Council votes for no 'h' in Wanganui

Wanganui's district council voted today to keep the city's name 'h-less'.

The full council met to frame an official reply to the NZ Geographic Board after it was asked to consider the issue of the proper spelling of the city and district following iwi group Te Runanga o Tupoho's application for a change to Whanganui.

An 8-5 vote carried the motion "that the Wanganui District Council, on behalf of the wider Wanganui community, advise the NZ Geographic Board that no change be made to the spelling of `Wanganui, either city or district'.

Councillors who supported the motion argued Wanganui had assumed its own independent identity and integrity over the past 170 years, and that a significant majority of residents had voted against change (82 per cent) in a specific referendum in 2006.

Those who opposed the motion argued that Wanganui was misspelt, and that it was the right of Maori to assert the correct spelling of their language.

They said the majority did not have a right to impose its collective viewpoint upon a cultural minority.

Mayor Michael Laws, who proposed the motion, said the discussion was conducted without upset or rancour.

"I was proud of my colleagues today. This was a debate that had the potential to become emotional and difficult, and it did not."

Iwi spokesman Ken Mair has previously said Whanganui was named by Haunui more than 600 years ago. It means great harbour or expanse of water.

In 1991 the Geographic Board changed the spelling of Wanganui River to Whanganui River, while the district health board also adopted Whanganui.

"It does not make sense to correct the spelling of the river and to leave the name of the city spelt incorrectly," the iwi said in its proposal to the board.

-NZPA