Lower Hutt, Petone

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 3, 6 August 1908, Page 22

Lower Hutt, Petone

According to the Wellington Post, the chief obstacle to the amalgamation of the adjoining boroughs of Petone and Lower Hutt is the choice of a new name to designate the ' amalgam.' The Post suggests ' Britannia * —the old name of Wellington — the name also applied (it appears) to Peton«. JBut (adds our Wellington contemporary) 'if Britannia is considered too pretentious, the people might be satisfied with Huttone oWPuttohe, or some other compound which would take into account the -susceptibilities of burgesses in each borough.' • . * * - ." A suitable compromise might, be- arrived at by ~ slicing up the syllables of the names Petone and Lower-,Hutt, dropping' them separately into a hat, and drawing them out until a sound-combination of (say) th"ree or four syllables has been found - sufficiently mellifluous to satisfy the ears of a committee of selection. Or a compromise mightbe effected on'tfie lines of one that once upon-a time ended a name-storm" in one of western ' States of America. Two little mining townships had crept together under a big spur of the Rockies. " They decided to amalgamate ; but (as in the case of Petone. and Lower Hutt) the chief difficulty lay in the choice" of a new name. The mayors of the two townships were finally appointed a committee of selection. One of them insisted on giving the united townships the name of Tipperary—the' county from-which he and many of the inhabitants had come; the other mayor (a Hebrew who owned practically' every rood of. his particular township) insisted on the designation Jerusalem.. The upshot of sundry warm mayoral interchanges was a compromise, and the united township was named—Tipjerusalcm! We dedicate this bit of veracious history to the mayors and burgesses of Petone and Lower Hutt.