Mask of Language

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 626, 1 April 1929, Page 8

Mask of Language

Maori Names for City Streets

STUDENTS in Maori language are given a wide tie Id of thought by members of the Works Committee of t lie City Council, which lias brought down a terrifying schedule of street names to replace duplications in the eity am suburbs. Some of them will not please fastidious resiamts, j but others—picturesque and soft-sounding should gi' * | some of the outer districts added attributes of charm.

| an attempt was made some time ago to straighten up the j tangle of duplicated street names in Auckland, complaint was made at the council table that insufficient consideration was given to the Maori language. “Why can we not have Maori names?” councillors asked.

I appropriate and picturesque, a ‘ ! '| i typify the quiet solitude of the tidal | estuary—Puroto (meaning still water), ■ for Kitchener Road, Taimatai (meani ing slack water) for Seaview Road I and Takutai (coast or beach) for Marine Terrace. ! Other suburbs will greet with pleaI sure the soft, soothing names of Ra-1-angi (blow gently), Mahara (memory), \ Marangai (east wind), Parakai (wind j from the north, Rangamarie (peaeej ful), and Te Atatu (break of day), but | what will the people of Willow Street, | Tamaki, think when their locality is | changed to Hake, meaning crooked: ; and when Edwards Street is altered to Matopo, meaning blind? SIGNIFICANT TITLES There is worse to come for yet un- : apportioned street, Hanganoa, which I signifies “of no account,” is one. Ha- | parangi, inferring to shout or to bawl, I doubtless will be tacked to a thickly I populated juvenile community; Kiriwhero, signifying a florid complexion, could not be placed in a no-licence electorate, while Hemekai. conveying “hungry,” might not he acceptable I even in the poorer districts of the city. | Yet the imagination cannot overlook I the picturesque origin which must have attended the names Pikea, a j house without a verandah. Pahure. [ come into sight, Tupaki. fair without I rain, Rangi, sky or heaven, and Wai- ! rua, shadows. The title Watawata is [ applicable more to some of Auckland’s | houses than to its streets, because it | means “full of holes.” j The council committee has not confined itself to Maori names, however, and in its endeavour to satisfy the universal taste, has delved into history, and dragged to light the names of early traders, early battles, early soldiers, early ships and early Maori massacres. BACK TO EARLY HISTORY Why not St. Barbara Street, they suggest, for St. Barbara was the patron saint of artillery? Or what is wrong with Archimedes who, scholars will recall, was a Greek geometrician in 257 8.C.? Then there is Blonde!, who was servant to Richard 1., Cardinal Beaufort, a half-brother to Henry IV., and Sir Captain Bathurst, who, they say. was an authority on agriculture. A long list of overseas towns includes English. Scottish, Welsh. American, French, South African, Portuguese, Indian and Australian. Irish names are among the few not mentioned—a fact which suggests that certain councillors not consulted in the compilation. When this list was considered by the council on Thursday evening, a plea, advanced more in the nature of a despairing cry, was made by Cr. T. Bloodworth on behalf of bewildered residents. “We should let these people know what is threatening them,” he admonished, as he confessed that, so far as the Maori names were concerned, he could not 1 pronounce half of them—let alone understand their meaning. No seriotts objection was raised to the list, however, and the suggestions of the committee were adopted. The amount of mental effort involved in the change-over, and the amount of money to be spent in postage stamps in notifying friends of the alteration, is a calculation for another treatise.

as *Kf fit as * & as &*asas ** * & The Works Committee has remedied any suggested deficiency on this occasion and, with patriotic gesture, has given the council a list of something like 500 names—mostly Maori, but partly historical. “We were torn to ribbons by the Maori scholars around this table when we recommended a list of English names some time ago,” Cr. J. Dempsey, chairman of the committee, said in satisfied tones as he tabled the report on Thursday evening last. The suggested names certainly should satisfy the cravings of every Maori linguist on the council and off it, for every season of the year, every point of the compass, every state of the weather, and almost every class of vegetation is represented in it, while mental emotions and physical- exertion are liberally considered, and fish and bird life by no means overlooked. The amalgamation of Tamaki and Avondale with the city has complicated the problem of duplicated street names, for these outer districts are now found to possess titles similar to those held by prominent city thoroughfares. In the nearer suburbs, too, confusing duplications are revealed which must have been giving trouhlb to postmen. Even so, it is doubtful whether the suggestion to change the name of Albert Street, Avondale, to Muriwai, which means Backwater, will be greeted with universal approval. Other Avondale names are singularly