Some Place Names.

A Book could be written on the poetry, romance, adventure and exploration embodied in the Maori place-names in New Zealand. Indeed I have at hand the material for such a book, gathered in many years of enquiry all over the country, from the Far North to Stewart Island. The subject, of course, is full of pitfalls. It is amusing to notice the amazing meanings given to placenames by some people who accept hearsay versions. One of the commonest perversions concerns Aorangi, our alpine king-peak. Someone once alleged that the name meant “cloud piercer,” and that mistranslation is still, on occasion, seen in print. The name really signifies the bright light of heaven, or say, Shining Cloud. It can be construed in several ways, bearing in mind the idea that the Maoris may have so named it when they observed its summit glowing in the sun in the early morning and late evening when all the lower peaks lay in gloom. But there is no reference to “piercing” in the name.

It must be remembered that many of our map names were originally those of places in Polynesia, brought here by the early canoe voyagers and bestowed on the new land, just as the pakeha pioneer imported many of the names of his Northern page 58 page 59 birthland. There is, be it noted, a Mt. Aorangi (Aora'i) in the island of Tahiti; and some of the old South Island Maoris told me that a chief named Aorangi arrived from. Tahiti in the canoe Arai-teuru, at Moeraki; that was six centuries ago, or more. It was said, moreover, that his name was given to the highest mountain of the Southern Alps. That may have been; but at any rate the literal meaning fits the glorious peak.