MAORI PLACE NAMES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19048, 27 June 1924, Page 2

MAORI PLACE NAMES

CACOPHONOUS SUBSTITUTES, SHOULD BE WIPED OUT VETERAN MISSIONARY’S PLEA. Lately the veteran Maori missionary and author of the “Story of Aotea,” the Rev. J. G. Hammond, had brought under his notice a number of place names in the Dominion, and was asked if he would express his opinion upon them. Writing from the seclusion of his typical missionary’s home at Lichfield, in the Waikato, “Father’’ Hammond, as he is familiarly called by those who know him beet, says that the more he hears of the mutilation of the old Maori place names for commonplace British place names of vulgar origin the more his spirit rises in rebellion against his pakeha brethren. “What a shame it is to do away with the Maori names,’’ he says, “but the pakeha is nothing but a ruthless creature in such matters.” Had the Educational Department insisted upon correN Maori pronunciation and retained the proper names it would have been all to our credit.

How few people know that Otago is not the original name of that province, and it should have remained “Ofakou” To hear a well-educated native pronounce the old name as it Should be pronounced is to know the difference between hardness and sweetness. Otago is a hard sounding name, and it suits some of the Scotsmen who people those prosperous parts, because they were trained to hardness and knew more of coldness and granite than they knew of warmth and softness. They loved the rugged outline of their native strath, and they called places “Strathcairn.” “Cromar,” with the emphasis on the last syllable. Kirkwall and Dingwall good names, but they remind one of a wall or stohe or granite. Otago is, indeed, a good example of misplaced names which have lost their former meaning, and it is quoted because it is only one of the hundreds of blunders. Mr. Hammond had lived for a long time at Patea, which was his headquarters when he was in charge of the Methodist West Coast Maori Mission, and it used to break his heart to hear the way some of the immigrants pronounced the name; it always sounded to him like “Part-ere,” yet spoken by a Maori it was a superb name with a far-reaching meaning. At Okato, near New Plymouth, there were two beautiful mountain rivers side by side almost, running down the slopes of majestic Egmont right down to the sea. One retained its Maori name of Kaihihi, and the other was called by the white man “Stony River.” What did the latter naqie mean to the ordinary man? Really nothing at all, except that the river must be full cf stones, and not pure snow water from the purest sources; while the Maori name was full of those vowel sounds which sounded in the ear like music, and was full of romance.

Mr., Hammond says that he can look back and remember fully seventy years of New Zealand’s history, and with the exception of one visit to Australia, has lived the whole cf his life in the Dominion, but adds that he feels almost young enough to lead a campaign or onslaught which would alter such place names as Hogburn, Sowburn, Eweburn, Fillyburn, etc., ete., in Central Otago back to their proper Maori names. New Zealanders should know how such names came to be given, and the story is soon told how such vulgar names found their way on to the maps of our country, and to our shame are allowed to remain there. The young surveyor who was sent out to 'survey the territory did want to perpetuate the original Maori place names, and was a fine, poetic soul, full of Imagination, and when ho was told off to survey, map and name the part of the country referred to, he spent many days, weeks and months in going to endless trouble to find out the correct Maori names for the many hills, river, and valleys which it was his duty to mark out. He sent his plans to headquarters in "Wellington for approval, but got them back again with a sharp note to put in other than Maori names. In disgust the young man sent back the plans with the horrid names attached, which be thought would never be accepted, but instead would get his walking ticket, but the new names actually pleased his chief, and they were put on the map, and that is how “Hogburn” and similar names can be. seen on any map in the Dominion to-day. That any man in a high position in the State could have had power to do such a thing and throwinto the waste paper basket the euphonious Maori names, every syllable of which meant so much and was so full of meaning, no one at this later date can understand, and Mr Hammond says that now is the time to rectify the gruesome blunder, which is a stain on our past history, for the pigstye names should be wiped off the map with one sweep of the pen. Mr. Hammond says it is a matter of congratulation also that the scientific leaders are turning their attention to Polynesian lore and Polynesians generally as useful subjects for scientific investigation. That we have lost far too much matter of scientific worth in the past is what many people think, but the .worst of all is that some of our very best Maori place names have been lost or almost forgotten, and as the years roll on the present generation will be blamed for their undoubted part in what is not a creditable achievement. Young New Zealanders should rise in their wrath and clean the escutcheon of our country of tho unhallowed place names which now find an unsavoury place there.