The N.Z. Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1904. A NATIONAL DUTY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5324, 9 July 1904, Page 4

The N.Z. Times

(PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1904. A NATIONAL DUTY.

IKDEPEKDEKT.” ESTABLISHED 1815.

Our Kew Zealand writers of Ilia future, will find no inconsiderable portion of their literary data in the place-names, Maori and European, that cover our maps. There As abundant scope for a unique work, a topographical history that shall take these names—meaningless though so mans - of them are to the generality of colonists—and clothe them with the diving flesh of the true romance. One lias but to study the survey maps of these islands to realise the richness of the field which awaits competent investigation in this direction. For the nomenclature of a countin' like ours embodies to a large extent its life story. The names of headlands, bays, lakes, rivers and mountains are usually either historical or descriptive; they recall tho deeds of other generations ; suggest many an epic of the past, revive tales of adventure and pioneering enterprise; they bring to ns o.nco again the voices of long-vanished peoples. A place-name is a story in a word.

Tiieno are certain native names which for various reasons might well bo dropped, font this proportion is very small. As a rule, a Maori place-name either pithily describes some prominent feature of the landscape, or memorises some historic incident dating back in a great many instances to the first arrival of the Polynesian immigrants. But no one can reasonably object to tho retention of tho majority of tho names conferred by Cook and other navigators. Tho Three Kings remind us of Abel Tasman in his quaint old exploring-craft sailing past our northernmost islets two centuries and a half ago. Stewart Island, Cook Strait, Banks Peninsula, Capo Kidnappers, Young Kick’s Head, Capo Pallisor, Capo Farewell, Coromandel, Mercury Bay, Resolution Island—these and a host of other names bring remembrance of tho days when Kew Zealand was purely the land of the Maori, and when its coasts were skirted with wonder and not a little dread by tho old-time sea-rovers. Yet “Rakiura,” the ‘'Glowing Sky,” is at least as worthy of perpetuation on onr maps as “Stewart Island,” and Pari-nui (“'Great Cliff”) is quite as descriptive as Cook’s “Gahle-end Foreland.” Tho fitness of one or two of Cook’s names, however, is certainly open to question. A notorious instance is Poverty Bay. The Gisborne people certainly should not rest until they have secured a name, either Maori or English, that will fittingly replace tho disappointed sailor’s very natural but now quite inappropriate description of the Turan'ganui-a-Kiwa. There is a euphony in the Maori names that at onoo attracts tho ear. TYe are fortunate in having the native language expressed in beautiful phonetics, for which we have to thank the missionaries (who first committed Itho Maori tongue to writing. Contrast our native names with tho uncouth and often ridiculous combinations of awk 7 ward syllables which disfigure the maps of Australia, There is no excuse for the misspelling or mispronunciation of Maori names, at any rate on the part of Kew Zealand residents. But many native place-names are woefully misspelt, more particularly in the South Island. Surely, however, even a South Islander should resent the barbarous process which has resulted in tho coining of such names as “Colac” and “Kartigi” out of tho original Maori.

Place-nomenclature was almost a science amongst the olden Maoris. The naming of localities was closely associated with the claiming of lands, and a chief exploring a new tract of country would often name conspicuous natural features of the country, even particular trees and rooks, after himself, in order to “tapa” the laud for his family and descendants. 4 n excellent example of this is given in the account of the Avawa pioneers in Shortland’s “Maori Mythology.” Another interesting narrative of this nature is the chant in Taylor’s “ Te Ika-a-Maui,” which enumerates the West Coast rivers from Taranaki to Wellington, and gives the origins of the Jjames bestowed on them. This very name, Te Ika-a-Maui, is in itself reminiscent of the Polynesian sailor-explorers, the Fish-of-u Maui, plucked from the ocean depths—which is the Mauri’s allegorical fashion of describing the discovery of a new country. The Maori, too, transplanted many names from the South Sea tropic belts. He was as fond as the Anglo-Saxon and the Celt of taking his loved home-names with him across the seas. So we find in New Zealand such names as Rarotonga. Rangiatea, Motutapu, Arorangi, Piako, Tawhiti, and many others which are to be seen on the maps of the South Sea Islands. It is tho occurrence of such names as these, generally applied with local appropriateness, that has been of real assistance to Polynesian scholars in tracing with exactness tho ancient homes of the Maoris in the Society Islands and the Cook Group. In the vicinity of Wellington we have place names that remind us of the brown vikings of the Pacific, the first sailors that ever headed their prows into these unknown and perilous seas. Kune was the high commodore of all these explorers, and several places commemorate his voyagings. “ Te Tangihanga-a-Kupe”—'“The Wailing Party of Kupe” —is a row of rocks near Wellington Heads, which te the imaginative Maori resembled a party of bowed and weeping mourners. The Pinnacle Rock, off Seatoun, also bears a name conferred in memory of Kupe. The “ Canoes of Kupe ” are a series cf ranges in the Wellington province. Kupe’s names are to be found all round the coasts; he was the Ulysses, the Coo!: and La Perouse cf ' the Polynesians. While on the subject of Maori names in the Wellington district, it should be pointed out that several are incorrectly spelled, notably;. Ngahauranga and Kai-

warm, The former should bo Xgauranga, a reference to the beach where canoes were wont to bo hauled up. IVtono is properly Pitoone, the “end of the beach ”; but it is probably too late in the. clay to expect this error to be rectified. ‘‘ Epuni ” street, named after one of the chiefs who met the pioneer European settlers when they arrived in Port Nicholson, should ho Pnni. or To Pnni; the "Id 1 is simply the usual expression prefixed when addressing a person, and dees not form part of the name. A Maori name is not a thing to be lightly discarded because it is not at first understood. It is only right that the. memories of the early European explorers and mou of mark should be perpetuated on our maps, but the numerous “villos” and the W'hiskyCroek and Ryan’s-Bullock’s-Gully class of nomenclature are surely not preferable to the original Maori. In the South Island there is a good deal to he said in favour of conferring European appellations on localities, which has been done to a largo, extent on the great plains and in the Southern Alps, and, naturally so, in the absence of natives and native names. Yet oven there scone is afforded for judicious and descriptive place-naming in the dignified Maori tongue. No other language lends, itself so well to those purposes; and amongst our national duties should bo included the preservation and rightful interpretation of the wonderfully apt and becoming names with which the ancient race clothed those islands of New Zealand.