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Otago Daily Times, Issue 11957, 2 February 1901, Page 6

The Mayor of Gi9boriis has proposed that the name of the district, Poverty Bay, should be changed to Viotoria Bay, in honour of the late Queen. We hope that the people and local authorities pi|sisi

borne will hit upon some more suitable method of perpetuating Queen Victoria's memory. ■ We. strongly disapprove of the tampering with history and tradition which is involved in the changing of place-names, and surely it is possible to establish a memorial of our lamented Sovereign without at the same time severing a link with the great Captain Cook. PeA'haps it will be urged that (< Poverty Bay " is at best an incongruous name, implying an unwarrantable depreciation ■ of the resources of the district; but everybody understands its significance,—or, rather, its lack of practical significance,—and we feel sure that the sentiment of the colony will be opposed to the suggested change. "New Zealand" itself is a rather absurd name, while "New South Wales" is patently ridiculous: yet the bulk of the inhabitants of the two misnamed colonies would resent any alteration at the present day,'—and rightly, because the existing names have been consecrated, so to speak, by the course of history and the force of association. " Otago" is a sort of no-word,—a mere happy-go-lucky nondescript, neither Maori nor anything else,—yet who would think of discarding it nowadays? There were special reasons, no doubt, for allowing "Van Diemen's Land" to disappear from the atlas, though even in that case we should- be inclined to say that an over-sensitiveness prevailed, and that the unpleasant connections of the old name might well have been " lived down." (We should endeavour to implant a respect for the continuity of history and the sentiment of tradition in the minds of tk rising generation; and this is not to be done by playing fast-and-loose with local memorials and place-names. The Mayor of' Gisborne has been actuated by an admirable motive, but we trust that on reconsideration he will decide to give another direction to his loyal energy.