524 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



truth is that, as in the case of Europe and America, and even 

 our own Province of Otago, a local name, or the name of a 

 limited territory, has gradually spread to a very large area, and, 

 looking out from the North Island, men point to the moun- 

 tains of Wai Pounamu as if that name applied to the whole 

 country. Cook must have misunderstood his first informant 

 in one way, as he spoke of circumnavigating the two southern 

 islands in a few days, while it required many monthsto 

 circumnavigate the North Island, both statements being 

 exaggerated. 



Closely connected with this subject is that of Piopiotahi. 

 In the deed of sale by Ngaitahu to the New Zealand Com- 

 pany, dated 12th June, 1848, Milford Sound is called Whaka- 

 tipu Waitai, and on the attached map it is called Wakatipa 

 Waitai. This mistake is rectified by the purchase-deed of 

 Murihiku or Southland, which gives the true name Piopiotahi 

 for this mighty fjord. As the Maoris gave Sir James Hector 

 the name Wakatipu for the lake now called Kakapo or McKer- 

 row, in the next valley to the north at Martin's Bay, that must 

 be the true Wakatipu Waitai, or tidal Wakatipu. Some years 

 earlier Dr. Shortland had constructed a map from information 

 supplied by Maoris, in which Lake Wakatipu appears as " Waka- 

 tipua ; " while the range of mountains which separates that lake 

 from Milford Sound is marked, " Wakatipua Range : in this 

 place rises the torrent Piopiotahi." He gives a more detailed 

 m.ap of the lake district, drawn by a Maori named Huruhuru, 

 in which the lake appears as " Wakatipua, the famed Wai- 

 pounamu." In the text he says that Wakatipua " is cele- 

 brated for the 2^ounamu found on its shores and in the moun- 

 tain-torrents which supply it," and conjectures that it may be 

 the Waipounamu of Cook. This conclusion is manifestly 

 incorrect. Modern references to Piopiotahi always connect 

 it with Milford Sound ; and, as the shores of Wakatipu are 

 now inhabited, we know that no greenstone is found there. 

 Doubtless the confusion has arisen out of the fact that two 

 waters bear similar names — one being the salt-sea (tide-water) 

 Wakatiira, and the other having been sometimes called the 

 fresh-water sea ; while colonists erroneously applied the re- 

 ference to a sea-coast Wakatipu to Milford Sound, which they 

 knew, rather than to the lake some miles inland, which was 

 unknown. 



•On the other hand, tangiioai in plenty lies on the beach at 

 Anita Bay, in Milford Sound, where, however, the only apology 

 for a torrent is a watercourse, generally dry, coming down the 

 mountain. Sir James Hector, in his admirable report to the 

 Provincial Government of Otago on the geology of the sounds, 

 in 1863, refers to this beach as the place where the Maoris ob- 



