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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 12 (March 1, 1937)

The Wisdom of the Maori — Stories in Place Names

page 34

The Wisdom of the Maori

Stories in Place Names.

In previous numbers of the “Railways Magazine,” many Maori place names throughout New Zealand have been explained on this page and stories of the origins of the names have been given. It was not always easy to ascertain the circumstances under which names well-known to-day, were given to localities, for not every Maori knows the origins of the place nomenclature in his district. The knowledge, as I have found from experience, is often preserved only by one or two old men or women in a community and it is now liable to be lost so far as the younger generation is concerned, except for the data that a few of us have placed on record.

The collecting of place names and their sources and meanings yielded me many little stories, many songs, and many sidelights on the customs and beliefs of the olden Maori. The shores of Rotorua and other lakes, were rich in anecdotes and nature lore, and it was unusually interesting to search out the original names of places now made familiar to tourists under modern English names.

Rotorua Government Spa Names.

The following are a few examples, as explained by elders of the Arawa, with whom I walked around the places mentioned and discussed their history.

The name of the famous Priest's Bath in the Rotorua Spa gardens is Te Pupunitanga, which means “The Ambuscade.” It derives its name from an incident in the cannibal wars of old Rotorua. A battle was fought close to this spot four hundred years ago between the descendants of the chief Tu-o-Rotorua and the tribe Ngati-Tama-ihu-toroa. The cause of the trouble, according to local tradition, was the killing by Ngati-Tama of Kataore, the monster ngarara, or taniwha (perhaps a pet tuatara!) belonging to the chief Tangaroa-mihi, of Lake Tikitapu.

The Children of Tu lay in ambush for their foes in the green manuka scrub close to the hot spring, and at the appointed moment they threw themselves upon the Ngati-Tama war-party in an irresistible onslaught. The name given to this fight by the victors was “Te Wai whiti inanga” (“The waters of jumping whitebait”), because, said the old tattooed warrior, Kiharoa, of the appearance of the lakeside battlefield, covered with quivering and writhing heaps of men, like so many whitebait (inanga) struggling in a net.

Along the Lake Shore.

Te Toto (“The Place of Blood”), a pretty spot in the Government Grounds, now bears a much pleasanter name, Picnic Point. It is a shady retreat, close to a chain of shallow ponds near the lake shore. Arawa traditions tell of a battle which was fought here in the long ago between Ngati-Whakaue, the dominant tribe of Lakeland, and Ngati-Uenukukopako, another important local clan.

Te Paepae-Hakumanu (“The Place of Bird-snares”) is on the Rotorua shore at Picnic Point. Here, in former times, the Maoris set their snares of flax and cabbage-tree fibre loops to catch the birds that abounded in the manuka thickets and the wild ducks and teal on the marshy foreshore.

Little Drowned Islands.

Out in Rotorua Lake in the shallow bay on the eastern side of Sulphur Point (Motu-tara) there is a green-tufted islet peeping from the surface of the water a few hundred yards from the shore. That tiny isle is all that remains to mark the site of a sunken pa called Timanga. It was an island village, surrounded by a palisade, in the olden times, but the land subsided. Nearby is another nearly submerged islet called Motu-tere (“Floating Island”). Like Timanga it subsided during the last half-century or so, and was denuded until now it is a patch of pumice sand, with a few scrubby bushes of manuka, elevated only a foot or two above the level of the lake. Timanga belonged to the clan Ngati-Korouateka. Motu-tere, with its thickets of manuka, was a secure hiding-place for its owners. The last man who lived there was the chief, Te Pukuatua; he dwelt in a little whará on the bushy islet during the days of the Maori wars, 1864–70.

Motu-Tara Point was so named because there was an islet there frequented by the little grey lake gull, the tara-punga.

Memories of the Hero Hatupatu.

