MEANING OF PAHIATUA

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15322, 10 April 1943, Page 3

MEANING OF PAHIATUA

MAORI PLACE NAME “TE PA O HATHA ” INTERESTING LETTEII. Some weeks ago we published a paragraph giving the meaning of Pa«liiatua, as interpreted by the Bishop of Aotearoa, Bishop Bennett. Yesterday, a member of the Maori race who cannot agree with the Bishop’s interpretation, advanced another derivation of the place-name. According to our informant tho site of the town was th© pa of a Maori chief named Hatua. The village or pa was called “Te Pa O Hatua” or “the village of Hatua.” f rom this name, when the pakeha arrived, lip laziness made the name Paoatua and later Pahiatua, which in Maori means nothing at all. In our “50 years ago” feature on Wednesday night, -w© printed the following humorous letter culled from our files of half a century ago. To the Editor. Sir, —In your issue of the sth, referring to the Rev. MU 1 Patterson’s conversation with a Maori linguist, brings to my mind a remark mad ■ in a letter Home, where the writer in spelling Pahiatua, spelt it thus: Pa-I-hate-U. Now, Sir, i again state Pah is not Maori. The “h” is put on by the English to define it from pay, as for instance “a” in Maori is pronounced as “ah.” Pa is a word of itself; Hi is also a distinctword, as is also Atua.—l am, etc., REG MAORI We received the following interesting letter yesterday from Mr J. McCardle, whose view supports the interpretation of Bishop Bennett. To the Editor. Sir,—My father named Paliiatuo. when ho first sot up tho township. Years before, N-ireaha who with Huru sold the land .to the government, gave Pahiatua a political meaning, “The Home of the Spirit.” Mr Eldon Best, New Zealand's recognised authority on the Maori language gives this meaning: Pahi, a resting place, Atua, spirit. In furtherance of this, the Ngatikahungungu tribe, who settled on the east coast from Gisborne to the Wairarrapa, have the old tradition, which has been handed down for generations, of the naming of the Pahiatua Hill, as told to me by the late Andrew Pakau. Th© party or tribe of his ancestors, left Tauranga in search of a place to settle. He explored the country inland by way of the Akitio and Aolianga rivers, leaving their canoe, the Takitama Canoe at the mouths of the rivers and fallowed tb© streams as far inland as the top of th© Puketoi. From th*' Aolianga, they branched from the watershed along the Tiraumea and Mangahao. The chief died and the Maoris carried his body through the bush until they came to a hill wher© a resting plac© in a cave was found. Although the body of the chief was left there, his spirit left for Te Kainga, where all Maori spirits leave this earth. So it seems that “a resting place” is a poetic rendering of the name given to vne place probably hundreds of years ago.

Her© are a few facts which point to the story as being an authentic one: (1) A Mr Grubner found tii ? lemains of a Maori woman on hw property on the top of th© Puketoi in a cave; (2) Mr Waddell found, near the Akitio River, a mere made of stone foreign to New Zealand ; (3) Whii© clearing the old road in Mangaramarama, the remains oil another Maori were found in a large rata. There wa© no place of entrance, and as the tree had grown quite over the place, probably two or three hundreds years had elapsed. I helped fell the bush near the Pahiatua water supply. Although we found no caves, there were many inaccessible places in the very dense bush on the cliff faces. So, after 60 years, 1 leave to you r imagination to decide if Pahiatua is the “home of the spirit” or “the resting place. —I am, etc., J. McCARDLF