MORE MAORI PLACE-NAMES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 4

MORE MAORI PLACE-NAMES

Maori Place-names of Canterbury. By Herries Beattie. (Boyne Bros., Gore.) 7s 6d.

In the new volume of place-names, relating to the Provincial District of Canterbury, Mr Beattte notes that there is to-day a preponderance of Maori names in the North Island, and of English nomenclature in the South Island. As an instance, he cites 98 Maori to 33 English or European names to the railway stations on the 426 miles of the North Island trunk line; 109 European and 49 Maori names, on the stations and sidings between Waitara and the Bluff. And he concludes that, making allowance for the greater Native population in the north, the main reason is that officials and surveyors in the south had less interest in preserving the Maori nomenclature. As in his useful book on Otago place names, so in this volume Mr Beattie has made a collection of Maori names for districts, topographical features, and so on that is at once illuminating and may provoke regret that the picturesque Native nomenclature has been allowed so largely to be superseded, often by names that have little euphony and no historical interest or significance. Apart from the familiar names which appear on the maps, Mr Beattie has collected a thousand hitherto unrecorded, which make his work a rich storehouse for future researchers. His comments incidental to the lists of names are interesting, and quite often bring to light romantic notes from the past. McG.