Napier Hill change of name 'logical'

Ahuriri Hapu kaumatua Heitia Hiha and his wife Margaret Hiha, says the name Mataruahou is important to local iwi. Photo / File

The Napier Hill name change is back on the cards, as kaumatua Heitia Hiha cites mid-November as when a treaty agreement could be signed.

Despite not having an exact date, Mr Hiha said the name change to Mataruahou was logical.

"The name itself is significant to us," he said.

"It is us remembering our people and our connections, so these things are important."

Napier Mayor and "Hill" resident Bill Dalton said he did not have a problem if the Hill got an official name - that he was neither for nor against it.

"However, my view is whatever happens it will always be called 'the Hill'," he said.

"That is what people do. I live here, I live on the 'Hill'.

"I am quite relaxed if somebody wants to give it an official title, it won't stop us calling it anything else but the Hill."

Napier Hill has also been known as Hospital Hill and, pre-1931, Scinde Island.

In 2009, Mr Hiha said there may be no need for any change, as Mataruahou, the Maori name of the outcrop from Hyderabad Rd to the Port of Napier, may still be its legal name.

Mataruahou was the common name until well after European arrival in the area, and referred to the mirror images of faces in pools along the tracks over what was all-but an island, the open sea on the northern side and the inland waterway known as Te Whanganui a Orotu on the south and west.

Generations have subsequently struggled with the correct name, with the most common name, Bluff Hill, now regularly regarded as referring to only that part at the eastern end, nearest the Port of Napier.

The area between Milton and Shakespeare roads has been referred to as Middle Hill, and the west end as Hospital Hill, which itself lost relevance after the Napier Hospital closure eight years ago.

It had been known at some stage previously as Old Barrack Hill.

Rightfully, the issue falls within the authority of the Wai 400 Ahuriri Purchase claimants, who are now in a united settlement-seeking process with inner-harbour and Waiohiki claimants Nga Hapu o Ahuriri.

The validity of all the claims has long been accepted by the tribunal, after the most protracted and exhaustive hearings process in the history of the tribunal, which was established in 1975.

Mr Hiha said Mataruahou seemed to be the only name that referred to "the whole of the hill" and that more common use of the name enhanced its cultural and historical significance.

This is not the first time a name change has been talked about, with Perfume Point being challenged last year, as was the airport - with the hapu wanting Ahuriri incorporated into the name.

Both name changes got nowhere.

"As far as Perfume Point in concerned, the actual place is where we gathered food and prepared food, and its association with the sewer is not pleasant to us," Mr Hiha said.

Despite two name changes not being accepted, the kaumatua is still hopeful of this latest one.

"It depends on who has the final say," he said yesterday.

"But we have put it forward with hope - and that's the thing, you do things with hope."