Brian Rudman: With an 'h' is right. Must I spell it out?

Growing up in New Plymouth it was drummed into us that only common folk dropped their "h"s. So it comes as little surprise to learn that the peasants of W[h]anganui have been doing it for a century. New Plymouthites tended to look down on those who lived in the hicksville down the coast.

Now the 'icks have been told to put the "h" back into their town's name and they're cutting up rough. Excitable mayor Michael Laws said the New Zealand Geographic Board's decision is "morally and historically wrong" and "an affront to democracy and every concept of equity". His hysterical deputy, Ray Stevens, declared "our parents went to war to defend our country and democracy and this makes a mockery of their cause". Has he forgotten that many Maori citizens of Whanganui went to war as well? Then again, perhaps he was referring to the Land Wars of the 1860s.

Given the on-going tantrum throwing, it's worth noting that all the Geographic Board - sneeringly referred to as "non-elected" by Mr Laws - is recommending is that the city adopt the correct Maori spelling of their town's name. They do it for the river on which the town rests and which it is named after, so why not the town? The simple answer is a bloody-mindedness, fuelled by what can only be said, is a dislike of being told they're wrong by their uppity Maori minority.

One of the weirdest arguments put up by Mayor Laws is that while conceding "the city and district may have its name derived from the Maori language ... almost 170 years of usage has given the name an identity and mana of its own". Earlier in the debate he went further, claiming "it is not a Maori word, it never was". In other words, because the white man newcomers have misspelt this word for so long, it's now a new word, and those who object to their language being bastardised, can go howl at the moon.

If that's not odd enough, holding a referendum to decide which spelling is correct takes the cake. As an act of contempt for the democratic system goes, it reminds me of Emperor Caligula putting his horse up for election as senator of Rome. Since when has correct spelling been decided by popular vote? For a start, at least half those who voted will have failed School Certificate or what-ever now passes as the basic school leaving qualification. And it's a good guess that amongst the good voters of Whanganui, you could count the philologists of any language - let alone Maori - on the fingers of one hand. So it comes as little surprise that 82 per cent of voters got it wrong in 2006 when they said there was no "h" in Whanganui.

I hate to think what the result would have been if the next question had been, "how often does the sun circle the earth each year?"

Che Philip Wilson, a scholar of the Whanganui dialect, told the Geographic Board that the correct meaning for the name Whanganui was: "the long wait", whanga meaning "to wait".

He said the name originated from the time of the great navigator Kupe and the extended name was Te Whanga-nui-a-Kupe and referred to the extended wait for the return of Kupe from his exploration into the wilderness. He said several places up the river were named by Kupe.

Most towns would be delighted to have a history like that to add to their tourist brochures. But not Michael Lawsville.

Historian Bruce Stirling, in his submission, points out that when the township at the mouth of the Whanganui was established in 1841, the creation of a written form of Maori was still in progress, and both forms of the spelling were used. However, "by the 1850s, the correct use of 'wh' in words such as whanga was well established by early scholars".

He says that places that had originally not had an "h" had one added. Places like Whangarei, Whangaroa, Whangaparaoa and Whangapoua. The "notable" exception was Whanganui, where the local Maori adopted the "h" version and the local Pakeha persevered with the incorrect spelling.

Elsewhere in the country, confusion reigned. Mr Stirling says that between 1845 and 1876, the Daily Southern Cross newspaper in Auckland spelt it with an "h" 3164 times, and without, 5648.

He notes the debate has rumbled on ever since. In 1902, the mayor of Whanganui lobbied for the reinstatement of the "h" but was defeated by his fellow councillors.

Mr Stirling detects an anti-Maori element within the town behind the dislike of the Maori spelling.

In 1876, he says, the local Wanganui Herald criticised the first issue of the Anglican Church Chronicle because "it did not adhere to the settler spelling".

The local editor complained "it would have been better if the Maori element had been sufficiently repressed, not to have spelt Wanganui, Whanganui ...".

Mr Stirling concludes "it need hardly be added that the word 'wanga' is entirely meaningless in Maori, whereas the word 'whanga' is replete with meaning and is widely used in the Maori naming of places." And surely that's the issue. Whanganui without the "h" is just plain incorrect.