I bought my first industrial building way back in 1963 and since then estimate I’ve owned about a thousand or so across New Zealand, but mainly in Australia.
Back in the early 1960s the Aussies used to dismissively refer to them as sheds but soon abandoned that as the market grew and as here, described them as warehouses or factories, depending on their use.
That’s now gone in line with commercial real estate agents appetite for grandiose language. Now the warehouses have become the absurd “logistics centres”.
This language rot has spread to The Sydney Morning Herald which no longer refers to itself as a newspaper but instead, as a “Masthead”. It’s a pretty good newspaper but plainly in need of some serious ear-boxing with its personnel responsible for this embarrassment.
But when it comes to language abuse our Tasman neighbours are mere babes in arms compared to New Zealand.
I refer of course to the use of maori to describe everything, including endless entities for which there was no maori equivalent, such as say the Reserve Bank and the like. The worst maori abuse however is demanding name changes for long established European built cities.
When about 20 or so years back those bullshit artists demanded Wanganui, Wakatane and Wangarei become Whanganui, Whakatane, Whangarei and pronounced Fonganui etc. THEY SIMPLY MADE THIS UP.
I say that as there were three Maori/English dictionaries written in the 19th Century. All made the observation that there was no “F” sound in maori, or indeed any Polynesian language other than Samoan where it’s unique to them. But everyone went cowardly along with this crap.
The latest attempt to change a place-name is Petone. A bullshit maori lobbyist group is demanding it now become “Pit-One”.
This is nonsense which they simply made up, Petone was of course the site of Wakefield’s first organised colony in New Zealand.
The settlers pronounced it as the relatively few maoris in the Valley back in 1840 did, namely PETONE. They had no interest in doing otherwise. But I expect the soppy City Council led by a bearded former non-descript government clerk, will fall into line and do as bid.
This patronising rubbish must stop. Cease using maori names for not just the Reserve Bank but the Health Department, Foreign Affairs and indeed all government departments, not one of which had a pre-European equivalent entity.
And finally, let’s get back to correct grammar and instead of “Health New Zealand”, revert to “The Health Department”.
It’s an extraordinary and possibly unique to New Zealand curiosity, that every change of government in the post-war year has seen an expensive and unnecessary re-naming of many government departments, without rhyme or reasons justifying this. This practise is a classic case of spending other people’s money.
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One thing I love about Singapore, is that even though 80% of the population is Chinese, the language of government is English, with every government department sensibly named according to its actual function.
The bigger your budget, the bigger your salary. The bigger the waste, the bigger your budget!
Simple economics of the no longer “civil” service.
The “traditional owners” of NZ had no written language until Europeans arrived and recorded their spoken language in print. Therefore quibbles about spelling are irrelevant and a risible attempt by those with too much time on their hands to virtue signal their supposedly progressive ideology for the sake of it. Find something more useful and productive to focus your energy on, youthful “activist” types, such as boosting school attendance and discouraging criminal activity driven by the recruitment criteria for gang membership.
Port Nicholson was it’s original name, to Poneke.
Absurdly Saint John is now becoming Hato Hone. “Hone” is bastardisation of John.
You are right about St John. A person called me about why I had stopped donating to St John, and I said as long as I can remember the name has been St John. Why has the name changed to include the word Hato . Answer . The name change is to reflect societal change, what ever that means. I said that I had stopped donations when I realised the Maori names on the ambulances must be reflective of their funding to you. No it is not related to funding I was told. I said Could you please advise me how much Maori Funding you get in comparison to Non Maori funding so I know whether my contributions should restart as you are requesting . Answer this is commercially sensitive information that we cannot divulge. JUST B____ S___
I agree 110% Sir Bob
Sir Bob, this rot has spread to the South Island as well. Lake Wakatipu will have its ‘missing’ “h” (restored) in the not too distant future.
Quite ironic really given that a stamp in the 1898 NZ pictorial stamp issue had that lakes name incorrectly spelled as “Wakitipu” and it was subsequently reissued with “Wakatipu”. No mention of the missing “h” then.
Excellent comment Sir Bob. You may have seen that the Geographic Board have now passed the task to the Hon Chris Penk to decide the Pito-One nonsense. It’s sickening that the Hutt City Council has endorsed this proposal – not by virtue of a mandate from the ratepayers, whom I’m picking the majority would oppose, but from their own self-determined ‘partnership’ with local mana whenua. You ultimate sentence, nails it!
We should adopt the English system where every government department is under the same coat of arms it just has the name of the department. No need for expensive logo or name changes.
