CURRENT TOPICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1798, 24 March 1888, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

NoTinviTn.sTANDiNG the fact that " a rose by any other name would swell as sweet," we confess to a prejudice m favor of calling not only things but I places by the names which properly i belong to them , More than that, we 1 confess to a strong predilection ior the 1 retention of the generally musical I appellations conferred by our dusky i predecessors upon the localities and i natural features of the country m preference to the unmeaning and often 1 barbarous nomenclature which has 1 superseded them m too many directions. Such hideous names as Pigroot, Sowburn, and Hogburn, and such absurd designations as Black's No 1, and Black's JNo 2 may well be discarded m favor of native names for those localities, and while we are about it we should also get rid of the absurdity of having two or three or more places m different parts of the colony called by the same name, of which there are many instances leading to frequent confusion. Again, where the Maori names have been retained, it is very desirable that the correct orthography should be preserved instead of as is too often the case, a sort of bastard nomenclature which is neither Maori nor English, and is indeed about as much like the genuine Maori as the pigeon English of a Chinaman is like our own mother tongue. We are therefore pleased to see that the tl New Zealand Times " has taken the matter up, and is urging the propriety of restoring these maltreated names to their orthographic rights. Taking for example the names of a few of the railway stations near Wellington, it points out that that now known as " Petone " should be spelt " Pitone," a contraction of the original Maori name, which was " Pito-one," meaning the end of the beach, and that " Kaiwarra t " with ita double r is a Maori impossibility. It should be Kaiwhara, or more strictly Kaiwhara-whara. The next station, Ngauranga, has had an extra syllable, ' ha,' unwarrantably stuck m, and is wrongly spelt ' Ngahauranga,' to the utter destruction of all sense. This, too, might as well be corrected. Yet one more instance may be given, while we are about it, and that is Pauatahanui, which is nearly always misspelt ' Pahutanui.'" x There are hundreds of other instances of this sort ot thing, such for example as " Kartigi " a station on the Southern line of railway just beyond Hillgrove. As there is no such letter as "g" m Maori this should probably be either " Katiki " or " Katingi," most likely the former as the Maories south the Waitaki use "k " wherever the compound letter "ng " is used by those North of that river. Thus the boundary river — called by Canterbury Maories the Waitangi, is called by Otago Maories the Waitaki. It would be a very desirable thing m the interests of orthoepy as well as of orthography and philology if the list of post towns, and railway stations were submitted to some competent authority, and the names altered m postal guides, and railway time-tables wherever found to be at present incorrectly spelt. There has been for something like six thousand years an iutimate connection between apples and theft, but the lady who set the fashion all those years ago never ventured to the lengths to which those of her descendants who reside iv and about Ashburton are prepared to go. Some excuse may, perhaps, be made for boys who, passing by orchards full of tempting-looking fruit, are for the moment sufficiently oblivious of the obligations of the Eighth Commandment to steal and eat, but when it comes to the carrying off of fruit by the bushel, and worse still to the stripping of trees of hundredweights of fruit, under cover of the darkness of night, the limits of venial transgression are far overpassed, and the perpetrators of such offences can only be ranked as common thieves. As such they deserve to be dealt with very severely, because depredations of this kind are not to be measured merely by the money value of the thing stolen. Man/ a man would far rather be robbed of thrice the sum m money which the worth of his stolen .fruit represents, than of the fruit itself. For this latter has been the subject of his care from the first appearance of the blossom, has been watched and tended with a kind of affectionate admiration, and has probably cost m actual outlay much more than it is intrinsically worth. Morning and evening there has been a stroll round the garden to note its ripening beauty, and kindly projects of presentations to friends have perhaps* been cherished, when lo ! some morning it is discovered that the midnight thief has despoiled the trees, and very often ruthlessly destroyed them by tearing [ off the laden branches, There j§ a feeling of outrage attending such experij ences as these which fills the soul of the horticulturist and orchardist with exceeding bitterness, and it is not wonderful, therefore, sgeing the frequency of such offences m this neighborhood that there has long been a wish that some of the offenders should be made an example of. And it is not always on.ly the actual offenders that need a lesson, for when these are boys or young lads there is reason to think that their parents are not altogether blameless. Some, perhaps, — not all by any means— are sharers m the plunder, and more (who would not be guilty of making use of stolen fruit) are inclined to regard its annexation by their children as something' very different from what it is, viz ., theft pure and simple. If parents generally did their duty the aid of the Magistrate would seldom or never be required, but as many of them do not, such a lesson as was administered by Mr Ollivier last Thursday will be as salutary as it was undeniably necessary.

Writing of Mr Ollivier, reminds us that after all the representations which have been made to the Government urging that he should nofc fee removed from Ashburton, tho powers that be (for the present) aro obdurate, and we are to j loso the services > that genial and excellent Magistrate, who, we believe, occupies the bench here on Thursday next for the last time. We are go.rry for it, and so we are auye is th,e public generally, and as Mtf Ollivier has hitherto ' performed his functions for nothing beyond his travelling expenses, wo cannot, for the life of us, see how the action of the Department can bo justified by the plea of necessary retrenchment. What makes the matter all the worse ;s, if we are" 1 rightly informed, that m substituting a paid for an unpaid R.M- --■ the Departments intends to reduce the

I frequency of tho sittings, which it is Si said arc to be 'm future fortnightly | instead of weekly. This will be, we feel sure, a great inconvenience to business men, and means that if a case be not concluded at one sitting it cannot be resumed for two weeks, so that from the initiation of proceedings to the final issue often a whole month will clap This, m connection with proceedings the recovery of debts, will be intolerable state of things. We a quite of opinion that Ashburton is bein very badly used m this matter.