PUBLIC OPINION

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 67, 29 April 1953, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION

TAUPO DISTRICT WAR MEMORIAL HALL Sir,— Referring,% to the report in the Taupo Times of 22nd instant d ealing* with the Taupo District War Memorial Hall, and mere partieularly to your editorial sugg'estion as to the name or title for the said Hall, I must say that I am fully in accord with that suggestion. I think that | no more ntting- name than u Taupo - nui-a-tia" means literally that the name incorporates from the Maori point of view the whole of the Tu- ! wharetoa district. As a matter of ! fact, during the Queen Carnival ses~ sion three years ago, I asked, after it had been made known that the Maori Queen had topped the poi]., whether I could suggest ari appropi'iate name from the Maori view point for the Hall, and the first name that came to my mind was "Taupo-nui-a-tia," and I made that suggestion accordingly. Tia was really our original Maori ancestor who came in the early history of Taupo, and made claim to the whole J Taupo Country, and the name ^Taupo- 1 mii-i-tia^ means literally that the whole of Taupo was his. The name is also one which covers the whole of the Taupo Country from the pakeha view point. Therefore, if the Town Board, the R.S.A., and the War Memorial Committee consicier the ahove name to be fitting, I feel sur'e our Maori people would fully endorse their choice. I am, etc., ARTHUR GRACE. Taupo, 24/4/53. j