WHAT MAORI PLACENAMES MEAN

Northern Advocate, 25 March 1937, Page 5

WHAT MAORI PLACENAMES MEAN

The New Zealand Government Publicity Branch has published a small booklet dealing succintly with \he subject of Maori place names, insofar as the nomenclature is applied to railway stations. The list of Northland stations and their English equivalents is as follows; — f Waitakere: River, bed; also cascade stream. Waimauku: Stream of small ground ferns, maidenhair ferns, etc. Kaukapakapa: Swimming with much splashing; flapping wings. Kaipara: To eat frost fish; also a meal of the para fern-rock. Topuni: A dogskin mat or cloak. Kaiwaka: To hollow out, like a canoe, or like a kaka parrot pecking a hole in a tree. Maungaturoto: Mountain standing in a lake. Several of the volcanic peaks in North Auckland are surrounded by depressions of swampy land, originally lagoons. Paparoa: Long flat rock; level expanse of land. Taipuha: A very high tide. Waiotira: Pool or stream where wands or sticks were set up on the bank in sacred ceremonies; water of incantation. Mangapai: Stream of good water, Kamo: Bubbling up; the mineral water springs welling up from the earth. Hikurangi: Skyline; crest of a ridge; the last rays of light on the mountainous horizon. An, ancient name from Polynesia, given to any New Zealand scenes. Hukerenui: Great cascade. Kawakawa: The small tree ‘macro? piper excelsum’ which has numerous medicdnal uses., Ngapuhi: The decorative plumes or wands at the bow of a war canoe; the tribe called Ngapuhi (the most numerous in New Zealand). Kaikohe: Eating the kohekohe fruit and leaves; so named because a hill at this place, abundantly grown with the kohekohe tree, was a great feeding place for the pigeon and other native birds. Okaihau: O, sacred food; kaihau. a priest whose duty it is to eat sacred offerings to the gods. Tangowahine: Seizing or abducting a woman. Sometimes given as Tangi- < wahine, meaning a woman’s lament or weeping. Kirikopuni: Dark skin; also a black skinned eel. Rotu; A magic spell which produces sleep; a mesmeric incantation. Parore: This station was named after the celebrated old chief, Parore te Awha, who lived on the Northern Wairoa, and died in 1887, aged nearly a hundred years. He was always very friendly to the Europeans. One meaning of the word is gentle, soft, agreeable; it is also the name of a fish, bream, black perch. Whatoro; To stretch out; thrust forward. Maropiu: A swinging or swaying loin mat; the swing of the kilt. Aranga: The act of rising. Ahikiwi: Fire to cook the kiwi bird. Tokatoka: Rocks upon rocks. The appropriate name of the lava crag, going up to a pointed summit, on the eastern side of the Northern Wairoa River, above the township of that name. -There was a Maori fortified post on a projecting rocky spur called Te Puru, a celebrated lookout place for the Ngati-Whatua tribe.