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The country’s verbal landscape is set for upheaval as the Geographic Board lines up more name changes.
It’s consulting a request to drop the unofficial English alternate name Rainbow Mountain from a popular Rotorua landscape, as well as its misspelled Maori name Maungakakaramea.
Ngati Tahu-Ngati Whaoa Rananaga Trust says the one official name should be Maunga Kakaramea, referring to the mountain as a source of red ochre.
The name Rainbow Mountain will live on in the surrounding Department of Conservation protected area.
Three names in South Otago could also change.
The three branches of the Tokomairiro River needs to be spelled .
Geographic Board secretary Wendy Shaw says the word describes the method of pushing waka and mokihi or rafts along the river with a pole, and it was the spelling used in some historical documents.
Name changes could also come out of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Whanganui Land Report, which says there is no justification to continue with an official alternate spelling of Wanganui without an ‘h’.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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