Ihaka Takaanini was honoured with land in 1863 but his name was misspelled as “Takanini”.
Attempts to correct the spelling faced resistance, with agencies citing public familiarity and potential costs.
Recent consultations favoured correcting the name to “Takaanini”, highlighting the disrespect of the incorrect spelling.
Last week, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk made a decision to decline a proposal from the NZ Geographic Board to change the official name of the suburb and railway station Takanini to Takaanini.
Graeme Marshall, a submitter to the proposal in conjunctionwith Te Ākitai Waiohua, descendants of Ihaka Takaanini for whom both station and suburb are named, challenges the decision.
At the eve of war in July 1863, Ihaka was arrested by the military on trumped-up charges and he died in military confinement in 1864. Ironically, in recognition of his great service to the Crown, 543 hectares (1120 acres in the measure of the time) of former Native Reserve had been conferred on Ihaka Takaanini in February 1863 by Governor George Grey.
A new station named Takanini opened on this land in 1913. Sloppy work by NZ Railways managed to turn what should have been an honourable recognition of Ihaka Takaanini into an affront.
Nobody checked the spelling of the rangatira’s name. NZ Post and Telegraph copied the incorrect spelling in 1915 and subdividers did likewise in the 1914-25 period. The Auckland Education Board did so when establishing Takanini School in 1923, and local authorities did the same when naming streets and other geographic features.
In 1929, the Honorary Geographic Board corrected the spelling of Takanini but because the board had no powers of enforcement, NZ Railways ignored their recommendation.
Other agencies did likewise. The New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) established in 1946 had powers.
The board gazetted the Honorary Geographic Board’s decision, making Takaanini the official name, forcing Railways and NZ Post back to the table in 1950. But again, these agencies opposed the name change, on the basis the public had become accustomed to Takanini.
At this point the NZGB determined that the name should be spelt Takānini (with the macron to assist pronunciation).
However, by accident, the name that went forward for official publication was Takanini – the status quo that all parties knew to be wrong. The question was revisited by the NZGB in 1951 and the resulting minute is worth noting! “ … It was resolved that where an incorrect Maori name is adopted by virtue of its usage over a long period, the correct version be noted in the remarks column of the Gazette Notice, and that the component parts of compound Maori names, if known, be noted to assist in pronunciation.”
So, the NZGB knew it was wrong but because it had been wrong for a long time, the board decided to make a side note of the correct form, with pronunciation assistance.
By accident, none of this was printed. And so things remained until 2018, when a consortium of Crown agencies agreed to correct the name.
A photograph believed to be of Ihaka Takaanini, thought to be taken between 1854 and 1863 because the photographer was active in Auckland from 1854-1873 and the subject died in 1862.
Photo / Hocken Collection - University of Otago
It is now Takaanini – unofficially.
Recent consultation on an official correction to the name of the suburb and the railway station drew 385 submissions. They favoured the correction to Takaanini by 160 to 85 for the suburb and 79 to 61 for the railway station.
The grounds for support were largely to do with honouring the name, or emphasised that “the incorrect spelling was disrespectful, insulting or offensive” — as it is when knowingly perpetuated.
The submissions opposed were “overwhelmingly concerned with the potential costs a spelling correction would incur” and questioned the priority of making a change at this time. Other arguments were that Takanini was in long-term use, that the change pandered to a minority, was divisive, and adversely affected those who didn’t understand and didn’t want to use Māori language.
Others thought the consultation was a sham and that the question should be put to a referendum. There were also claims that businesses would have to change their names and business details.
Clearly, the people making these assertions hadn’t understood that decisions under the act bind the Crown but not private individuals or their businesses.
There is a lot of misunderstanding on display here. Persisting in the misspelling of a person’s name when it is known that doing so causes hurt and offence to family is simply uncouth.
It’s well past time that an end was put to this – officially. Unfortunately, the minister responsible has chosen to persist in error.
Graeme Marshall, a retired educator and policy adviser, has served as Principal of Hutt Valley High School and held senior roles in the Ministry of Education and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He was a submitter to the recent proposal to correct the spelling of Takaanini in partnership with Te Ākitai Waiohua, descendants of Ihaka Takaanini.
