Fenton Darien: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15542] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I will speak on Part 2 “Naming of geographic features and Crown protected areas”. In doing so I acknowledge the contribution this afternoon from the Maori Party member Te Ururoa Flavell on the importance of correct pronunciation. I apologise for my poor attempts at Maori. Unlike other members I have not been brought up bilingual and I do my best. 
I understand the importance of naming and having names pronounced correctly. Just for the information of the Committee I say that my name is pronounced “Dar-rien” not “Darry-en”. If people could make the effort to get that right I would appreciate it. For years and years people have mispronounced my name. I understand exactly what the Maori Party is saying about that. It has got to a point where I hardly bother about it now but I would appreciate it if a bit of respect were showed in this House. My name is pronounced “Dar-rien”. 
I want to talk about the importance of naming rights and also about some of the rubbish that has been talked about them by the members on the opposite side of the Chamber. I also want to talk about the scare stories about what can happen under this bill. It is very interesting when one looks into this bill and sees how people have used the Geographic Board the importance of proposals to the board and who actually sees these things as important. I was interested to read about a certain Mr Holmes— 
Sandra Goudie 
: Explain clause 24. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: If Ms Goudie would just listen she might learn something once more. 
Mr Holmes is known as “the detective” and he has had 60 corrected place names accepted by the New Zealand Geographic Board since 1997 with more in the pipeline. The corrected place names include mountain ranges mountains glaciers peaks localities small hills bits of hills a lot of streams and creeks and a few coastal features on points and bays. He has presented these out of a passion for the large number of misspelt names let alone mispronounced names. He has reminded the Geographic Board that one of its functions—and one of the reasons one would submit a proposal to the board under Part 2—is to examine cases of doubtful spelling of place names and also to determine the spelling to be adopted on official maps. 
Mr Holmes put a couple of interesting submissions to the board. One of his longest submissions to date was a change of name from Rewiti to Reweti. I apologise for the pronunciation. That submission ran to 40 pages. Chief Reweti Tamahiki was one of the chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi. An area was named after him when he gifted the land that finished the railway line through to Helensville. [ 
Interruption 
] I would have thought the member John Key would be interested in what is happening in Helensville but probably not—we do not see him in the Chamber very often these days. 
These examples illustrate that the proposals that can be submitted to the board under the provisions in Part 2—I have many more examples and I am happy to take many more calls on the proposals that can be submitted to the board—are very very important. They are important to ordinary people in New Zealand. This side of the Chamber takes that extremely seriously but members on that side of the Chamber have derided this bill. They have been disgusting in their derision of the board and disgusting in their comments about this bill and quite frankly I am appalled.