STREET NAMES

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 19, 6 September 1940, Page 1

STREET NAMES

Practice At R.N.Z.A.F. Stations In the naming of streets at what is now a considerable settlement at the Royal New Zealand Air Force station at Whenuapai, the Public Works Department lias commemorated the names of canoes and leaders of the Maori people in the migration to New Zealand some centuries ago. It has follow-

ed a policy embarked upon at the air station at Ohakea, where streets are named after old Maori chiefs and fights in which Maoris^ participated. At Whenuapai the historic canoes are commemorated by Taihui Crescent, Tokomaru Street, Takitiinu Street, Arawa Street and Aotea Street. The Maori discovery of New Zealand is recalled by Kupe Avenue. Manaia Street, Tamatea Avenue and Hoturoa Crescent signalize the names of the navigator chiefs. The name of another navigator, Toroa, will be remembered by a crescent of that name yet to be constructed. The settlement is fringed in a semicircle by two long crescents, which at their nearest point give entrance to a car park and administrative headquarters. These are Tainui and Hoturoa Crescents, the significance of the association being that one is named after a canoe and the other that of the leader of the Maoris who sailed in it.