The stories gathered as I explored those places showed that there had been a general subsidence of the land along the southern side of Rotorua. On the end of Motu-tara Point is a marshy tract which was once well above the lake level and was occupied as a kainga. On the landward side the hamlet was fortified by a trench and breastwork that I traced in the tangled vegetation. The name of this old village was “Te Kauanga-a-Hatupatu,” “The Swimming of Hatupatu.” The legend went that this semi-defied ancestor, on escaping from the clutches of the forest-ogre Kura-ngaituku, dived into the lake here and swam under the surface until he reached Mokoia Island.

Oruawhata, where the Government Sanatorium stands, was so named because Hatu’ divested himself of his garments there and hung them up on a tree, so making a whata (tree-storehouse) of it, preparatory to his herculean dive. Oruawhata is the general name of the place where the bath buildings stand in the Government Gardens.

page 35
(Rly. Publicity photo.) Pretty homes in Eltham.

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Pretty homes in Eltham.

we give you the flavour of this sister garden town, where, in one place, a row of pretty homes abut on the spacious tennis courts and sit, as it were, on the same spread of green turf.

Here we came to the Renco Factory and (as my friend with the camera said), “began to see life.” Here is an industry which supplies, annually, the rennet and cheese colour for 100,000 tons of cheese. Here is the largest rennet factory in the British Empire. I had a dim notion that our factories used our own make of rennet, but I did not know that the ratio was 95%. It should be 100% of course. The local product wins all the prizes and the vells from which it is made are prepared under the supervision of our own Government. They are in quantity enough to supply Australia and New Zealand. The factory is entirely modern, as our illustrations show, and contracts are now let for the erection of extensions to the laboratory which will enable it to be used for research work.

However, the newsy part of our investigation report is the discovery of “Birthday Renco,” and every New Zealand housewife should learn about this at once. “Renco” is made up in six flavours, lemon, orange, raspberry, vanilla, greengage and passion fruit. I made a junket coloured and flavoured, when I got home—and I have no references as a cook. I can visualise the day when thousands of cases of this delectable product go overseas.

In case I seemed to have spent too much time on this important factor, I remember that industries founded on our own primary production, are necessarily sound. Where a factory is carried on in such a place as Eltham, the operatives have surroundings that are ideal and conditions that are fruitful of human happiness. Here is an object wholly worthy of our collective and enthusiastic support.

We took the pretty lakelet at the Ngaere Gardens on our short journey of six miles to our northern boundary town, Stratford. It has a Broadway and it is a noble main street.

This important railway junction has almost an air of stateliness. Its buildings are most imposing and very uniform. On our day there Broadway was massed with motor cars as if for a motor ghymkhana; but it was an everyday occurence.

The railway station at Stratford is a scene of bustle and activity. Here the cross country trunk railway meets the southern route after traversing the middle of the Island. This will always be a factor in the progress of Stratford. Here, by the way, too, is a large
(Rly. Publicity photo.) Municipal offices and Turi's canoe, Patea.

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Municipal offices and Turi's canoe, Patea.

commercial apiary making the town the honey centre of this part of the world.

The parks in Stratford are instances again of the use of perfect aesthetic taste. The King Edward Park has preserved masses of native bush, and the winding Patea river finds its picturesque way about like a lovely bush creek.

Stratford is at an altitude of over a thousand feet, and the clear air gives Mount Egmont an added nearness and majesty. The citizens have made a wonderful road up to the Plateau on the northern-looking shoulder of the mountain and the drive up there and the view obtainable will make memories for the most jaded sight-seer.

Roads radiate everywhere from Stratford, and we took one to go and see the little sisters, Kaponga, and then Manaia.

They are simply smaller editions of their neighbours, possessing the same basic amenities such as water supply, drainage, theatres, electric light and so on.

Once more let me say this; these achievements of British folk, strictly adhering to the best of British traditions, are only fitting and proper when we remember whence we are sprung. I pause to say that in these towns I noticed an extraordinary standard of civic management, contributed to largely by the selfless public spirit displayed by their civic leaders. How lucky is the Dominion in its possession of these men of devotion, experience and zeal who tend the affairs of civic administration so unremittingly.

The lustre of this galaxy of South Taranaki towns can be safely left in the hands of their dwellers. They have brought it to its present glory and it will wax and never wane.