OTAGO'S NOMENCLATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 48

OTAGO'S NOMENCLATURE.

It many be interesting at this stage of the province's history to recall the origin of many of the names by which localities and streets in the district are called. We are indebted to Dr Hocken's book for this information. Ota-go — strictly Otakou — was appropriated to the whole block, but really relates 1 to a small district within the Heads, where there was a Maori village and a whaling station. The word means "red earth," signifying the ochre used as paint by the Natives, and which was plentiful in the neighbourhood. To remedy the inconvenience caused by the promiscuous use of both appellations, the directors of the company ordered a ieturn to the old whalers' title of Otago. Portobello — Hereweka, of the Maoris — owes it name to Christie, a Scotchman, a draper from Sydney, who came down in 1840 (1850?), and settled there, giving to it the name of his birthplace. It was called by the whalers Lime-burners' Bay, for here they burnt shells wherewith to whitewash their cottages. The reason for the name of Murdering Beach, dating back to 1817, has already been given. Sawyers' Bay was named by the early whalers, who there procured their best timber for huts or boats. Deborah Bay derives its name from Mr Tuckett's Deborah, -which anchored there in 1844. Below is Hamilton's Bay, called so by Mr Kettle after the Bey. J. Vesey Hamilton, a clergyman in Kent, whose ministrations he attended. Still below is Dowling Pay, called after a nephew of Mrs Rennie, whose acquaintance Mr Kettle made whilst visiting Edinburgh. At first it was intended to christen the port town New Leith, or New Musselburgh ; but taste again prevailed, and the Lay .Association, when taking up the scheme in final earnest, desired that it might be

called after the leader of the disruption, Port Chalmers. The survey of Port Chalmers was completed by the middle of May, 1846. The streets enshrine the names of the first emigrant vessels. Hence Wickliffe, Laing, Victory, Bernicia, Mary, Ajax, and Scotia streets ; the last after Mr John Jones's favourite schooner, which traded up and down the coast. Harrington street is after the well-known secretary of the New Zealand Company, the same gentleman being ako remembered in Harrington Point, near the Heads. Currie street is after one of the directors who took a special interest in the scheme. Burns street is, of course, after the first minister of the settlement ; and George and Grey after Sir George Grey, the Governor. The river bounding the southern portion of the Otago lands was called Matau by the Maoris, and had been named Molyneux by Captain Cook. The association, .however, decided that it should be known as Clutha — that being Gaelic for Glas- < gow's river, the Clyde. When a town sprang up there it was called Balclutha, meaning the town on the Clutha. Inchclutha, the island embraced by the Koau and Matau, the branches of the Clutha, means the Island of the Clutha. Its Native Island was Tauhinu. Tauwhaiki was born there and claimed it; hence amongst the whalers it was known as Bloody Jack's Island. Dunedin, as is well known, is the Gaelic form of Edinburgh, and was adopted in preference to New Edinburgh, the title originally fixed upon. The surveyor, Mr Kettle, was instructed, when laying out the town, to reproduce a 6 far as lay within his province the feature of the illustrious parent in the Old Land. This instruction was very faithfully carried out, there being comparatively few exceptions to the street names of Dunedin being the same as those in either Edinburgh or Leith. For several instances the exceptions were made to perpetuate the names of leading colonists; thus Cargill,, Jones, Macandrew, Vogel, and others; whilst such names as Police, Jetty, Bond, Gaol, and such like carry their own derivation. Wakari (or Whakari) Range was the Maori name of the line of hills of which Flagstaff is the

j highest point. What is now known as Flagstaff was one of the earliest trigs, and takes its name from that fact. It was at one time named Mount Kettle, but as such was never popularly known. The " Water of Leith" is, of course, named after Edinburgh's river. Pelichet Bay derives its name from the surveyor who dwelt on the margin of the harbour to : the north of Hanover street. The house I was subsequently occupied by Mr Strode, the magistrate, and afterwards by the 1 Rev. Mr Fenton, the first Anglican mini6- | ter in Dunedin.