Some Rotorua Place-Names.

The shores of Lake Rotorua, especially old Ohinemutu and its neighbourhood, and the Government Sanatorium Grounds and park, abound in spots of historic import in the unwritten annals of the Lake people. Every spring, every little stretch of beach, has its place-name and its story. As examples of the interesting character of the place-names about here I note a few, given me by the warrior chief Kiharoa and others of the now-vanished old generation.

Tiritiri-matangi, the main street from the Rotorua Post Office to the Palace Hotel, was a kumara plantation. The name originated thus: When a kumara plot was levelled and dug up, and the earth heaped up in little mounds, a hole was made in each mound for the seed-kumara and a twig stuck there (tiritiri). It was inclined to the north or north-east, the place of the longest sunshine; and when the tubers were planted they were placed in this position to face the direction of the matangi, the warm northeast breeze. Tiritiri-matangi is also the name for one of the Maori heavens, of which there were ten in native mythology. Tiritiri, the lighthouse island outside the entrance to Auckland, is in full Tiritiri-matangi, and was so named over five centuries ago.

Whanga-pipiro is the name of the hot springs which supplies the Rachel Bath in the Sanatorium Grounds. The name refers to the strong smell of the sulphurous waters. It is a deep everboiling well, once a geyser. When its steam column was seen rising up on calm still days, the Maoris, observant of the spirals and convolutions, called it “Te Roro-o-te-Rangi”—“The Brains of the Sky.”