Stream confusion

SIR, I have read with much pleasure the first of Dr Fulton’s articles in the Otago Witness on ‘‘Medical Practice in Otago and Southland in the Early

Days.’’ There is one point in it, however, on which I would like to hear the opinion of some of the early settlers. Dr Fulton mentions ‘‘the Kaituna, the little sparkling stream which crossed, what was afterwards Princes street, near Jacobs’s Corner, and ran into the sea amongst the rocks where now stands the Stock Exchange building.’’

Dr Hocken, in his ‘‘Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand

(Otago),’’ at page 49, also calls this stream the Kaituna. In ‘‘Maori Nomenclature,’’ by Mr W. H. S. Roberts, published in 1910, the following occurs: ‘‘The Toitu (uncultivated, or ‘the Chief Toi stood’) was a little brook which in wet weather collected the water from the high land between High street and York place, including the Victoria Park and rushing down Serpentine avenue and Maclaggan street reached the bay near Water street, where the Maoris always landed and camped when any of them visited Otepoti.’’ Further on: ‘‘Kaituna (‘eat eels’) was the stream near the gasworks which is crossed by the Anderson’s Bay road.’’ I wonder if there is anyone living at the present time who can say with certainty which of these is correct. This may seem a small matter to some of the present generation, but the historian of the future who will write the history of the city, perhaps on the hundredth anniversary, may meet with considerable difficulty and doubt if details like the above are ‘‘incorrectly’’

recorded by presentday writers — I am, etc,