New Zealand Place Names.

Mr. Johannes C. Andersen writes on the subject of New Zealand place names, referred to by “Tangiwai” in a note in last month's “New Zealand Railways Magazine.” He objects to “Tangiwai's” criticism of the Geographic Board's ruling regarding the form of such names as Riley's Lookout. The Board proposes to drop the apostrophe and make it Rileys Lookout, Devils Punchbowl, and so on. It is a natural trend of language. The Board favours, also, the dropping of the possessive “s” in many name where the possessive is now used; the idea is to obtain some sort of uniformity. Mr. Andersen urges that newspaper people especially should adopt the rule; the public generally would do the same, and so the change would soon come about. The Board was not trying to be arbitrary at all but only to be uniform and systematic.

On the other hand, “Tangiwai,” to whom Mr. Andersen's letter was referred for his comments, contends that there should be no interference with the present written form of place-names sanctioned by long usage, correct spelling, and euphony. The deletion of the apostrophe would displease the eye and also in some cases obscure the original meaning. Exact uniformity is not practicable. No good reason has been shown for any alteration in such names as Riley's Look-out, Arthur's Pass (which was fixed as written very nearly seventy years ago by the Canterbury survey authorities), and other well-known names. “Tangiwai” also considers that before the Geographic Board decides to make alterations in place-names it should make its proposals public in the form of suggestions so that the mooted changes could be discussed by all those interested in this subject of place nomenclature. Generally, the Board has done very excellent work in recording and correcting place-names throughout the Dominion, but the cause of accuracy would be advanced in some cases by consulting the public.