THE NAME TAKANINI

Te Ao Hou, April 1958, Page 51

THE NAME TAKANINI Toward the west side of Auckland there is a place named Takanini. It is, I believe, the name of a race-horse, also an area used in training race-horses, so must frequently be on people's lips. The name reminds me of several talks I had with the late George Graham, who said the name should really be Takaanini (Taka-anini). In that name two letters ‘a’ come together; and I also remember that at a meeting of the Geographic Board the late Sir Apirana Ngata said that when the two letters ‘a’ come together in a Maori word it simply means that the vowel has a long sound; the ‘a’ is doubled, and in adopting such a name the pakeha need use only one letter, and this is why the Board adopted the name with the spelling Takanini instead of Takaanini. But there are exceptions. In Otago there is a mountain name Maungaatua, which was at one time spelt Maungatua, and I have seen attempts to explain the meaning of Maungatua (Maunga-tua) —something to do with the back (tua) of a mountain. But they could never explain what they meant by the back of a mountain, and in fact no satisfactory meaning could be given to the word. It should really be Maungaatua (Maunga-atua), where ‘atua’ is a well known word meaning ‘spirit’, with which knowledge a logical meaning is quite possible and understandable. So with Takanini, which George Graham said should be Takaanini; and I am sure he was correct. In Fenton's ‘Judgments’ there is a detailed history of the occupation of the Auckland isthmus including Tamaki, and the history is accompanied by an extensive genealogical table in which the name appears twice as Ihaka Takaanini. So that Ihaka Taka-anini was an historical personage. I seem to remember, too, that George Graham said that two personal names were included in the one name—Taka and Anini; but I got no details about these two people whose names had been combined to make one—Takaanini. But there is no doubt that Takanini should be Takaanini.