Over the Range to Westland.

Changing the venue of our place-names discussion to the South Island, some localities on the alpine railway route to the West Coast come under review. The meaning of the name Otira is often the subject of enquiry. It is never advisable for those seeking translation of a place-name to go to the Maori dictionary and worry out an interpretation of a sort by process of dissection. Local enquiry, if possible, is desirable wherever the meaning is not obvious. When I investigated this branch of native lore on the West Coast many years ago, I found two or three of the old Maoris of Ngai-Tahu at the Arahura village well-informed as to the origin of many place-names, and they quoted legends and songs in support or explanation thereof. Otira means, in brief, food for a journey. “O” is a term for food, but has a specific application in this case, signifying a portion or ration prepared for a “tira” or travelling party. The name originally was applied to the lower part of the Otira stream, not the alpine gorge where it goes plunging down to the bush and the plain. Parties of travellers about to make their way over the mountains to the eastern side of the island would often camp there in order to make provision for their high crossing by catching birds in the bush and eels and the little fish upokororo in the creeks. Their usual route from there was over the Hurunui saddle to the north of the Otira, but it is possible that some venturesome explorers also found the Otira pass. The other route chiefly used was the pass discovered by Raureka (Browning's Pass), reached usually from Lake Kanieri.

The Maori name of Lake Brunner is Te Kotuku-whakaoka, which means “The Darting White Heron.” It refers to the fishing habit of that beautiful and now very rare bird, as it stood on the rushy margin of the lake, waiting to transfix an eel with its sharp beak. “Whakaoka” literally means to stab.

“When I heard they were growing and manufacturing tobacco in New Zealand,” writes Mr. Jas. Scatter-good, a retired wholesale tobacco dealer, in a London trade journal, “I was not keenly interested, concluding that probably the stuff wasn't worth smoking. But last year, when I visited New Zealand to see my married daughter, I found to my surprise that the New Zealand toasted tobacco had actually become a serious rival to the imported article!—and that it is not only of superfine quality but that thanks to the small amount of nicotine in it, it may be smoked ad, lib, without a particle of harm resulting to the smoker. After 50 years in the trade I can say unhesitatingly that I know of no other tobacco like this.” Well, Mr. Scatter-good there is no other tobacco like it! It is unique. And the four toasted brands, Riverhead Gold, Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cavendish, and Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), are as well-known as Mount Cook. The comparative absence of nicotine in them (eliminated by toasting) is the secret of their harmlessness.*

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