MAORI NOMENCLATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14465, 6 March 1909, Page 13

MAORI NOMENCLATURE

EARLY HISTORY OP OTAGO. By W. 11. S. Eobebts. Xo. VI. CIIASLAX D'S MISTAKE. ChaelaiHl's Mistake, longitude 169.24 east longitude 46.42 south, is a. well-known point on the south-east coast. Tho Maori name was Maltato (a whito mat, accent on 'Mia") or Mnkati (h-ritaling, accent on lirst syllable). Cliasland River, was Waipati (water shallow, or splasliing), and (.Wand Little River, Hukilmki (a spit on which fish aro rousted). Chasland's Mis-' take was named after a whaler, Thornaa Cliasland, a. New South Wales half-casto native, who was steersman and pilot of the vessel in which Mr Edward' Shortland visited tho east and south of New Zfala'jwl in 1543. The headland was so named in consequence of Cliasland mistaking it one foggy day for Cape Saunders, when he was piloting an American whaling sliip to Otakou Harhmr. He discovered his mistake in time to avert any evil consequences. * V. A. J., in the Otago Witness, March 18, 1902, wrote: "Another version of tho naming of Chasland's Mistake, is given by a nautical gentleman, who says he heard tho story from Chasland's own lipj. It is briefly as follows:—When acting as pilot for Ii.M.S. Acheron, which vessel was engaged in .surveying the coast, Cliasland told how plentiful Si-uls used lo be in the vicinity of the headland, and how on one occasion ho induced Sydney owners to fit out a brig, promising to fill her easily with sealskins and oil. l'lio sealing orew, however, proved hardly answerable to discipline, and in spite of Chasland's warning not to molest the seals on their first arrival on the coast, tlwy wero too eager for tho fray. After waiting for several weeks, sure enough the seals came in •thousands, and tho sealers made instant warfare upon them, with tho result that tho herd stampeded and took to tho sea. A few seals came ashore subsequently, but the main herd never came back; consequently tho brig returned to tho owners practically an empty ship. 'Then that's Chasland's Mimtake,' was tho comment of the officer to whom Tommy told tho story, pointing at tho same timo to the headland, which bears tho name ever since, and was entered on the chart accordingly." Brothers Point was Turimokoinoko (the deaf Lizard), or according to Hakwell, Ture-maka. WAIKAWA, Waikawa means bitter, or unpleasant water. Kawa, is also the name- of the Piper cxcelsum shrub, which most likely is tho meaning here, as tho water of' tho river was pure and pleasant jasted. Tho kawa is a eaorcd ehritb much need in religious ceremonies, such as striking a hiilding or canoe with a kawa branch in order to remove tapu, or when a .new building has to be owned with ceremonies by a Tohnnga, or when the ceremonies of iriiri and tua havo to l» performed over a new-born child, when it is named, nearly equivalent to our ceremony of baptism. Waikawa is a huge inlet from the sea, and the name o! a Jj,uii*Jrc<l district. Mr Tuckett, in 1844, said the Maori name of it was Wai-kou-roa (water, good, long), so tho ono may be the namo of tho harbour and tho other of the river. In the, forties this harbour was known in Sydney and to tho whalers as " Success River," after tho name of tho first wesel known to havo entered it. On May 9, 1563, the largest vessel yet built up to that date in Olago, being '96 tons register, was launched at Waikawa, and named the 'Mane Anderson," after tho daughter of Mr John Anderson, of Cairn .Station, previously of Blueskin, and si-.-t.ra- of Mrs 'Francs, of Unuiaru, who performed the ceremony of christening the. vessel by breaking the customary bottle of champagne and declaring its namo as it slowly started down the skids to the water. Eight years before that Captain C. Dwight built a'schooner of 56 tons at. Waikawa, and named her "The Oamaru Last?." Ho loaded her with limber and brought it to Oamaru. Just, after sho arrived, on October 12, 1860, a violent storm swept along the oast coast and drove the Las.? high and dry on tho beaeh. But after discharging all tho timber eho wt!6 ioJatinehcd and renamed Norah.

AH tho rorks in the. vicinity oE Waikawa aro composed of old red saJidstone. Tlio town of Waikawa was first offered for sala on Mirch 25. 1872. A township not far from it was named Wai-komu. A Grown scttlemcnr. was started at Waikawa in 1695. That <langoToui3 point, en which a muchneeded liidiihouso was orectcd in 1833, is Wai-p.-.pipa (a'calabash in tho water). The light, which was lighic.l for tlio first timo on January 1, 1884, is of the second order dioptric, flashing every ten seconds. 'Hie brig Luna was wrecked fliore in 1843. Tho Oiara Koof U clo-c to Wnipap&pa, Point, where (ho steamer Tara-rua (twopoints) was wrecked on April 30, 1881, on hor way to Ilobart. and Melbourne. There wero 120 souk? on lward, of whom only 20 weresaved. Jflio steamer struck tho rotta about 5 a.m. on tho 29th. The' weather was lrasy, and the &3a rough, so that the boats could net live in the surf. At 2-ir 35min on morning on tlio 30th the lntll broke up with a series of crashes, and with a shriek of dismay the people on board sank beneath tho waves to riw no more. Tho Otara, Tvscl k now known as the Tararaa Reef. A settlement, five miles north of Fortrcso and a little north of Waipsipapa, has been named Otara, whicli may ho translated, "place of tho point"—"place of tho Tern bird " (sterna frontalis), or Mr Tarn's residence. A small stream runs into tho 6ea a short -dislanee oast of the Mataura, having ithe. name Toka-mii (a largo rock standing up). A township en the Mataura, ni.no miles from Fort-rose, has ako been named Toka-nui. Tare Wetere Te Kahu cays tho correct Maori name is Taiko-nni (a largo black petrel (Majai|iics parkinsoni).