MAORI PLACE-NAMES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19803, 3 December 1938, Page 6

MAORI PLACE-NAMES

THE DESCRIPTIVE TOUCH USEFUL BOOKLET ORIGIN EXPLAINED (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. The origin of many of the names of leading towns and cities in the Dominion is to be traced back to early settlement and English association, but the original Maori designations have been preserved in thousands of cases, and the Railway Department is issuing a small booklet explaining their meanings. Mr. James Cowan, who as an English writer has no equal as an exponent of Maori ways and native history, made a systematic investigation into the origin of the native names to be found on so many railway stations, and the results have been collected for the general benefit and interest of New Zealanders. "Place-names,” says Mr. Cowan in preface, “cannot be explained offhand. The information given is the result of long and careful inquiry from Maoris of the past generation whose ancestors gave names to localities in their explorations. Research on the subject took the author from the Bay of Islands to the coast of Southland. Many error's ]n the current form of names were discovered. Some long-used incorrect forms are officially retained cn maps .and stations for the sake of convenience."

Where the present form of a name is not accurate, this new booklet gives the correct version. The explanations are grouped according to railway journeys, and the historical notes make interesting reading. The Main Inspiration It is evident from the results of Mr. Cowan’s work that the Maori possessed a gift for descriptive touches in his naming of places Natural features, and the kind of food likely to be obtained in a locality ferm the main inspirations for naming, but incidents of vivid importance in tribal historv also find permanent commemoration in this way.

Some of the station names vvhh! look the most puzzling to the stranger who sees them in Roman capitals turn out to be quite simple when ex•flained by Mr. Cowan. For instance "Paekakariki,” hard to spell or nroperlv pronounce, is derived from “pac” a bird perch, and “kakariki,” the green parakeet.

The North Auckland station, Kaukapakapa, turns out to bo the Maori way of describing swimming with much splashing, while the well known Auckland suburb of Remuera is found to be incorrectly presented. According to Mr. Cowan it should be “Remu-wera” meaning the burnt, edge or hem of a flax garment, the name having its origin in an incident of ancient times.

Although the Maori population was not so intensive in the South Island, the race has left its imprint very substantially on place names, mostly of the descriptive kind. "Waipara,” is the river with a thick muddy sediment; "Waikari,” is a river which cuts out its course or erodes its banks: and "Waiau" is apt as the name of the river of currents, swirling river.