Judith Lacy’s Jottings: I’m Jydith Lacey and I live between Fielding and Ashurst

All roads do not lead to Fielding, no matter how green it is. Photo / ManawatuNZ.co.nz

OPINION:

When I moved to Kakaramea, near Patea, my 9-year-old self was fascinated that a nearby village was called Hurleyville after the large number of Hurleys living in the area.

Why couldn’t we have Lacyville? That we had only just arrived in the area and the nearest relatives with the same last name lived in the King Country wasn’t a barrier, surely.

Of course, Lacyville got no further than childhood games. It’s probably just as well as nine times out of 10 it would be spelt Laceyville.

In the days when you went into shops and they wrote your last name on receipts and booking forms, I would say “Lacy, l, a c, y” and watch as the shop assistant wrote Lacey. These days, spelling a customer’s last name is more important if you want your email to arrive.

I lived in Feilding for eight years and quickly became sensitive to the misspelling of the town’s name. It is named after Colonel William H. A. Feilding, a director of the Emigrant and Colonists’ Aid Corporation. Whatever you think of that decision, how the colonel spelt his name is how the town’s name should be spelt. The Central Districts Field Days at Manfeild in Feilding is a good phrase to get the grey matter going. Manfeild is a combination of Manawatū and Feilding.

Autocorrect of course doesn’t help with it insisting the correct spelling is Fielding.

Then we move to Ashhurst. If you aspirate the h at the start of the second syllable the word spells itself. Ash hurst. It’s not Ash urst.

Ashhurst was named for Henry Ashhurst.

Students learning English as a second language often spell Palmerston North Plamerston North. Few words that start with pal are in common usage with the exception of pal and palm. Plus two words with the first 10 letters is tricky for students who cannot read or write in their mother language.

But they are not the only ones. Try Googling “Plamerston North”. You will find a photo of Plamerston North’s The Square. It’s not a flattering one so we can discount it as our own Palmy. We also find a tyre and service centre, a supported living agency, and an open house in College St, all in Plamerston North.

But what really gets my palm waving are phrases like “Marton, a town in Manawatū” and “Manawatū town Woodville”. If you don’t live in the Palmerston North City Council or Manawatū District Council rohe you don’t live in Manawatū.

The geographical illiteracy of our region is rife. A woman I interviewed last year shared the anecdote of how she was told a case worker was coming down from Auckland to see her. Finally, she thought - until she was told the case worker was going to New Plymouth. The woman lives in Palmerston North.

She reckons this geographical illiteracy is only an Auckland thing and the answer is to state not just the distance between point A and point B in km but in hours. Our roads are often windy and narrow. They are definitely not like Auckland motorways.

I frequently see geographical illiteracy in media releases and PR pitches I’m sent from out-of-towners.

One that really took the raspberry slice was an invitation to see a programme in action at a school in the King Country.

Then there was the media release that proclaimed something exciting had happened in Manawatū-Whanganui. It had happened in Eketāhuna.

I’ve also been invited to a drive-in weight assessment clinic for dogs. In Hamilton.

When I worked at the Whanganui Chronicle, one of my achievements was getting RNZ to change the order of its weather forecast. Whanganui always came after Palmerston North - but after I queried why, they changed it. Of course, now I wish Palmerston North came first, even before Auckland.

This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air