Hue tē Taka Peninsula Place Name Proposal Report

On this page:

• Moa Point / Hue te Taka Place Name Proposal Report 27 March 2009
• Hue tē Taka Peninsula Place Name Proposal Report 16 September 2009

This report is also available in pdf format Hue tē Taka Peninsula Place Name Proposal Report (PDF 690KB).

Moa Point / Hue te Taka Place Name Proposal Report 27 March 2009

• Moa Point - place name location alteration - declined 27/03/09
• Hue te Taka - place name proposal
• adjoining Lyall Bay, Wellington.

General Background

The submitter is seeking to alter the location of the place name Moa Point from the south-eastern peninsula of Lyall Bay, Wellington, to where it is now concealed under Wellington Airport; and to assign the place name Hue te Taka to the peninsula feature adjoining the south-eastern end of Lyall Bay, Wellington, adjacent to the currently named Moa Point. Note that the submitter has sought three separate actions – discontinue an existing name, assign a new name and approve a recorded name, but these have been interpreted as a place name location alteration and a place name proposal.

The submitter has provided a number of reference sources that state that Moa Point was a rocky outcrop and reef extending from the southern end of Wellington Airport (formerly Rongotai Airport) into Lyall Bay. The submitter advises that as the airport was built and then further extended, Moa Point ‘disappeared’, being buried under the Lyall Bay end of the airport. According to the submitter, authorities differ as to the precise origin of the name ‘Moa Point’, but it seems likely that moa bones were discovered in the vicinity of the sand hills of Lyall Bay. The submitter has provided a number of reference sources for the place name proposal of Hue te Taka, one of which posits Hue te Taka as being ‘the small peninsula of raised shore-platform with conspicuous stack rocks and raised shingle beaches, at the eastern end of Lyall Bay’(Adkin, L. (1959) The Great Harbour of Tara. Whitcombe & Tombs). The same source continues on that the name makes use of a simile, comparing the shape of the peninsula with objects familiar in Māori livelihood, and signifies a ‘a gourd (hue) fastened to the land as a fish-hook is fastened (taka) to a line’.

The index of Māori names by Henry James Fletcher at the Waikato University website refers to Hua te Taka as being at the east headland of Lyall Bay. However, this is cited as a misspelling which has no local meaning (The Great Harbour of Tara, 1959). Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary and Index translates ‘hue’ as being a calabash or gourd, taka (VERB) to prepare food, takā (VERB) to fasten a fish to a line.

The name Moa Point has not been gazetted as official through the NZGB Act, however, it appears in the New Zealand Place Names Database (Archived) as recorded names, as follows:

Moa Point

District: Southland
Description: POINT: Area protruding into water or floodplain
Lat: -45.3367
Long: 167.5386
NZMG Easting: 2082160.9
NZMG Northing: 5527238.4
NZMS 260 sheet: C43

Moa Point

District: Wellington
Description: POINT: Area protruding into water or floodplain
Lat: -41.3463
Long: 174.8092
NZMG Easting: 2661400
NZMG Northing: 5983124.3
NZMS 260 sheet: R27

The records of the Board (NZGB card index) show that the location of Moa Point was extensively researched in 1993, with the conclusion that ‘Moa Point should be shown in all mapping as at the end of the Hue te Taka peninsula’. Moa Point Road is located in the area and is an associative name. There are no archive records of the Board (Westland, Canterbury National, NZGB card indices) relating to Hue te Taka. There is no other feature, place, street or road in New Zealand with the name of Hue te Taka.

Topographic and cadastral maps of the peninsula have shown through the years:

Early survey plans of the peninsula show the following:

Early historical maps/plans of the peninsula show:

The submitter has not provided evidence of consultation with local iwi. Te Puni Kōkiri may provide feedback at the Board meeting. None of the features are located within a Crown Protected Area. The Board should consider whether macrons apply to Hue te Taka, should the proposal be accepted. Physically there is no coastal feature of the type ‘point’ at the historical location. Over time the name Moa Point has been ‘shoved along’, and the common use of the more recent translocation appears to be almost fifty years.

Hue tē Taka Peninsula Place Name Proposal Report 16 September 2009

• New place name
• adjoining Lyall Bay, Wellington.

General Background

At the previous Board meeting of 27 March 2009 the proposal to name Hue tē Taka Peninsula was deferred in order to consult with iwi for the following reasons:

• Confirmation of the original Māori name for the peninsula (if not Hue tē Taka then what is the name)
• the correct spelling for Hue tē Taka
• the associated traditional history
• the translation of Hue tē Taka
• the extent of the peninsula
• whether they support the proposal or not
• any other relevant information.

This proposal has attracted some media attention from both Radio and newspapers and Ministerial correspondence from a member of the community. An email from Wellington City Council of 23 April 2009 advised of support for the name Hue te Taka, based on the Council’s District Plan Maps. The following iwi organisations and the Wellington City Council have been asked for their views by letter of 3 and 4 June 2009.

No responses have been received from iwi.

The Wellington City Council requested extra time in which to put forward their views. The Secretary acknowledged the request advising that the Board would welcome the views of the City Council and that if they are not able to meet the end of August deadline in order to include their views into Board members papers, then their information could be tabled at the Board meeting.

Map

A printable map is available in the Hue tē Taka Peninsula Place Name Proposal Report (PDF 690KB).