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Maori Place Names.

Thero are many Maori place-names which no one but a vandal would wish to replace by English names. Some are beautiful in sound or meaning, 01 both; only the most prosaic of people" would like to discard Waimakariri, Taumaruuui, or Waikaremoana. Thero are hundreds of other Maori placenames in common use which serve their

purpose well, and for historical and ethnological reasons should be preserved. But Maori nomenclature may be carried too far, and we sympathise with tho correspondent who wrote to us on Friday protesting against the Post Office's practice of "renaming places already provided with pronounceable " names, with unpronounceable Maori "ones." The particular change that leads our correspondent to protest is that of Lake Coleridge through "Ki&sel"ton" to "Whakomotau." It would bo interesting to know why this Maori name was selected. Is it a name that tho place has long borne, or has >t simply been manufactured for it? A glance at the railway timetable shows how freely Maori names are used. Of

the twenty-seven names of stations on tho Opua-Whangarei line, north of Auckland, all but one aro Maori. The Main Trunk line simply bristles with Maori names, somo of them rather eccentric. Between Otahuhu, nine miles out of Auckland, and Taihape, there aro only ten stations with English names. In the South Island, English names are much more numerous along the railway lines, but so they should be, for this part of the Dominion was, and is, much less of a Maori land than the North Island. The South Island has got quito a largo enough proportion of Maori names; if the Government wants to preserve such names, let it prevent such adaptations as Kurow, instead of tho euphonious Kohu-rau, tho place of "many mists." Tho multiplicity of Maori names fosters the idea so prevalent in othor countries that in New Zealand the black people outnumber the white, that white civilisation is only a small spot in a mass of native life. One can imagine tho friends of an English tourist taking up tbe New Zealand railway time-table that he has brought back, and running over lists of stations, asking:—"l>id you carry a revolver?" This is a conception of New Zealand lifo that should not only not be encouraged, but should be discouraged in every possible way. By all means let us keep enough Maori names to embalm historical memories and racial characteristics, but it is absurd that a country that is predominantly white, and is going, we hope, to be tho homo of a large civilised nation, should be covered with native names, many of, theni nearly unpronounceable to the majority of white people, and most of them meaningless to ninety-nine per cent, of tho population.

Tho latest effort which his apologists ore making on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition, in connexion with tho strike, is hardly as happy as it might be. "What possible, political advantage," they ask, "looking at the matter from the most sordid standpoint, could Sir J. G. Ward expect to gain by appearing as tho friend of the strikers?" Sinco it is put this way, the answer must be that he expected to gain, and aimed at gaining, the support of the Red Feds. He is still seeking their aid, and so are his friends. That is certainly a "political advantage" of a kind, but no doubt Sir Joseph and his party realise by now that it has cost them very dear. They havo bought a shilling for eighteenpenee, in fact, and they are welcome to their bargain.

The Social Democrats —those of them, at any rate, who believe in their party —will hardly have overlooked Mr H. Atmore's rebuko to Mr E. J. Howard for moving an amendment to tho proposed vote of confidence in tho "Liberal" Party on Thursday night. "Mr Howard's amendment," said the member for Nelson, "was a mistake in tactics. Every timo a Socialist did that sort of thing the face of Mr Massey expanded in a smile. The progressive who attacked the Liberals was playing Mr Massey's gamo for him." Mr Massey is not concerned in the matter; but could thero bo a more illuminating admission as to the "Liberal" game? The "Liberals" cannot see that the Socialists and Social Democrats can have minds or opinions or a gamo of their own. For the "Liberal" '' they exist only as servants, who must not presu.ma to think or feel on their own account, and who must do only what suits the Wardist faction. They must keep quiet, because if they open their mouths they will spoil the game of the Wardists. "So doubt tho Socialists will have something to say of the arrogant and intolerant attitude of their "fcllow-pro-grcssivos."

To tho man in the street the particular route which Hannibal took through the Alps'in that wonderful march of his from Spain to Italy, may seem in a matter of nojnoment. Probably ho never heard of Hannibal, or, if he did, knows of that great master of war only as a name. But it is characteristic of tho immenso trouble taken by students of history to clear up doubtful points that quite a voluminous controversy has been going on about tho groat Carthaginian's route. The dispute is as old as Livy and Polybius, but it has apparently been reserved for our day to produce a wholo book on this ono point. A few years ago, Mr Spenser Wilkinson, tho well-known military expert, excited by somo French investigations, devoted his holidays to an examination of tho problem on the spot, and wrote an essay embodying his conclusions. In this essay ho differed from the conclusions of Mr Douglas Freshfiold, and the latter replied somewhat warmly in the "Geographical Journal," suggesting that Mr Wilkinson had misled his readers, and was not no to occupy tne Chair of Military History at Oxford. Mr Freshfield has now written a volume for the express purpose of demolishing Mr Wilkinson's theory. To many people it may seem wasto of timo and money, but after all, truth is the very breath of history, and the great fabric can be built up only by patient and laborious establishment of truth iv detail.

Probably no literary discovery would interest more people in tho Englishspeaking world than tho recent unearthing of thirteen new stanzas of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. When Fitzgerald's translation began to appear in cheap editions a wave of Omar worship surged over Anglo-Saxdndom, and it is perhaps not too much to say that there is no great poem of similar length with which tho average man

and women of liberal education is more familiar. Many who would be puzzled to place some of tho most important Biblical texts could qnote tho dangerous old pagan's linos about repentance and tho joys of the cup. Tho Kubaiyat is not only one of the most cherished possessions of those amusing young people who imagine that rmglish literature began with Swinourne and Kossetti, but. has captivated men and women who have formed their tastes on the giants of remoter times. The former more than the latter are fascinated by its Epicureanism r'the latter admire the expression more than the thought.. Wo print on our Literary rage to-day a translation of some of the new verses, and our readers can judge from them of the importance of tho discovery. But Fitzgerald's version has so much of Fitzgerald in it that without him we can have no more ot the Rubaiyat *as we know it.

There are certain expregions on which good taste puts a ban in polite society. One of thorn is tho word which' in this part of the world has become known as the "National Australian adjective." But Mr G. B. Shaw, to whom convention is only silliness, introduces it in his new play "Pygmalion," putting it into the mouth of his Cockney flower-girl who is turned by a profe-sor of phonetics into a duchess. When she suddenly came out with this expletive on the first night, the electrified house went ofF into a guffaw, which of course was what Mr Shaw wanted. Ho does not mind stooping pretty low to raise a laugh. Naturally the critics object strongly to this uso of a word which decent urage bans in mixed company, and again tlu's is what Mr Shaw wants. Advertisement is oxygen to him. He replies characteristically that the adjective "can be used without the slightest offence on tho stage or anywhere else, if used sincerely and artistically.'' This of course is simply evading the point. What does ho mean by "sincerely" and "artistically"? Many people who use the word in their daily round arc painfully sincere in their employment of it, but would that justify its uso in a drawing-room in tho presence of ladies? Mr Shaw's use of it, however, may have the much-needed effect of making somo people see 'Mr Shaw's faults in their true light.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19140530.2.55

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 10

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,490

Maori Place Names. Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 10

Maori Place Names. Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 10

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