PLAGE NAMES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10300, 7 March 1905, Page 2

PLAGE NAMES.

There is a very interesting article ita the Argus on Australian geographical names, m the course of which reference is made to the naming of some New Zeakindl localities. It seems probable enough that many names, the origin of which is not now traceable, were given to bays and islands by whalers. Port Arthur, we are told', takes its name from a whal*ing captain, and' Port Cooper, as Lyttelton was first called 1 , and Port Levy were named after the members of a Sydney whaling firm. Th© Auckland; Islands were discoveredl by Enderby's whaling ships. Chatham Islands were named' by Vancouver. The famous navigator reach, cdl tlie West Australian) coast m 1791, and after cruising round* the coast came across to New Zealand! waters. He discovered and) named the Share? and 1 tlie Chatham Islands, which, it is said, were called after ouei of his ships, not directly after the great Pitt. Our own place names are well worthy of being historically investigated. The Tasman Sea takes its name from Abel J-unsen Tasman, the Dutch navigator, who wars the first European to sight New Zealand. He called' the land, first Staatcn, m honor of the States General of Holland., but afterwards altered the name to Nova Zee'landa. This was m 1642 or early m 1643. Tasman did not land! He had a boat's crew cut off by the natives, audi called tlie place of the affair Massacre Bay. We call the same bay more commonly Golden Bay. Cape Marin Van Diemen is another of his appellations. From Tasman to Cook there were no recorded) visits of Europeans. Cook sighted land south of Poverty Bay, at Young Nick's Head, named after Nicholas xoung, a lad 1 who first saw it, Tliis "unfortunate and inhospitable place," Cook called Poverty Bay. Very many of his names have persisted. In Mercury Bay, where he observed a transit of Mercury, he hoisted the British colors. We have seen .no memorial of Captain Marion -dm Fresne, who visited' New Zealand m 1772, and 1 iva s killed m the Bay of Islands. Tlie French navigator gave hi& name to Marion Bay, m Tasmania. Crozet, Marion's second) m command, called! the place the Bay of Treachery, but the name did' not live.