THE MEANING OF MAORI PLACE-NAMES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 648, 8 July 1921, Page 9

THE MEANING OF MAORI PLACE-NAMES.

(Written specially for the Times.)

“Cornelius,” who writes the breezy paragraphs for the Times which appear under the heading “The Potato Patch,” touched on an interesting subject last week when he asked for someone to give the interpretation of a number of native names for places in the Franklin County. Every native name has a direct meaning, either denoting some attribute of the locality, or celebrating some' incident which occurred there, and a study of them is interesting. However, let us first begin with the English names about which “Cornelius” asks for information. Glenbrook 'v 4 was never Pakington, though perhaps Pakington may be considered! as On the fringe of the Glenbrook district. Forty years or more ago Biookside was the name of the„ locality. and I • understand the school is still officially known as Bi’ookside school. Pakington is a township on papre. During the Waikato war the difficulty of supplying the troops who were engaged in pushing the rebels back into the King Country was rendered so difficult owing to the Manukau and Waikato bars, that a tramway line was projected and surveyed from deep water on the Mauku creek to the Waikato river. A township at either end was laid off, that on the Manukau shore being named Pakingtion and that on the banks of the Waikato Camerontown, after two general officers of the Imperial forces. Many of the sections of both were sold, but the war came to an end before the tramway was constructed, and the purchasers never took possession, Bombay was not the inspiration of some Anglo-Indian, as “Cornelius” seems to think, but the name of the good ship that brought the early settlers from the Old Country Now for the Maori names (Patumaboe means literally to strike the mahoe, a tree more noted, for/being the host of edible fungus the Chinese are so fond of than for any value its timber has. ' P.atumdhoe was in the early / days the home of a flourishing hapu ' and the tradition has it that when the tribe felt inclined, to trail its mat before a neighbouring tribe the chief used to Strike a mahoe tree with his mere as the sign of a declaration of war. / It is specially interesting because some of the south a'ndi cdntral African tribes practice the same custom. A “war-tree” always stands in the principal village, and when ’a war-party is about to set out the tree is struck by the king with his battle axe.

Pukekohe (or Pokey-hokey, at. the late Mr R. J. Seddo-n always called it) means the hill on which the kohe-hohe grows. The kohe-kohe was usually called the cedar by the early settlers, though it is not one Of the cedar family, which has only one representative in IsTew Zealand, the beautiful but tare Kawaka. Pukekawa, the hill on which the kawa-kawa, or pepperplant. the pungeant leaves of which new chums are often induced by practical jokers to chew, grows, is the other fine - mound of volcanic aches similar to Pukfekohe, lying across the Waikato, river, opposite Tuakau. Pukeowara is a pseudo Maori name given to the Waitangi (weeping waters) district, half-way between Mauku and Waiuku. in honour of Sir Joheph Ward, the. meaning aimed being the hill of Ward (Wara) Waiuku is an unfortunate name for an agricultural district, for it simply means water (wai) and white clay (übu), too muck of either of which does not conduce to profitable farming. However,'a mile or two outside the' village the quality of the soil improves, so we will not labour that point. Mauku means “no white clay/’ hence we may conclude that it was originally discovered by the Waiuku Maoris, who gratefully recorded the fact that they had got into bettercountry, (Please, Mr Editor/ do not let this get into the Waiuku edition of the Times.) Puni means a grandmother, though the word means other things also. Perhaps it got its name because some worthy chief ate his wife’s grandmther to celebrate the occasion of - his mother-in-law’s funeral. In tke early days of white settlement, Puni used to be called South Mauku by the inhabitants, and New Jerusalem by those who were not its inhabitants, because it was as difficult to get there as to get to Heaven., Kaitangata, a name the Waikato River Board has made familiar to readers of the Times, contains another echo of the good old days of cannibal feasts, for it means where a man (tangata) was eaten, Ofiewhero, not far off, means red soil And now that I am on the Ones (two syllables, please), let me tell a little anecdote about Maori “as she is (sometimes) spoke” An English lady I knew, a fresh arrival in Auckland at last mastered the fact that h neighbouring seaport was properly O-ne-hunga and not One-hunga, and afterwards became a purist, for she was heard talking of O-ne-Tree-Hill I believe Petone, near Wellington, is also a trap for new chums, who pronounce it as if it were a term of endearment *

I find I omitted .to answer two or j three of “Cornelius’ ” questions while dealing with English names.. Buekland was called so after the late Mr Alfred Buekland, founder of the firm of Buekland and Sons. Harrisville- now by, got its title from Major Benjamin Harris, who settled there about 1880, and who still lives to tell of his early pioneering days. Mercer is a reminiscence of the brave Captain of the Royal Artillery, who was killed leading a desperate charge upon the palisades of Rangiriri pa in 1863, and Drury' is named after another Imperial officer. Lately there has been a controversy as to whether the chief town in the Waikato was named after Commander Hamilton, of H.M.S. Esk, who was killed at the Gat Ps( near Tauranga, or Colonel Hamilton. The evidence is chiefly in favour of the soldier, and not the sailor, having his name immortalised in wh&t is probably destined t*o be the largest inland town in New Zealand. Just one more little anecdote before I close to show what traps strange languages lay for the uninitiated. “I want to see a whare” (one syllable), said an English visitor t o me (not the lady who had mastered i the intricacies of the pronunciation of One Tree Hill) ? while making her first trip round the suburbs of Auckland. “A whare?” I echoed, somewhat mystified. “Yes,” she said, “I understood the people of New Zealand lived in huts they called whares”