Leave Well enough alone
Martin Doyle17/02/2010 11:07:00 a.m.
PITA Sharples has suggested a few wee changes.
And those changes might be coming to a land near you. And, if we don’t really mind, to a city near you as well. The co-leader of the Maori Party thinks it’s time for a new bilingual anthem. Also the national flag should be replaced. And while we’re at it, he says, we should rename the country. I just about choked on my porridge when I heard this. Not because I’m against change.
But I would have thought the name New Zealand is too old and too sacred to ever be ditched. We get the name from map publisher Joan Blaeu who in 1645 labelled our country Zeelandia Nova (in English, New Zealand) in one of his magnificent chart books.
This year makes 365 years since we were named. A year of years! So, instead of tossing it out like old garbage, why not celebrate it? After all, at 365 years, it is now one of the oldest national names in the world. As a name, it predates even the United States (1776).
The people of our country have been called New Zealanders for 365 years. In fact, ironically, Maori people themselves have been New Zealanders longer than they’ve been “Maori”.
Even in the 19th century, immigrants were more likely to call themselves “English” or “Irish” or “Chinese”. Maori people, on the other hand, were the New Zealanders. Trying to use correct Maori terminology, William Kendall published a language book in 1815 called He Korao no New Zealand.
Then in 1820, the Maori chief Hongi Hika and his nephew Waikato, as language consultants, went to Cambridge University in England and helped produce the Grammar and Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language. Note the name of the country.
Although people still sometimes disagree over the meaning of words in the Treaty of Waitangi, there’s one thing both the English and the Maori versions agree on: the name of the country. The English version says “New Zealand”; the Maori version says “Nu Tirani”.
But the key thing I want them to leave alone, in case they’re ever tempted, is the name of our fair city. Wellington is just fine as it is. It comes from the Duke of Wellington, who in turn got his title from the little Somerset town of Wellington (“the town of Wells”). And that little town, full of farmers and serfs, was already alive and well in the year 900. A “waella” in earlier times had meant a “spring” of life-sustaining water.
Although some people might think of Wellington as an alien, imposed, name, I think of it as a link with the rest of the world, and a verbal splash of fresh water. It’s part of our cultural well-being. So, in terms of Wellington, and for that matter New Zealand, I’d simply say: leave well enough alone.
And those changes might be coming to a land near you. And, if we don’t really mind, to a city near you as well. The co-leader of the Maori Party thinks it’s time for a new bilingual anthem. Also the national flag should be replaced. And while we’re at it, he says, we should rename the country. I just about choked on my porridge when I heard this. Not because I’m against change.
But I would have thought the name New Zealand is too old and too sacred to ever be ditched. We get the name from map publisher Joan Blaeu who in 1645 labelled our country Zeelandia Nova (in English, New Zealand) in one of his magnificent chart books.
This year makes 365 years since we were named. A year of years! So, instead of tossing it out like old garbage, why not celebrate it? After all, at 365 years, it is now one of the oldest national names in the world. As a name, it predates even the United States (1776).
The people of our country have been called New Zealanders for 365 years. In fact, ironically, Maori people themselves have been New Zealanders longer than they’ve been “Maori”.
Even in the 19th century, immigrants were more likely to call themselves “English” or “Irish” or “Chinese”. Maori people, on the other hand, were the New Zealanders. Trying to use correct Maori terminology, William Kendall published a language book in 1815 called He Korao no New Zealand.
Then in 1820, the Maori chief Hongi Hika and his nephew Waikato, as language consultants, went to Cambridge University in England and helped produce the Grammar and Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language. Note the name of the country.
Although people still sometimes disagree over the meaning of words in the Treaty of Waitangi, there’s one thing both the English and the Maori versions agree on: the name of the country. The English version says “New Zealand”; the Maori version says “Nu Tirani”.
But the key thing I want them to leave alone, in case they’re ever tempted, is the name of our fair city. Wellington is just fine as it is. It comes from the Duke of Wellington, who in turn got his title from the little Somerset town of Wellington (“the town of Wells”). And that little town, full of farmers and serfs, was already alive and well in the year 900. A “waella” in earlier times had meant a “spring” of life-sustaining water.
Although some people might think of Wellington as an alien, imposed, name, I think of it as a link with the rest of the world, and a verbal splash of fresh water. It’s part of our cultural well-being. So, in terms of Wellington, and for that matter New Zealand, I’d simply say: leave well enough alone.
