"PAEROA" OR “HAURAKI”!

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4343, 16 November 1921, Page 2

"PAEROA" OR “HAURAKI”!

" ’ : X Sir, —I agree with “Interested” that no good reason exists why the name of our town should beVchanged from Pderoa to Hauraki. The reference to the increased output oil the newspaper has nothing to do with it whatever. The paper would sell just as well if it were called “The Eatanswdll Gazette” or “The Paeroa Rag.”' The reason of the increased popularity of this newspaper is due to the fact that one or two real live men are connected with its staff. These men collect and place before its readers news of i interest, farming topics, local events, etc., which appeal to them. Reporters visit .the surrounding districts, so it is now usuail to see paragraphs referring to each of .the many districts hereabout, when formerly the scanty news was confined to Paeroa only, or if it related to other places and things, it lacked interest to the ordinary country settler. ' Now all this is changed. The paper is worth buying and worth reading, not because its name is changed to “Hauraki Plains Gazette,” but because of its increased usefulness. When a man changes his name he generally has a good reason for so doing; perhaps he wishes to conceal his identity, dr may have, other good reason. When a woman changes her name she usually takes the name of someone else. This, it seems, is what you wish Paeroa to. do, for if you take the name Hauraki you take away from the Thames its ancient Maori name. Why should this be ? Hauraki is the Thames and coast thereabout, hence Hauraki Gulf. The plains now known as Hauraki Kains were originally known as the Piako Swamp, and were not referred to as Hauraki Plains till they were surveyed, drained, and cut up for settlement. So that as far as I can see neither the Plains nor Paeroa has any. real title to the name Haufdki. The . word “Paeroa” may have a meaning or it may not, but that is by the way; for who knows the meaning of “London” ? Williams’ Maori dictionary gives the meaning of th® word “Paeroa” as “a range of hills, particularly of a long; even ridge.” This might easily applly !tp part of our district, if not to the town itself.

Some may say with Shakespeare, “Whafs in a name ? that which we call a rose, by any o,ther name would smell as •sweet.’ ? This is not always correct, for we must consider usage,' old associations, .past history, present convenience, derivation, arid perhaps meaning of a name before we lightly change it .Paeroa has nothing to be ashamed of, hence it need hot hide its identity. It is honest and does not wish to take the name of its neighbour. unless, like the ladles, it could be joined by “Hymen’s bonds” or other lasting of course, is out of the question. It has a wellknown, long-standing, distinctive, and -euphonious’ name, and confusion, trouble, and ddlay will arise if it is changed to “Hauraki.” There aie plenty of Haurakis already. One local example of the baneful repetition of names I give before I conclude, for instance, “Komata.” We have near us Komata, Komata Reefs, Komata North, Komata Creek, Kpmata South, and Komata,' Orchard. Now letters and ,telegrams are often delayed owing to this array of Komata and during .the last few. years several newcomers looking for Komata North have left the train at Komata station, only to find, to their sorrow and annoyance that to get to Komata North they should have travelled to Hikutaia.

So I agree wi,th ithe old hand who prefers the old name, and is not ashamed'of it even, though he may be a better man than his f grandfather, one of those whom you appear to belittle or under-rate. I am not ashamed 'of the name my grandfather bequeathed to me, but I am averse to this unnecessary change. If the name suited the old pioneers it should suit us, so I propose we retain for pur town its ancient, honoured, historical, and native name of Paeroa, just as I hope always to retain my grandfather’s patronymic. “WALTERS.” “Mauriaena,” Hikutaia. FWe are sorry to note that so esteemed a correspondent as the writer of the above letter entirely misses the point of the name proposal. There is no question of honour or ' shame, credit or discredit, involved. All that is required is that the town of .Paeroa should have a name which embraces the district for which it is to a large extent the natural road, railway, motor service, and economic centre. Both the present correspondent and the previous one referred to are quite at sea in respect to the effect of the changing of the, name of this paper. It is true that the local news of, the : Hauraki Plains has made us the leading district paper in the area we serve, and that to local people the name of the paper is a matter of little moment, but we can assure pui correspondents that to leading business apd public men. in Auckland and other places it certainly means much, and has to pur knowledge opened the eyes of more .than one of them to the real geographical position of Paeroa,! and to the fact that Paeroa has a great district developing adjacent to it—the finest in New Zealand. We want new and enterprising people here, and in order to attract them we should have a name which gives at least some slight indication of the existence of the Hauraki Plains on our county boundary. And in regard to old residents and what is good" enough for them, our correspondents may be interested to learn that a petition in favour of the name being changed is \ being taken around by one of the oldest—-if not the very oldest—residents of Paeroa, and from whom 1 the suggestion, it appears, first originated. The multiplicity of Komatas affords no analogy whatever, as there is not yet one town called Hjiuraki. There will! be, sooner or later. As to postal confu* •sion, there would be little or none ; the bald statements made at Turua

and elsewhere in this 'connexion be ing entirely foundationless. The changing pf the name would be an indication to the residents of the Plains that .the residents of Paeroa recognised the necessity of co-opera-tion with the Plains in all matters for .the common good.—Ed. Gazette.] Sir, —Your correspondent sighing himself “Interested,” is very flunny, if not interesting. He s.ays that “people who have an eye for more th.an the material side consider Paeroa rather, a pretty place, with the hills surrounding it.” I want to know whether this beauty exists in the beautiful hills and soil, i.e., the raa--terial Paeroa, or in the sense of beauty existing on “Interested’s” brain and optic nerves. What sort of an eye is required ftp “see more than the material side/* He also says we must. “get the spirit of those living in Waihi, Thames, Te Aroha, and Hamilton.” I understood tljat this was a “dry district” and that spirits were not allowed to be brought into it unless ’labelled, and limited in quantity: anyway, there is quite enough envy, malice, and greed here without going abqoad fjor* more, if that is what he means. I am as proud of Paeroa as he is, and I am prepared to back it against any of the places he names for “strenuous individualism,” to say nothing of “strenuous thirst.” But, seriously, why not strive to preserve and hand on to posterity the beautiful and expressive place names given to this country by the people we found in occupation .when we came in to corrupt them and their nomenclature.

INTERESTING.