MAORI PLACE NAMES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14980, 29 May 1914, Page 5

MAORI PLACE NAMES.

10 TOE BDITOK OF '"THK PBESS." Sir, —I writo to ask if thero is no possibility of'ending tho intensely stupid practice of the Postal Department of renaming places already provided -with., pronounceable names, with unpronounceable Maori ones?. 1 would liko to ask an English community how much longer it .will tolerate such an idiotic policy. Aro we not in this country all English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, or Manx? The vast majority are, at all events, and, surely tho English language is good enough for us, and it is oi more moment to perpetuate tho memory of-the British Isles and race from which we spring than to try and foster n- new sentiment merely ..because it is now J , For what reason is a Department of tliis Government endeavouring to obliterate old associations and old placo names in favour of Maori ? If it is granted that Maori lore is interesting, there qxe quito sufficient Maori names in tne country to ensure its share in tho general scheme, and it quite time this was recognised. If tho Department wants a. new name for a locality, all it has to do is to take a pen in its collective hand, got in front of a map of the British Isles, shut its eyes, and stick in tho pen at random. Apart from tho jawbreakers in parts of "Wales and Scotland, tho result every timo could not fail to be an improvement on the latest freak perpetrated at Lake Coleridge. Sir, the British Flag is good enough for us, and likewise the British language.— Yours, etc., NATIVE BORX.