Maori Place Names

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19454, 13 October 1937, Page 10

Maori Place Names

Sir, —I have been interested in the correspondence in your columns regarding Maori place names and the many long shots made as to the correct meanings. I am only concerned with the one mentioned in your Saturday’s issue by Mrs. Blair, and at the. possible risk of making confusion worse confounded may I "chip in?” Of course Kotemaori as a name for the village area south of the big viaduct is nonsense, pure and simple. The translation, "This is the Maori,” means nothing intelligible. The correct version, given to me by a Maori scholar well versed in Maori tradition, is this: At a certain spot near the village there was a circular mound near a creek, and on this the Maori people erected a kahikatea pole from which flax ropes depended, and on beaytiful sunny days the lads and lassies swung round and round, often dropping off into the creek for a bath. This was called a “Moari,” and is equivalent to the Europeans’ “Giant stride.” On one occasion—so it is related —a stranger from the south asked what the place was, and was replied to in the words “Ko te Moari,” or “This is the Moari,” since corrupted into “Kotemaori.” I brought this matter under the notice of the authorities, and understood the proper name, “Moari,” would be given to the station, but I am afraid that like the designation “Poverty Bay,” that of Kotemaori will die hard.—Yours, etc., T. LAMBERT.