LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 9

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE MIS-SPELLING'OF TEA-TREE, Sir.—ln your Thursday's issue, under the heading Accidents and Fatalities," mention is made of "some high 'ti-tree.'" Who invented this erroneous spelling 1 do not know, but I have seen it in the papers several times lately. There is a word "ti" in the Maori language, "but it means what„we call;ihe„cabbago. tree, while the. newspaper "ti-tre'b" refers" to' the "manuka." The oorreot spelling is ' tea-tree," so called by the Australians because the early settlers made tea of the young shoots. .But,the Government, or the railway authorities, have made a more atrocious blunder still, as they have called the railway station next to Waihola "Titri." What genius invented this name, or what it means, I do not know; as the word does not belong to any language, living or dead. It is a pity that people who do not know any better should be allowed to corrupt the language in this way.. There may be some excuse in some cases for the mis-spelling of a Maori word, but this is not a case of that kind. It seems to be an attempt to spell the English word "tea-tree" with five letters!—l am, etc., .. ~ C.W.ADAMS. ■P.O.—lt appears that the paragraph was sent by the agent of the Press Association at Wlangarei, so perhaps he is the o.ne who does not know how, to spell.