as the proverbial pancake. For 127 rears after Tasman's visit the land slumbered on without European intrusion and then Captain Cook came on the scene. His voyages have been frequently described and a repetition here would be outside the scope of this essay but we cannot dismiss'the gallant explorer without a brief reference to some of the nomenclature be bestowed on our coastal features... He named Cape Saunders after • Adniral Sir Charles Saunders, First Lcow)f the Admiralty, and Molyneux after the sailing-master of his ship;- the Endeavor. This man's name was Rooert Moulineux, sometimes spelt Molineux, so our present spelling with a "y" is not in accordance with the old usage. In some old documents this place name is spelt Molinux which is said to be the way the name was pronounced in England. Off the east coast

of what we now call Stewart Island. 1 C)ook's vessel had a narrow escape of shipwreck, and he named the rocks "The Traps." and he also named South Cape. He called Solander's Island after Dr Solander, a naturalist on board: and Saddle Hill (near Taigri) andi Bench Island (near Paterson's Inlet) he named fram their physical configura'tion. These are the names he gave hefore coming to the West Coast Sounds, where his names lie as thick as leaves in Yallombrosa. Cook was a great sportsman, hence the following names: \ —Cormorant, Duck. Goose, Wood-hen find Sportsman's Coves: S~al, Curlew, Shagg,.Petrel, Pieeon and Parrot Isles: Seal Rock, and Shagg River. Among

his other names are Dusky Bay, Point Five-Fingers, Wet Jacket Arm, West Cape, Doubtful Harbor, Cascade Point, Anchor Island, Luncheon Cove, Resolution Island, Pickersgill Harbor, Facile Harbor, Long Island. Cooper's Island, Little Harbor and Detention Cove. It is interesting +6 note that Cook oalls the Maoris "Indians," and named Indian Cove and Indian Island in Dusky Bay because here he met natives. Twenty years after Cook's second voyage Vancouver sailed into Dusky Bay and left a name or two behind huii. He also named "The Snares" off Stewart Island. About the same year a Spanish ship visited the West Coast and our maps show one of two Spanish names in consequence. The Sealers and Whalers.

Looking at a map of the south coast of the South Island quite a number *. of the names that eaten the eye were ; bestowed by the old-time sealers and ' whalers. The first shore whaling station was at Cuttle "Cove, Preservation Inlet. Cuttle Cove was so-called by Catttni°. Cook because he noticed cuttle fich <» r S6etopi there. An island near ■ by the whalers Choky Island because it was used as a gaol for those c e i r number who needed such frAAtment. They named Windsor Point, Bie River, and Sandhill Point while Waiau River was known to them ' as Wolsley River, and was so entered! n the early Sydney records. It was also Called the Knowsley Raver and in MacH on aid's chart this was rendered as River. As is well known, the whalers named Jacob's River after an

