Should Foveaux Strait be renamed?
An Auckland man has started a campaign to change the name of Foveaux Strait after questioning the former governor of Norfolk Island’s past.
Auckland resident, Robert Felton has written to the New Zealand Geographic Board and Ngai Tahu, as well as the mayors in Southland about the name change.
He was also writing to several MPs to gain support
Felton’s interest in changing the name started when he read the 1987 book ‘‘The Fatal Shore’’, written by Australian author Robert Hughes during lockdown.
Felton was surprised to discover that the strait was named after a colonial administrator who never visited New Zealand and was involved in bringing convicts to Norfolk Island.
Joseph Foveaux was a ‘‘sadist and a monster’’, he said.
During Foveaux’s time as governor of Norfolk Island, men and women were subject to extreme punishments.
‘‘Why, in this country, are we willing to celebrate a name like that.’’
Bluff Community Board chairman Raymond Fife said he was surprised a campaign had been launched as he had not received any feedback from the community that the name should be changed.
Fife was unaware of the history of the name but said the strait had been named Foveaux for as long as he had known it.
Southland historian and Environment Southland councillor Llyod Esler said he was not supportive of the change and thought there would be little support in the region.
Although the history might be questionable, it did not mean it needed to be changed, he said.
‘‘I think in a week or two we will get over this nonsense.’’
The strait already had two names; Foveaux and Te Ara a Kiwa, with the latter having several explanations for origins.
Although Foveaux never visited the area, neither did the people who Auckland and Wellington were named after, he said.
The strait was originally named Smith Strait after Owen Folger Smith, who first charted the waters, but after being left unpublicised for years, Foveaux released the information of the discovered site for sealing.
Esler acknowledged that Foveaux was a brutal man at Norfolk Island but all governors on the penal colony were.
Colonial times were tough and it would not be easy to be a Norfolk Island prisoner, but it was also not easy being one of Te Rauparaha slaves either, he said.
Some Bluff residents thought the name should be replaced.
Mark Young said he would prefer if the strait was officially named its Ma¯ ori name, while Jude Spencer said she did not mind the name until hearing it was named after the governor of penal colony.
Margaret Goldsworthy said it had been Foveaux Strait her whole life and did not think it should be changed.
New Zealand Geographic Board secretary Wendy Shaw said an inquiry to change the name had been received but no proposal had been made.
The board had received proposals to change the name of Foveaux Strait to Kupe Strait or Te Ara a Kiwa but was declined because it did not receive enough evidence to support changing the name.
The fact that Foveaux never visited the area it was named after was not enough reason itself for changing the name, she said.