MERCURY BAY OR WHITIANGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20171, 4 February 1929, Page 12

MERCURY BAY OR WHITIANGA.

Sir, —Mr, Lyon, classifies me among those who "live in the past," because I, like many others, protest against this particular further example of tampering with long-established place-names. My certain knowledge is that Whit.ianga (quite apart from being the established and officially accepted name of . that township) is also very widely lenown oL It is of permanent record in the legendary lore and pioneering history of the coast and is endeared to the memory of the.numerous descendants of the original Maori and European pioneer families associated with the district. was the ancient name of Mercury Bay (i.e., the great bay of Hei—an Arawa canoo ancestor). No one would suggest that the name bestowed by Cook should be now displaced by restoring to the map the name commemorating Hei—Cook's predecessor. Mercury Bay is now the appropriately accepted name of that inlet, but the-bay is' noE-tha .itdwnship, and both, place-names. have their correct, application, and their respective claims for permanent preservation.. lam unaware that the Geographical .Board bas agreed to the unnecessary change.,, _.Refei;enee to a prominent member ,p|..iliat-. febard seems to indicate that be" knows nothing of the matter. *So apparently "tfiere is some misunderstanding . on Mr.' lycn's part. None of the representatives of the native people particularly concerned approve of the change. As residents, and still large landowners, their approval I should consider desirable—both from the point of view of common courtesy and of expediency.They certainly have strong reasons to be considered in the retention of ancestral place-names. " The fact is that a firm stand should- ba taken to resist this ceaseless and confusing changing l of long-established placenames, be they Maori or European. Geo. Gkaham.