old Maori wliom .they called Jacob. They also named the New River, presumably not after the stream of that name in England but because they discovered it later than the other river entrances. The Bluff Harbor was discovered in May, 1813' (99 years ago this month) and was named by its discoverers Port Macquarie after tin; Governor of New South Wales. The whalers called the hill The Bluff, the cape Old Man's Bluff Point or Cape Bernardino (or Barnardine) at their pleasure. I fancy the whalers also named Dog Island ofE the entrance to the harbor. The name Port Macquarie is to be found on maps published as late as 1841, but in 1842 we find Captain Smith in his official report calling it Bloomfield Harbor. The name of the hill finally triumphed and so we have Bluff Harbor. Foveaux Strait was ealed after a high official in Sydney but the whalers usually'called it Favorite Strait. In this strait the whalers named Centre Island, Pig Island, and Rabbit Island. Ruapuke Island was at first officially known as Goulburn Island, after a Government official in New South Wales, but the whalers generally called it Long Island, or Robuclc. To come back to the mainland, Brothers Point was named by the whalers presumably because there were three detached rocks there or it may have been after the cutter The Brothers, owned by Captain Bruce. Chasland's Mistake was called after an episode in the career of the famous whaler Chaslands, where he did not take advantage of an | opportunity to kill a herd of seals and I tney escaped. Waikawa Harbor was known to the whalers as Success River, after the whaling-ship Success owned by Edward Catlin, after whom Catlin's River was called. Catlin is chiefly remembered for the gigantic land claims he afterwards instituted. The whalers called little islets or iutting rocks "nuggets," and hence we have The Nuggets" as a place-name in the Molyneux Mouth district. Near the mouth of the Tokomairiro River is a beach where a large number of Maoris died of the measles and the whalers named the place Measly Beach. Visitors td the ( Lower Taieri Gorge are shown John Bull's Gully, so named after a whaler known as John Bull. His mil mime was Robert O'Neill and he was noted for his herculean .strength. Further i up the coast there was an island known as St. Michael's Mount, whether after §t, Michael or after the remarkable Cornish rock the writer knows not. What we call Otago Harbor the whalers called the Otago ruver and the locality since known by the Scottish name Port-' obello was first called by theni, Limeburners' Bay and where they got their timber was named Sawyers' Bay. Where a fight occurred between the Maoris and sealers was known as. Murdering Beach. A Maori named Te Hikutu was deeply t-atooed and was called Old Bluoskin, and whore he lived Blueskin Bay. An old name for Waikouaiti "was Port Oxley, but this name was probably not much used. At Moeraki the north headland was called Look-out Bluff and the southern one Whalers' Homo Point. Further north still the whalers named Yellow Bluff and the Ninety-Mile Beach. The whalers "triedoat" the oil in try-pots which were generally placed near the beach, and there is a place still called Try-Pot Bay near Waikawa. It will bo noticed that some of the whalers' place-names are still in use, while others were superceded many years ago. Th? First Settlers. As is well known, Otago was settled in 1848 and Canterbury in 1850. but it must not be supposed that there werfl no settlers in. these parts before thos-f j vears. in 1841 Messrs W. awl .1. j Deans settled on the Canterbury Plains, near where Christchurch now stands. They were of that allegedly übiquitous race, the Scots, and named the Avon after the river Avon that bounded their grandfather's property in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The fact should be an eyeopener to those that imagine that the famous Christchurch stream was named after the still more famous stream that flowed by Shakespeare's birthplace in Warwickshire, England. The word Avon is said to be an ancient Celtic word meaning "a stream," so to say Avon River is practically double-banking the meaning. (Speaking of double-banking reminds the essayist that there was a run in North Otago called Pass Burn Creek Run.) The Deans named their property Riccarton after their native parish in Ayrshire, and it now forms part of tb Q suburb o f Cbristchurfh known by that name. It may also be mentioned that near Riccarton there still stands a patch of native bush known as Deans' Bush.

Coming further south to the whaling station of Waikouaiti wo learn that the celebrated Johnny Jones in 1840 sent over from Sydney several men with their wives and families to engage in farming on his behalf. He also got the Wesleyan Society to send across the Rev. Jas. Watldn as a missionary —the first in the 'South Island. Mount Watkins near P aimer ston is named after this gentleman. Mr Jones' property was known as Cherry Farm, a well known name then anil now. Nearby a river with a muddy widespread bed was emphatically called Pleasant River. At the end of 1844 a small band of hardy pioneers came down from Nelson and settled around Otago Harbor. This was thr<*s years prior to the migration nf the ]<>•■'> Church folk. Anderson's P>ay. near •Dunrdin, is named after one of these families. A son was the first, white child born at Dunedin. He died at Otnnm a year or two ago.

In 1840 ill ere were two men living near the mouth of the Molyneux wlio were not whalers hut were trying to rear stork and make use of the land. One of these men was Georsre Willsher, and so we have Willsher Bay on our maps.

The Earliest Surveyors

In 1844 Mr F. Tuckett selected Ota go as a site for the proposed Free Church Settlement but as far as the writer knows we are not indebted to him for any of our place names save Deborah Bay, which is named after the vessel that conveyed Mr Tuckatt in his sea Hi for a suitable site. When it was finally determined that a party of Free Churchmen would' come out to Ota go surveyors were sent from Wellington to lav off the block. These surveyors have left nlentv of place-names to mark their work. Their leader was Mr Kettle and a hill near Dunedin was called Mount Kettle, but as it was a trip; station it became known T' lp.r rc tnfl FT'll. and the former name dropped out. Two of the surveyors wore named Scroggs and Abbott, and their names are perrwtuated in Scrogg's fWk. Rem™'.* Hill Abbotsford and Abbotshill. Pelicliet Bav is named after Mr Pehchet, one of the surveyors. The surveyors I nlso named Hamilton and Dowling Bays after friends of Mr Kettle. | ' (To be continued.)