About five years ago the Whakatane District Council sought advice from Ngati Awa for a street name in a new subdivision and have finally been presented with Papakangahorohoro Rd, which is based on the traditional name for the area being built on.
The developers claimed that this rather mellifluous name was too long and impractical, asking for Acacia Ave instead.
Recently the council agreed and the name of the plant (not native to New Zealand and perhaps not even growing in the area) will now go up on the street sign.
A bit sad, really, as I kind of like Papakangahorohoro Rd. Mainly because, unlike Acacia Ave, it’s entirely free from real estate schmaltz.
Another nice word, schmaltz. It means something that is very sappy or sentimental.
Of course, Papakangahorohoro Rd would not have pleased everyone. Long Maori words as place names have never had a good innings.
As long ago as 1902, Mr T. Prosser was writing to the Auckland papers with a gripe about Karangahape Rd: "The name has no historical history, is difficult to pronounce and at best is an ugly word."
"It is highly desirable for many good reasons that street names should be of not more than one syllable, as it is more concise and appreciable in business communications."
Of course, Mr Prosser lived in a time when it was unfashionable to admit that Maori words actually meant anything, but these days every Aucklander knows that Karangahape refers to "the place where Hape himself called out to people a karanga or greeting".
The problem was solved, not by following Mr Prosser’s suggestion that the road be renamed King St in honour of the approaching coronation of Edward VII, but by simply calling it "K Road", the name still in common use by the more culturally insensitive of the great unwashed.
You may have guessed that I have a fascination for street names and the stories behind them. Do you have a similar curiosity about the street you live in?
As a boy in Timaru I lived in Trafalgar St and rightly assumed it was named after a naval battle. (You could see Caroline Bay from our house.)
The street was named in 1908 but there were two families with long connections with the area — the Harts and the Coopers.
The borough council decided a neutral name would smooth things over and Trafalgar got the nod.
A small side street nearby was given Hart. About 15 years earlier the mayor had proclaimed, "there is not much in street names; the simpler they are the better, and nothing can be simpler than single letters of the alphabet".
The town had already named some streets after letters of the alphabet but, thankfully, this grotesque American practice was soon stopped.
In Dunedin the fetish for using Edinburgh street names continued until fairly recent times and street naming was rarely contentious.
Of course, some changes were made. Gaol St was discarded in favour of Dunbar St and Walker St, synonymous with the "Devil’s Acre", became Carroll St to appease those residents who were not brothel-keepers or opium den operators.
World War 1 led to erasing German names and Brunswick St was to become Wordsworth St, but Thomas Smith wrote to the council suggesting Loyalty St instead of Wordsworth.
It would reflect the sacrifices made by the many young men from the area who volunteered for war service.
Modern street naming has included the clumsy practice of using the full name of a local notable so that something like Montague Chortlehouse Ave may well be your address.
Trouble is that years later we may find that Montague, a progressive mayor in his time, was also tickling the till and groping the typists during his days on the council.
Looks like we’ve come to the end of the road and there’s no room just now for more street stories.
Of course, as a Unesco City of Literature, Dunedin should be awash with streets named after great writers.
There’s already a short, nondescript Sullivan Ave in South Dunedin but it’s named for Labour politician Dan Sullivan so I’ve missed my chance.
Wellington and Timaru already have published street histories and the late George Griffiths once told me he was compiling such a publication for Dunedin.
It is to be hoped the manuscript is safe in some local archive or library and that it may yet hit the road in book form.
— Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.
