Waihenga or Waihinga?

The spelling of this place-name has caused endless confusion over the years. Even the Martinborough Star has difficulty deciding which might be the correct spelling. The July issue this year has the name spelled Waihenga twice on page 1, and Waihinga five times on page 7.
My research on the matter indicates that although Waihinga appears on the earliest maps, the Waihenga spelling became more common from the 1870s onwards, often appearing thus in Wellington newspapers.

For example, the old cemetery next to the school in Martinborough is signposted as Waihenga Cemetery. The earliest burial in this cemetery dates to 1872. Crawford uses this spelling in his interesting article about Bidwill’s hills in 1880 (Crawford, J.C. 1880. On Bidwill’s Front Hills. Article LXVIII, Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute Volume 12: 416-418, 1879). The bridge over the Ruamahanga is frequently referred to as Waihenga Bridge in various official local body documents. For example, the 1884 survey plan 2242 of roadways in the vicinity of Martinborough uses the Waihenga spelling.

Contrary to this, when the township of Martinborough was laid out in 1879 by John Martin, it replaced a small European settlement which had the name Wharekaka, and a nearby Maori village named Waihinga. The Survey Plan 8176 of the Martinborough township in 1927 also uses the Waihinga spelling in several places.

In view of the variable spelling of this place name in various historical documents it is hardly surprising that confusion survives to the present day. How then could one decide which is correct? I wondered if there might be something in the name itself which might help. Unfortunately, interpreting the meaning Maori of place names is often really difficult; however, I asked a leading authority on the Maori language, Ray Harlow, for his opinion. Harlow is the Professor of Linguistics at Waikato University and a foundation member of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori, The Maori Language Commission. He responded that both Waihinga and Waihenga are at least possible names. Henga occurs for instance in Rarohenga, a name for the ‘underworld’. The word Hinga is to fall over like a tree, so a place-name like Waihinga might be a place where someone was defeated. He added that a place name like Waihenga did not suggest anything in particular.

One of the best sources of information on place names is the earliest hand written survey plans of New Zealand. It is interesting that Waihinga or Waihenga is very rare on any map in New Zealand from any period. To my knowledge there are only two places with this name. One is at Martinborough, and the other is just south of Honeycomb Rock near Glenburn on the coast. Waihinga Stream runs inland at this point and is marked on the NZMS260 map T27. However, more recent maps, such as BQ35 on the Topo-50 series, shows this as Waihingaia Stream.
To confuse things even more, the 1941 Map WN 85 (in the Cadastral Map Series NZMS13), shows Waihenga immediately to the west of the Martinborough township.

In 1946, The New Zealand Geographic Board came into being with the passing of the New Zealand Geographic Board Act. This body has the official responsiblity for regularising place names throughout New Zealand and careful historical research, including iwi consultation, is carried out before recommending any changes. Before 1946 these duties were carried out by the Honorary Geographical Board of New Zealand, and in 1948 the newly established New Zealand Geographic Board published a list of the changes made by the earlier body. They were published in the New Zealand Gazette 29 July 1948 (Notice No. 42. In this, the name Waihenga was officially changed to Waihinga on page 964, referring to Block 9, Huangarua Survey District in 1941, and the original record can be seen below. This very likely means the 1941 Cadastral Map already referred to. The 1981 Cadastral Map Sheet S27 (NZMS261 Series) now has this as Waihinga.