MORE PLACE-NAMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21467, 15 April 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

MORE PLACE-NAMES

BY KOTAKE

NATIONAL AND LOCAL'

The European names that have been added to our map since systematic colonisation set in are too numerous to deal with in detail, and have been applied so haphazardly that they almost defy classification. It is possible, however, to detect certain principles that seem to have underlain the name-giving process and that give us guiding lines through the chaotic mass of material. First, then, is the application of British personal names either of famous figures in British history or of masters or pastors or friends in the old land. For many years there was little national sense among New Zealanders. The colonists were exiles in a far country, singing their songs of Zion in a strange land. Everything that served to remind them of the home of their fathers was eagerly seized upon, and every effort made to perpetuate it under the new conditions. It was a pathetic striving to bring with them as much as they could of tho land they had left. AVe shall see it operating in the introduction of many English and Scottish place-names, names rich in association, and family and personal memory. At a crisis in his career Ilobson was helped by Lord Auckland. He was in the doldrums, and it seemed that he must stay there indefinitely. But the accession of Lord Auckland to tho chief place in the British Admiralty saw Hobson put on tho active list onco more. His gratitude ho expressed by giving his benefactor's name to the town he planted on tho WaitemataManukau isthmus. The peak that dominated the new settlement was called Eden, Lord Auckland's family name. National Heroes The New Zealand Company, as a natural consequence of Wakefield's ideas of colonisation, selected names for its chief settlements that linked up the new land with the great names of English history. Nelson and Wellington explain themselves. Later the Parliament sitting in Auckland added the name of Marlborough to the list. Nelson has tried to carry out the Nelson touch by naming its chief thoroughfares after the great admiral's victories and captains. Marlborough has its Blenheim, and has honoured later military leaders in Picton and Havelock. Wellington made no attempt to decorate its landscape with names associated with the battles and comrades of the Iron Duke. Some Peninsular names, Talavera and Salamanca, for example, were added from the personal associations of some early residents with the Spanish campaign. Hawke's Bay evidently began with the intention of marking its AngloIndian affiliations. Scinde and Napier formed a good foundation, but after Clive and Hastings and Havelock, the original plan seems to have been discarded. English statesmen figured on the map with considerable frequency during the days of pioneering and internal expansion. Russell was the earliest. Peel Forest is supposed to be named after the English Prime Minister. We have several Gladstones and Beaconsfields, but none that has carried its name to any wide renown. Gisbornc was called after the Colonial Secretary at the time of its foundation. There are two Palmerstons, the southern one the earlier in tho field, but the northern one now far ahead of its older rival. The Local Product The second class of personal placenames indicates a severance with tradition though not with loyalty. We were growing men of mark of our own. All over the country the memory of New Zealanders is preserved in the names given to natural features or new settlements. Marsden and Hobson may rank as New Zealanders, for here their best work was done. We have not space to deal with local perpetuations in street names; but Dunedin has its Cargill Street and Macandrew Road and Stuart Street; and Wellington its Martin Street and Fitzherbert Terrace; and Auckland its Swanson, Wynyard, Shortland, Grey and Symonds Streets. Dozens of others Mill occur to anyone that knows New Zealand cities. Tho aori War gave us Point Chevalier and Drurv and MerceT, and most famous of all, Hamilton, all named after soldiers. And there are many others. Our Governors have made tTieir contribution; Onslow, Fitzroy, Norman by, Ranfurly, Islington, for example. Our Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers do not appear so conspicuously on the map as one would imagine in a country that was steadily developing a New Zealand national consciousness. Still there is a Domett in Canterbury, a Seddon and Ward in Marlborough, a Grey in Wcstland, a. Glen Massey and a Coatesvillo in Auckland. Both Wellington and New Plymouth have a Vogelfrown, Wellington has a Foxton and a Ballanee, and Canterbury had a Mackenzie called after a famous Minister of Lands, though Cheviot seems to have foisted it off the map in recent years. L have ploughed through thousands of names and it seems that most of the personal place-names have been given in honour of the first settler, or of some conspicuous resident of the pioneer days, or of the surveyor who blazed tho first trail or opened up a new block, or of tho original postmaster or storekeeper. I can mention only a few. There are tho Bell Block and Lepperton in Taranaki, Morrinsville and Dargavillc in Auckland, Martinborough and Levin in Wellington, Dobson in Westbind (Dobson \<'as a surveyor killed by the Sullivan-Burgess-Levy gang of bushrangers), Arthur's Pass in Canterbury (after Sir Arthur Dobson), Balfour in Otago. And thero seom to bo hundreds more. Personal Honour Two places at least wcro called in honour of women, Holensvillo after tho Christian name of an early settler and Geraldino in Canterbury after the wife of tho then Superintendent of Canterbury Province, James Edward .Fitzgerald. liotli of these are flourishing towns, which is more than can be said of tho majority of places named after local men. Tho directors of tho New Zealand Company aro strongly represented 011 the map. Lord I'etro presided at tho meeting in London 011 August. 29, ]8.'59, when it was decided to form a " joint stock association for the colonisation of Now Zealand." Tho Wellington settlers who founded Wanganui called it Potro. Hut the name did not last long. It was altered in 1854 by a special decision of the Wellington Provincial Council. A mutilated form of the native name took its place. Pet re had been a member of the original committee of the Now Zealand Association formed in 1537. Most of his fellow committeemen have a place 011 the New Zealand map, or are remembered in, Wellington street names: Lord Durham, Baring, Enderbv, Hinds, Hutt, Mackenzie, Molesworth, Symonds, Ward, Whitmore. Somes was an original member of tho company. Of churchmen Marsden and Solwyn figure most prominently among our place-names. Loved names of the homeland reproduced 011 the New Zealand landscape, names of ships attached to places often out of that singular affection which marks tho voyager's relation to tho vessel that carries him through so many dangers, literary names and descriptive names, all invite comment.