Summary: Maniototo, one of the fourteen counties of Otago, gained its name from the Maniototo Plain which makes up the greater part of the County. Mr W.H. Sherwood Roberts believes that the spelling of Manioto is not correct. "Toto" means blood, but the dictionaries do not give "manio". Instead "mania" means plain and the name should therefore be spelt Mania-o-toto, Plain of Blood, or simply Maniatoto. One old Maori told His Honour Mr. Justice Chapman that Maniatoto was the name of the Serpentine valley and that the plain was O Tu Rehua. When the name of Rough Ridge railway station was changed in 1908 to Oturehua, the explanation given was that a battle had been fought there in some distant period, the name of the victorious greenstone club Oturehua. The name, however, may mean the last resting place of Rehua, one of the most powerful of ancient Maori deities. On being questioned in 1890 by Mr. McPherson, M.P., Maori members of Parliament said that Oturehua is a very suitable substitution for Rough Ridge, for it means, in Old Maori, [sic]" a noble rugged eminence, worthy of being the standing place from which the commands of the great god Rehua might be given". It would appear that this poetic explanation must be the accepted one. Similarly the legend of the battle of ancient times must be the origin of the name Maniatoto, or Maniototo. Both spellings occur in official and unofficial reports from earlist times until 1877, when the county was instituted and the spelling fixed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217699 |
| Date | January 1946 |
| Creators | Angus, Janet C, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of History |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Janet C Angus |
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