ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1915. GERMAN NAMES ON THE NEW ZEALAND MAP.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 204, 30 August 1915, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1915. GERMAN NAMES ON THE NEW ZEALAND MAP.

We are glad to notice that the Department or Health and Tourist i Resorts is inquiring into the desirableness of abolishing isiuny of tho Gorman mimes which have been given in the past to various peaks in tho Southern Alps. This is, we think, a step in the right direction. ]t has long been established as a fact that j the Germans, a-s a nation, are determined upon the complete ruin of Great Britain politically, nnanciaJdy, and commercially. There was a time when many of us believed that the war was the result of the unscrupulous ambitions of G^'-man royalty and German statesmen. To-day we know that the Anglophobia of the Kaiser and the Prussian military Liii'O'uu'.rucy is shared by 'ihe Germans as a nation and as individuals. Tho whole German race, a.s a race, and as a conglomeration ol individuals, is now consumed by v bitter and deadly hatred of .H'rita.in and the .Uritish. This being so, it is high time that all mcaily-moutbed sentiment should disappear. Wherever a German is to ~'»e found be slioukl be considered -in ei:emy—a. bitter, unscrupulous, deadly enemy—and treated a.-; such. Every trace of German inlluence, past, present, or possible, in the ' future, should be. ox terminated. And we may just as well begin by scratching all German names oil ibe New Zealand map. And live sooner the. better. Referring, in pnrLiciil;'c, to the many! German and Austrian names which j are sprinkled over ihe Southern Alps, j our Christchun.lt contemporary, the {

Lyttelton Tiinos, gives some, interesting information.

How many New Zealanders, for instance, (asks the. Times), are aware that there is a Kaiser Fritz Range in the vicinity of the j.»lount Cook region, and that there- is Jin Unsev

Fritz near the Franz Josef Glacier-' Bismarck Peak is fairly well known, no doubt, and so, perhaps, is the Rudolr Glacier. These names are bestowed upon Alpine localities which are close to Mount Cook;

but far a way to the south, at the head-waters of the Wuiatcto River, between the J-ianst and Jackson's Bay. iJiere is even a glacier m-ap]M?<r as "the Pk-kelha-nbe, an unpleasantly familiar .word to-day. Sir A. P. Harper, president of the recentlyresuscitated New Zealand Alpine Club, makes reference to the Franz Josef in a letter addiessed to The Dominion, and suggests that this is a name which can without injustice be changed, because it is an instance of a "foreign name really superseding the original English. The "Franz Josef" Glacier, he says, was originally called the "Albert," after the Prince Consort. To this it may be added that ati

even more deserving name, v an i alteration m to be made, is the Maori designation of the locality, the Wai-au, or "S.virling River," the name pi" the icy river which issues from the foot of the Albeit,

alias Franz Josef, Glacier

Our Christ-church contemporary, so we notice, pleads for the retention, of such foreign names as "commemorate pioneers of New Zealand exploration," making special allusion to the Hocnstetter Dome, the yon Haast Pass, and the Mueller Glacier. The question is, we admit, fairly debatable; but for our. .own part we would fain see a clear and comprehensive sweep made of every German-Austrian and German-Swiss name which now finds commemoration in the Southern Alps or elsewhere in New Zea-huul. Once discrimination is allowed, difficulties—confusion indeed —begin, lar fain see ft clean and comprehensive every German or Austrian name to be found on the map of the Dominion. No doubt both Hoohstetter tmd yon Haast were worthy men, men who to-day would loathe, abominate, ami deplore the villainies of the Huns and of their partners the Austria.ns. .But after all they arc Ten tonic names, and amiable ..aiid worthy as were their possessors, they should disappear from the maps'of a loyal British Dominion such.as Ne-.v Zealand.