Whanganui

Personally I don’t care very much whether the city is called Wanganui as it is currently, or Whanganui as the river and electorate are named.

No matter how you spell it, my advice is to avoid it 🙂

But the simple fact of the matter is, 77% of Wanganui voters, voted in a referendum that they did not want the name to change.

I really think it is silly to force a change against such opposition.

The backlash against stuff like forced name changes, tends to build opposition to stuff which is important – such as settling historic claims.

Chris Trotter has written eloquently on how names change over time – even mistakes become legitimate names. Caesar became Kaiser (and Czar) for example.

For all that, now that the New Zealand Geographic Board has made a decision, I think it should be implemented. There is effectively a Ministerial veto but I don’t think it is a great precedent for Ministers to over-rule the expert boards, unless not to do so would lead to a something very bad happening. And at the end of the day, it is only a name.