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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 10 (January 1, 1936)

Ngaurukehu:

Ngaurukehu:

Nga=the (plural); urukehu=reddish hair, fair-haired people.

Taihape:

Originally Otaihape, the home or place of Taihape. The word taihape means an elbow or angle; hape=crooked.

Utiku:

This is a curious name, with a story. Utiku is a Bible name, Eutychus; for the origin we have to go a long way, to Troas, in Asia Minor, and far back in time, too, into the days of the Apostles. For Eutychus, see Acts of the Apostles, chap. 20, v. 9, the story of perhaps the longest sermon on record. St. Paul exhorted the disciples all day at Troas, and continued till midnight, with painful consequences to the young man named Eutychus, who fell asleep and downstairs. And in our pioneer days there lived in the Upper Rangitikei district a Maori chief named Potaka (which means spinning-top). He lived at Rata and Mangaweka; he leased his bushlands to the early white settlers, he built a sawmill, and he was in one way and another an enterprising man, of influence and some wealth. When he came under missionary influence in his early life he chose “Utiku” from the New Testament translation as his Christian name. So we have the place-names Utiku and Potaka in the Rangitikei country to-day. Probably the sound of Utiku took his fancy when he was given his choice of baptismal names by the missionary. (Note: The name is pronounced “Oo-tee-koo.”). The original name of the place was Kaikoura, meaning a meal of crayfish.

Mangaweka:

Originally Manga-te-weka. A stream (manga) where the weka or woodhen was found. The pioneer pakeha name of the bush settlement here, on the terrace above the Rangitikei River, was “Three Log Whare.”

Rata:

The tree Metrosideros robusta, plentiful here.

Porewa:

Various meanings—giddy, or stupefied; mad, stupid. Pourewa=Tower or elevated platform at one of the angles of a stockaded pa.