PLACE NAMES OF OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND

Southland Times, Issue 17623, 11 April 1914, Page 3

PLACE NAMES OF OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND

EARLY HISTORY OF OTAGO AND OTHER INTERESTING INFORMATION.

By W. H, SHERWOOD ROBERTS.

(Written specially ror the Southland Times.) (Ail Rights Reserved.) XXXVI. WEST MDRIHIKU. Gold was discovered at Pahl in the beginning of 18 S6. The Maori pa of Pahi (a company of persons travelling together) was near the mouth of the Waiau River. In ancient times the Maoris had a track from Milford Haven to the Waiau, which they descended In a mokihi to its mouth. In case of there being more water In the river than usual great care was necessary to prevent the strong current from carrying the mokihl out to sea, which had occasionally happened, the passengers being drowned. Pahi is now a farming district between Riverton and O repuke. Formerly It was all native forest, which has now disappeared before the woodman’s axe and his destructive improvements ! Dr Moncktorfs beautiful homestead was on this block before the Government throw it open for settlement. Along the sea coast, facing the Pahi settlement, was at one time the famous Maori pa of Rua-hine, a favourite landing place for whalers ; and, being also a fishing depot, the importance attributed to it can easily be recognised. The Old Man Rock is called by the Maoris Ruahine, meaning an old woman. It is a tall pillar of stone, looking like an old person with bent back.- Tho stream that runs into the sea alongside the rock is O-Kuia. or Oku! (of the old woman.) Between there and Pahia Point is Paua (sea ear shellfish) Point, and the Ruru-kou-kou-Stream (the more-pork owl) runs into the sea just east of it. The. Grove Burn, about six miles west of the Waiau mouth, is Wai-kahla. Wal means water. Kahia may be the plant Passiflora tetandrla, nr the image of a human figure carved out of a pa fence. A mile further west, along the shore of To Waowae Bay, is the Hawaiian Bum, the Maori name of which Is Wai-rara-kau. (Kara and kau have so many meanings that it is not easy to interpret them. To do so correctly it is necessary to knowwhy the name was given.) At its mouth In the bay is a noted place for flounders C.T.H.T.) A stream flowing into Te Waewae Bay from the north is Waikoan (pied shag water.) A place near its south-western head is Marora, or probably Maroro (strong, or destroyed.) The south-western head of Tc Waewae Kay is Sand Hill Point, where In former days there was a very Large Maori pa. which is all overgrown, though traces of several umu were still to be seen in 1901. A great tribal battle was fought there, in which the local Maoris were nearly exterminated. A party of Maoris went to Sand Hill Point in October. 1909, to form a settlement there. Helmet Hill, 2050 ft high, is Hau-kcrre (break wind.) It was the Maori barometer, a cap of mist on it being a sure sign of an approaching storm from west or south-west, Donee its name Helmet. The Maori name of tho point and pa was To Haka-pu-rcirei (the dance on a sunken rock.) West of the point was Wat-ora-ho.re (water where the slave was tied up.) The Hump Hill ("500 ft high), north-west of Te Waewae Bay, is O-kaka (tho parrot's place, or the place where he was intoxicated with tutu juice.) Southwest of Unite ITau-roto is Lake Poteriteri. or Pou-teriteri (post on which offerings are hung)—a long, narrow lake only 120 ft above sea level. it should he spelt Po-tere-tere, meaning dripping wet. or to flow during the night. Its outlet, only seven miles long, with a fall of 96 ft. Is the River Wai-tutu (tutu water), as the Corioria rusetfolia grew so abundantly along Its banks. Its western point is only about 10 miles from lamg Sound. There is a small lake named Kakapo (the night parrot, stringops) on the river, which runs into , Lake Potcrctere from the north. There is another small lake south-west of Aiount Aitken, about two miles inland, named Haka-poua (a dance or song by an old person, or to build up old age.) The Big River, eight miles west of Waitutu, called Patu-po (to kill by night), runs tit rough Lake Haka-poua. Belli lake and river are tidal. The whalers sometimes gave Big River the name of Windsor River. These five lakes, collectively referred to as the western