The 100,000+ Nzers who left in the last year have been freed of mouldy bullshit. I imagine it’s the one of the joys of strolling the streets of the Sunshine Coast.
For pointless and expensive squandering of hard-to-come-by funds, look no further than the rebranding of St John’s Ambulance to Hato hone. Surely they have better things to with their money
Back in the 1960’s my brother in law was doing a few spec houses around Lower Hutt and he designed a basic DIY kitset carport which he attempted to market with little success. Kiwi’s wanted a garage, carports were for learner drivers.
Believing he had a good idea, he shifted to Sydney and set up business. Aussies just wanted to give their cars relief from the sun and his idea took off. Before long, he was franchising and making serious money. He had pretentions and described his carports as “Porte cochere for suburban dwellings”. Which is probably why the idea didn’t sell in Wainui at the time.
“Hear bloomin’ Hear” Bob. This absolutely ridiculous Maorification of pre-European names has to stop…..be reversed in fact.
Keep calling out the Maori BS Sir Robert, the populace is being brainwashed.
Indeed Bob, you are correct as always! Please would you buy another billboard and post the message “Ricardo Menendez March reads comics!” He annoys me.
Yeap so true , it’s only Act doing the heavy lifting
The Public service supported by the Press is giving Luxton the finger
As Richard Prebble rightly quoted was for Luxton to harden up , get into fast positive action not to be and try to be popular and liked This isn’t what most people voted for, and the Coalition needs to harden up now
Remember it’s only 100 weeks before we vote again
I find this really interesting. I have often wondered what idiots anglicised Māori. Why on earth use WH for F sound, not PH. What, why, where for F, not Philip, phew, phobic. A very instructive. Thank you, I really learned something today.
Its a myth in fact the WH ( F) BS. W was never pronounced and spoken by Maori as F, and was heard by missionaries and penned phonetically as W. Wanganui was a definite W. Whereas some areas like Wangarei and others like it, was spoken by Maori as a soft W almost like a soft whoosh when you try but can’t yet whistle. It wasn’t until the Māori Language Commission –( Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Māori (TTWh)) was set up under the Māori Language Act 1987 and decided unilaterally to standardise Maori, ie Te Reo, so it was easier to learn, but did an absolute injustice to provincial Maori dialects, who Whanau found that after learning Te Reo in the cities, and returned back to the provinces to discover their Maori roots, their Whanau hardly understood them speaking a standardised Te Reo. Amazing that the Māori Language Commission thought so little of the many Maori dialects spoken around NZ. Try telling Liverpoolians etc how they should pronounce English.
The other fabrication is the use of macrons; suddenly words now require a cloud of macrons to tell us how to pronounce them. The original translators (missionaries mostly) had no need for them and we don’t bother with them in English, relying instead on accepted use or by simply doubling up on the vowels – lose and loose for example. They’re a bloody nuisance, even more so with hand set print type as used in earlier (more sane) times.
I wonder if this will post successfully. Look at PApers Past to see use of Pito-one in 1888. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18880319.2.13?items_per_page=10&query=Pito-one&snippet=true&sort_by=byDA&title=DOM%2CEP%2CNZFL%2CHN%2CHVI%2CKOP%2CMKURA%2CMATUH%2CNZCPNA%2CNZGWS%2CNZMAIL%2CNZSCSG%2CNZTIM%2COTMAIL%2CPUKEH%2CUHWR%2CVT%2CWAG%2CWDT%2CWAIST%2CWAITA%2CWI%2CTH
This morning I read a headline “Aotearoa in for soggy weather” and I thought to myself, “Thats a shame, I wonder what the forecast is for New Zealand”
Yep, until very recently this group of islands was never referred to as Aotearoa. Maori had no concept of a “country”, our islands had only their individual names. Incidentally, the “A” word was actually first used with reference to the country by a white man, and has now been latched onto by wokesters and virtue-signallers (mainly media), nationwide.
Theres a number of inconvenient truths, and its a question of do you trust the government to tell them?
Heres one to ponder…
https://goodblokes.nz/uncovering-the-mysteries-of-the-kaimanawa-wall-from-origins-to-modern-theories/
Agreed. It’s as ridiculous as it is ubiquitous. Akin to Germany insisting everyone refer to them as Deutschland in a in a comedy German accent (although this might be fun)
It’s the 21st century iteration of the Emperor’s New Clothes. No one dare say anything. Thank heavens for SRJ-keep calling out the BS!!
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