Beattie. — The Southern Maori, and Greenstone. 51 



Addenda. 



The testimony of the southern Maori that greenstone was got at the 

 head of Lake Wakatipu raises the query, What is the correct form of 

 the name Wakatipu ? Shortland gives the name as " Wakatipua " in the 

 two maps in his book. The Southern Districts of New Zealand, and at 

 page 205 also spells the name with a final " a," but at page 35 he refers 

 to the lake as " Wakatipu." 



Its correct form is one of the conundrums in Maori nomenclature. 

 The difficulty is threefold : Should there be an '" h^" in the name, or a 

 final "'a," or both ? I referred the anatter to the best-informed of the 

 southern Maori, and have nine opinions regarding it, but cannot say I 

 am much further ahead. 



Two of the old men said the name was Wakatipu, and meant '' growing 

 canoe " ; but w^hy it was growing they knew not, except it was a sort of 

 magic canoe. Another also said the first part of the name w^as ivaka, not 

 whaka. He had never heard the reason for the name, but considered it 

 was a canoe to cross the lake. An old woman said she had heard no tradi- 

 tions to account for the name, but the old people she had known usually 

 called the lake by the name of Whakatipu-wai-maori. An old man said, 

 " Whakatipu means ' to grow,' ' to nourish,' and the reason the name 

 was given was because the Waitaha and Kati-Mamoe tribes when beaten 

 in war retired there to rear families." But against this one of the best 

 authorities on southern history says it is a Waitaha name given long 

 before the Kati-Mamoe appeared in the south. The Waitaha, h^ says, 

 were descended from Toi, Eauru, and Rakaihautu, and why they named 

 the lake " Whakatipu " is not known, but, as far as he knew, it was not 

 after any chief or ancestor. The late Tare-te-Maiharoa said he did not 

 know who named Wakatipu, nor why. It was a Waitaha name, and its 

 origin had been lost in antiquit}'. Another usually well-informed man 

 said he had never heard the origin of the name, nor did he even know the 

 correct form of the word. The last opinion I got was from a man who gave 

 me numerous place-names of the lake vicinity, and he said the Waitaha 

 bestowed the name Whakatipu. The word whaka (or, as the North- 

 Islanders would say, whanga) meant " a bay," and tijpu meant '' growing," 

 but he had never heard why the Waitaha applied the name. 



In regard to information derived by Europeans from Maori sources, 

 Mr. Henry P. Young, who got his information at Colac Bay, wTote in 

 1903, "■ Wakatipu should be Wakatipua, the waka or hollow of the tijma 

 or demon from the w^ell-known legend." Mr. Henry E. Nickless, waiting 

 in 1898, said that Hoani Matewai Poko, a son of Te Waewae, told 

 him the proper name of the lake was Whakatipu and not W^hakatipua. 

 Mr. H. M. Stow^ell (Hare Hongi), in 1898 — the year the stamp was printed 

 with " Wakitipu " on it — wrote that the name should be Whakatipu ; and 

 he was followed by Mr. S. Percy Smith, who wrote, " Mr. Stowell may be 

 right about Whakatipu, although Tare Wetere assures me that it should 

 be Whakatipua, and I am inclined to think that the name should be 

 Wakatipua." Halswell in his 1841 map spelt the name " Wakatopa." 

 James F. Healey, writing in 1898, said that the Waitaki Maori in 1856 

 gave him the name as Whakatipu, and said it was a mighty lake that 

 existed near a greenstone river. A white settler told me that the Maori 

 had told him the name was Waka-tipua because a phantom canoe used 

 to drift on the lake. In Mr. Cowan's notes was one — '" Whakatipu (?) 

 was the name of a canoe in which the Maoris went to fetch the koko- 