lakes, were formerly the resort of a hapu of the Ngati-Mamoe tribe of Maoris, and the refuge of some of them when driven into tho forest by their conquerors, the Ngai-Tahu. “ About 1827 Te Rlrnu rapa, while on his way from Korafeo to plunder a sealing station, discovered a woman, who called herself Tu ai te Kura. I'hnding that she was a Ngatimamoe. he cruelly killed her, and devoured her on tire spot. About six years afterwards Te Waewae surprised two men while he was out eel spearing near Aparima, but they escaped before he could catch them." (Stack ; Trans. N.Z.T., X., p. 90.) Other cases could be quoted to show' how the unfortunate Ngati Mamoe were persecuted. Princess Mountains were Para-Klore (rats’ I excrement.) A little west of Patupo ■ire the dreen Islets, which are small and covered with bush and perforated with caves. There is a good boat harbour sheltered by Aka-poua (an old person’s climbing plant or shell) Point. The first streajn west of the point is the Grace River, the next Kiwi (Apertyx bird) Bnrn. The sealers called the kiwi bird the New Zealand emu. Windsor Point was Tau-raka (a place of anchorage). or To-raki (up to the sky.) West of” Windsor Point is Marshall’s Reck, a short distance from tho land. Puysegur Point, the south-west extreme of the Middle Island, was Ta- wh itiwli iti-rore (a distant snare.) On this point there is a lighthouse with a white tower 40ft high, showing a white flashing light every 10 seconds. Puysegur is an ugly word, said to have been given to the point after a member of the Acheron expedition, which was engaged in surveying the coast in 1846. Pay is pronounced Pui, or Pwee, or Pcu. and means a hill or peak ; segur may be a corruption of sejour. stay, abode. Puy is the name generally given in the high lands of Auvergne (France) to the truncated conical peaks of extinct volcanoes. It is perhaps connected with puit or puits (•■ a well ” or “ vent,”) Kisbee Bary was Qua- rrrri, or more probably Oue-mri, Oue was a narrow-leaved variety of New Zealand flax, plentiful in tho district, and nul means large. From Wai-tutu to Pa-tupo is about six miles along the beach. The land extends back a breadth of two or three miles on a comparatively level scale, mostly growing birch (beech) trees. The foreshore from Wairaurariki, a distance of about 19 miles, has a general altitude of 100 ft. In the Otago Witness, March 2, 1861, George Green, who purchased land to a great extent in the forties frbm the Maoris, advertised a " caution to the public not to purchase or squat upon land claimed by him viz., 2000 acres on Centre Island, 20,000 acres In Stewart Island, 20,000 acres Kowokka-pittlplt, 109 acres at Bluff, and 1,024,000 acres West Coast, Wanker-petl, Mistaken Bay.” He was not greedy, but liked a lot ! Kowokka-pittlplt must have been Ko-raka-putapnta. Mistaken Bay is the next bay south of Milford Sound. Perhaps Wanker-petl should be Whangapeti, meaning ” a bay concluded,’’ or exhausted. PRESERVATION INLET. Preservation Inlet, or perhaps more particularly Cuttle Cove, was called Raki-tuma, which has a meaning that cannot refer to tho sound ened to be dried up,” or ” the northern gods with an excess, of one.” Cuttle Cove is the name given to a branch of Preservation by Captain Cook In consequence of the number of actopi, or cuttle fish, seen there. A pa at Cuttle Cove was built by a powerful Ngai Tabu chief named Te Whara, when in pursuit of the half-destroyed Ngati-mamoe. Whara is the name of a flax mat of peculiar workmanship, on which only a chief was allowed to sit. It was only used as a carpet or as a sail for a war canoe. The pa was named after the chief, and the beach still retains the name. “When first visited by Europeans ,the beach was littered over with human bones, which after some years were carried away with the whale bones, for the manufacture of bonedust.” (H.R., N.Z., p. 168.) Captain Peter Williams started a shore whaling station at Rafcl-tnma In 1828, the. earliest station on the coast. In

1829 bo employed three boats. In TB3O four boats, obtaining respectively 120 and 143, tuns of oil. A tun Is 252 gallons. “In 1831-2-3 ho had four boats and crews, obtaining 152, 115, and 166 tuns of oil. In 1834 the station passed into the hands of Messrs J. Jones and "W. Palmer.” (Ed. Shortland, N.Z., bOO.) (To be continued.)