Granville Point Place Name Report

The report considered by the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZGB) at its meeting on 27 March 2009.

• Granville Point (spelling alteration)

Te Kao, North Auckland

General Background

The submitter is seeking to have the spelling corrected for a point, from Grenville Point to Granville Point, i.e. the submitter seeks to substitute an ‘a’ for an ‘e’. The submitter provides supporting evidence that this feature was named after Granville George Leveson-Gower, second Earl Granville (1815-1891), a British nobleman who held cabinet posts in Great Britain during Queen Victoria’s reign. Lord Granville played a prominent part in organising the 1851 Great Exhibition, a name which is connected with the name of the nearby geographical feature, Great Exhibition Bay. The submitter proposes that the name Great Exhibition Bay commemorated the spectacular and memorable London event by naming an impressive stretch of the New Zealand coast after the Great Exhibition.

Although the feature had already been named some years before his appointment, the submitter notes that Lord Granville was Secretary for the Colonies from 1868-1870, and would have had to deal with affairs relating to New Zealand. The submitter argues that it is not unfitting that Lord Granville should have been commemorated in a geographic name in New Zealand. The submitter’s research shows that Grenville Point was initially named Sandy Bay by Captain Cook.

The submitter has provided evidence of reference sources to help verify the spelling of Granville.

There are no other geographical features in New Zealand with the name of Grenville or Granville.

Duplication of Roads:

Grenville Road	Selwyn District, Canterbury
Grenville Street	Lower Hutt Central Christchurch New Plymouth Levin
Grenville Terrace	Nelson
Granville Drive	Waitakere City
Granville Place Ranfurly	Central Otago
Granville Road	Rodney District, Northland Totara Flat, West Coast.
Granville Road	West Totara Flat, West Coast
Granville Street	Carterton, Wairarapa Te Horo Beach, Kapiti Coast Upper Hutt
Granville Terrace	Dunedin

A number of streets and roads located around New Zealand are named ‘Grenville’ and ‘Granville’, but none are in the vicinity of this proposal.

Changing Grenville Point to Granville Point could cause confusion, as both the current and proposed names are not pronounced the same, although the phonological distinction is minimal.

Cadastral and Topographic maps have shown the following through the years:

NZMS 1, N003/004	Edition 1, dated 1954	Grenville Point
NZMS 1, N003/004	Edition 2, dated 1967	Grenville Point
NZMS 1, N003/004	Edition 3, dated 1977	Grenville Point
NZMS 13, NAK 7 & 8	Edition 3, dated 1953	Grenville Point
NZMS 177, N003/004	Edition 1, dated 1967	Grenville Point

Some early survey plans show the following:

ML 101	Dated ?	Not named
ML 14561	Dated 1966	Grenville Point
Roll 1A	Dated ?	Not named
SO 8508/G	Dated 1895	Grenville Point
SO 18541	Dated 1915	Grenville Point

Early historical maps/plans show:

G9	Dated 1866	Grenville Point
A(D)168	Dated ?	Point Grenvill
A(D)107	Dated ?	Grenville Point

There are no archive records of the Board (Canterbury National, NZGB card indices) relating to Grenville Point or Granville Point.

Grenville Point is not located within a Conservation Area.

Te Puni Kōkiri are yet to advise whether an original Māori name exists for Grenville Point.

The evidence provided by the submitter concludes that this lake was named after Granville George Leveson-Gower, second Earl Granville. The submitter has requested that the Board exercise its responsibility to examine cases of doubtful spelling, in terms of Section 8(1)(b) of the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946 [now Section 15(1)(b) of the 2008 Act]. The Board should note that its discretion to uphold misspelled place names which have been in long term local usage, may not apply for this place name, given that it does not appear to be a place name that would attract controversy or contention. Te Puni Kōkiri have advised that they have not contacted local iwi as correcting the spelling has little to do with their sphere of interest, the names are not Māori, and there is no associated history.

Map

For a larger scale version of this map please refer to the pdf version of the Granville Point place name report (pdf 243KB)

NZGB - Summary Report - Granville Point - 2009-03-26&27, for Meeting of 26-27 March 2009 LINZ file reference: GES-N15-07-08/1431/01