Foolish to rename

Here’s today’s local knowledge test: How many of these Wellington places can you name?

Pukeahu, Te Nga¯kau, Te Anakura, Whairepo, Te Puna Ma¯tauranga o Aotearoa, Paeka¯ka¯, Pa¯teke, Paremata Aotearoa and Te Papa Tongarewa.

In descriptive English they’re known as: NZ National War Memorial, Wellington Civic Square, NZ Film Museum, Frank Kitts Lagoon, The National Library of NZ, the Botanic Garden, Zealandia, NZ Parliament and Te Papa.

OK, so you got the last one but there’ll be very few people who knew them all.

In my humble opinion, it’s foolishness to change the names of familiar places merely to satisfy the minority. It’s even worse if you’re a visitor to Wellington or from overseas trying to find these renamed places.

It’s very simple: descriptive names prevail because they describe places. They also represent the cultural history of the majority of New Zealanders and their rights should be recognised too. So let’s just stick with tried and true descriptive names please.

By theway, I find people of other races and cultures more interesting than the average Kiwi so please don’t brandme a racist.

Neil Harrap, Thorndon