More NZ place names that don’t officially exist

The most preposterous aspect of the W(h)anganui wrangle was the contentiously composed Geographic Board’s ruling that Wanganui doesn’t exist. Not officially.

Or rather (more ominously) it does not exist officially under the board’s legislation.

In other words, as Alf observed at the time, Wanganui was illegitimate.

The board set about legitimising things by putting in the “h” as demanded by local Maori.

Geographic Board chairman Don Grant was quoted as saying:

”Wanganui, the name given to the town to reflect its position near the mouth of the Whanganui river, was spelt incorrectly and has never been formally gazetted by this Board or its predecessors.

”It is therefore not currently an official New Zealand place name.”

Got a naming dispute? Give it to a mountaineer

A superbug is taking hold of our community, higher electricity prices are on the cards – and in Auckland, two groups are wrangling over the name of a railway station.

One of two lobbies inevitably will be disappointed by the outcome. The common-sense solution, therefore, is to toss a coin.

But no, the bloody-minded Aucklanders have become party to a procedure that will consume time and resources before we are told from on high if the bloody railway station should be called Khyber Pass or Grafton.