A Wanaka Community Board member has questioned why new streets in a Wanaka sub-division should be given Maori names.
Carrick Jones questioned whether Maori street names should be used for a proposed subdivision in Wanaka "because they're too hard to pronounce".
As he and fellow board members deliberated whether to approve 16 street names for a proposed subdivision in the Kirimoko Block, near Plantation Forest, Mr Jones asked, "It's a delicate matter, but do they all have to be in Maori?"
Mr Jones said he "and many of my associates" had trouble with the pronunciation of Maori words.
He wondered whether some of the streets, named after native plants and birds such as the takahe, kereru, kakapo, and pukeko, could instead have English names.
"I would understand it if we were in the far north, where there is a sizeable population of Maori, but that's not the case here [in Wanaka]," he said.
Board member Jude Battson, of Lake Hawea, advised Mr Jones to avail himself of free te reo Maori classes scheduled to start at a night school in Wanaka next week, to educate himself about Maori pronunciation.
Community board chairman Lyal Cocks said subdivisions "all around New Zealand" had Maori names and there was nothing "delicate about the matter at all" when naming Wanaka streets.
The board approved the 16 proposed street names, despite Mr Jones' protestations.
