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With regard to the meanings of the Maori words and names, Mr. Tregear, the Maori scholar and compiler of the Standard Maori Dictionary says:
“With very great diffidence I supply some meanings of place-names, because for many, (indeed most) different meanings are given by different scholars—and even with the Maoris themselves the meanings they give are often mere guesses unless the original legend of the naming has been preserved by tradition.
Some I do not attempt. The name as written by white men according to their defective hearing is uncorrected, because there are sometimes no resident Maoris alive. In other cases I have corrected the spelling. You can rely on my spelling so far as the word is really known.”
- 1. Ao-tea-roa.—“The long white world.”
- 1A. Mana-pouri—very doubtful. Believed to be properly Manawa-pouri—“sorrowful heart.”
- 2. Should be Tena-koe—a salutation. “That's you!” as we say “Hillo! That you!”
- 3. Ana-winiwini.—“The cave of the Spider-god.”
- 4. Taumarunui—Named after an old chief of same name; “The alighting place of great Mara” (a god).
- 5. Te Aroha—“Love” (or Compassion or Mercy).
- 6. Poi—“A round ball,” also a dance wherein balls are used.
- 7. Haka—A song-dance; (the feet are not moved but body and hands only, usually)
- 8. Whare—“A house”; a native house.
- 9. Rangitoto—This has been generally translated “bloody sky,” but rangitoto is a general name for obsidian or volcanic glass.
- 10. Tapu—“Prohibited,” that is either because sacred or defiling.
- 11. Pa—“a fort.”
- 12. Kainga—a temporary abode. Literally “eating-place.”
- 13. Ohinemutu—(The place) “of the Dumb Girl.”
- 14. Rotorua, properly “Roto-o-Rua.” “Lake of Rua.” Rua was a giant chief who came with the Arawa canoe in the Great Migration hither, about the time of the Crusades in Europe.
- 15. Roto-iti—“The little lake.”
- 16. Whaka-rewarewa—“That which causes to float.”
- 17. Tangi—A song of mourning; a time or occasion of wailing for the dead.
- 18. Wai-o-tapu—“Water of prohibition” (or sacredness).
- 19. Wai-rakei—“Water of adornment,” probably some pool used as a mirror.
- 20. Wai-mangu—“Black-water.”
- 21. Tara-wera—“The hot mountain-peak.”
- 22. Taupo—A kind of Native mat said by Maoris to be called in full Taupo nui a Tia, “The great mat of Tia,” who was its discoverer.
- 23. Wai-roa—“Long River.”
- 24. Nga-uru-hoe.
- 25. Wai-o-ru—“River of the Earthquake God.”
- 26. Roto-mahana—“Hot Lake.”
- 27. Mokoia—
- 28. Aorangi—“Cloud in the sky.”
- 29. Taranaki—“Sloping mountain-peak.”
- 30. Kia whiti tonu te Ra ki runga ki a koe—(May the sun shine on you for ever).
EDWARD TREGEAR.
