Kaitoa! Common sense and historical integrity prevails. Mauri ora!

Before the settlers, Wanganui city did not exist. They built it and named it. I know it shocks well intentioned people that the caucasian worm has turned. The caucasians built the modern world that the rest of humanity fully intends to live in and enjoy. The places they built and named deserve to be kept. If any one thinks diferently, that's fine but they should get their asses out of all New Zealand towns and cities.

Got it in one #6! How can they claim it affects 'mana', and is an insult etc, when it's a word written using the English letter translation!

"27yr old halfcast #6 07:56 am Sep 18 2009

How did Maori know it was spelt with an h before a white guy came along, and started to try and translate a spoken dailect into english. Writing what they heard using english letters. How does this affect the mana of a people, when the letter and the entire alphebet come from another race of people. One day we just started using someone elses written word and now were fighting over an 'H' i want to move to this town, where they have nothing better to do and no bigger issue then this."

If Wanganui is an English word, as some are saying, then what is the Maori word for Wanganui? Whanganui?

lets go for Fielding next or is it Feilding?

The English language was not originally a written language, but stole the alphabet from others. Again we have people from a colonial english perspective believing that they own something that is not theirs. Michael Laws has appropriated the ownership of the name and now is silly enough to think we all believe him when he says the spelling without an 'h' is traditional english! Ha ha! He is a bigger fool than we ever thought.

There are lots of redneck comments about how Maori have better things to be doing than changing a name. Some even resort to the old trick of blaming them for all of societies ills. Well, the call for the change in spelling comes from pakeha kiwis as well. The name does not belong to the pakeha residents of the town. It is bigger than that, and in fact belongs to those who bestowed it upon the location. Just 'coz you live there does not give the right to continue to bastarise the name.

@ Charlie Brown #136

Well said!! Totally agree.

This seems all very much a storm in a teacup.

There are many misused and misspelt words here in NZ that are regarded as normal. For example, nowhere in the UK is the linen department of a store referred to as "Manchester" - that is a city in the north of England, not bed linen.

Nowhere else is a "flat white" a kind of coffee (except maybe Australia)

Nowhere else is a public park a "domain"

Nowhere else is a car parking space "a park"

Nowhere else can any word be shortened by adding "-o" or "-ie" ("fisho", "boatie", "rego", "doco" etc etc)

Languages evolve as people live their lives and adapt them. Wanganui looks like just such a word to me - it may have had an h or it may not, but now it doesn't.

100 years from now, it might have become "Wongarnooee" for all we know - after all, London is no longer Londinium, York no longer "Yorvik" and so on.

We can only go forwards if we are to succeed: looking to the past never brings progress. The past is, as they say, a foreign country.

So much disagreement or agreement as for Michael Laws born in Wairoa maybe he should go back there to be their mayor see how far he gets with his prejudices and why is he on talkback when he is the mayor?? He is not a good look for any part and indeed why you did not get into parliament Antoinette saga you soon forget your stuff ups. Who is the racist in all this..the person kicking a fuss with the biggest insensitive mouth. Indeed there is Whanganui River, Whanganui National Park so correct the spelling instead of wasting money and do your job or is that on talkback?

There is no right and wrong spelling of Wanganui/Whanganui.

The Maori language was not originally a written language. It was rapidly converted to a written form by Pakeha, mostly missionaries, barely 150 years ago. The spelling of Maori words was inevitably loose and variable for many years. But accepted spelling has settled down now. And there are many anomalies with those settled spellings.

The English language similarly has many anomalies.

Accepted spellings should be left untouched. To pedantically demand the change of any one word is to open a figurative can of worms. Where do we stop? Should London be renamed Londinium? Why spell Paris with a silent "s"? Northcote should be Northcoat, and Marlborough should be Mawlborough!

The activists who constantly demand the addition of an "h" to a word need something meaningful to occupy themselves. What about trying to reduce domestic violence and poverty?