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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 6 (September 1, 1937.)

Don't Want to Lose It

Don't Want to Lose It.

There is a curious reluctance in Poverty Bay to make away with that ill-omened name and replace it with something more truthfully descriptive of the district. Some amusing reasons for hanging on to the absurd name have been put forth in Gisborne and further north. One resident thought that the words “Poverty Bay” held “great possibilities” as an advertisement for the place. The contrast between name and facts would attract widespread attention. Too true, but not in the way that the speaker imagined!

A Maori of the young generation said that to change it would be “an insult to the great navigator” who christened the Bay. This point of view is decidedly humorous, coming from a Maori whose district was so libelled by Cook because, in the language of the restarurant, “veges” were off the day he called.

The rest of New Zealand wonders why P.B. declines to shuffle out of its threadbare garment and choose a new dress name that will fittingly indicate its history and describe its fertility and wealth. Gisborne and the country around it are looking forward to railway connections with the rest of the world. But what does a “Poverty Bay” want with a railway? That is a pertinent question that could be put to the princes of commerce and the kings of the milking herds and the sheep flocks of that good country.

“Endeavour Bay” is hereby once more offered as a fitting name for the Turanga-nui-a-Rua—the Maori name of the place (which is not suitable as an official name, because it might be confused with Tauranga). There is already an Endeavour Bay, in Queen Charlotte Sound, but the historic title could quite well be transferred from that uninhabited cove to Gisborne's roadstead, which has a prior right to it. Really, Turanga-nui does not deserve to have its railway until it has plainly indicated to the world that Poverty is no longer endurable as its first name!

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In the Nursery—Wellington New Station.(Rly. Publicity Photo.) From top left: The Minister of Railways, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, speaking at the opening ceremony; in the background is Mr. G. H. Mackley, General Manager of Railways, and on the left, Misis Small, the Matron. Barrie Nicol, the first client in the playroom, tries out the new equipment. A young visitor stays to ten. The gateway and corridor to the Nursery. The Matron, Miss G. Small, at her desk. A view of the modern kitchen. Views of the two sleeping rooms.

In the Nursery—Wellington New Station.
(Rly. Publicity Photo.)
From top left: The Minister of Railways, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, speaking at the opening ceremony; in the background is Mr. G. H. Mackley, General Manager of Railways, and on the left, Misis Small, the Matron. Barrie Nicol, the first client in the playroom, tries out the new equipment. A young visitor stays to ten. The gateway and corridor to the Nursery. The Matron, Miss G. Small, at her desk. A view of the modern kitchen. Views of the two sleeping rooms.

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