'Ngāti Benneydale': Town divided over name change

Sunday, 3 March 2019

It's usually the logging trucks thundering along State Highway 30 that break the silence in this sleepy backwater.

But recently, a deep conflict has rumbled its way through Benneydale.

Drive an hour from Hamilton and 35 kilometres southeast of Te Kūiti through the King Country's cone-shaped hills and wind your way to a wooden sign, its engraved letters spelling out 'Benneydale'.

You see two people out on their morning walk and ask what they think of their town's distinctive name.

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'Most people like Benneydale,' they say gruffly, and walk off.

Once a coal mining town, the name is a combination of two government officials - undersecretary of mines Charlie Benney and mine superintendent Tom Dale - in charge when the mine was bought in 1940.

Now, the Maniapoto Māori Trust Board has lodged an application to the New Zealand Geographic Board to change the name from Benneydale to Maniaiti.

At its height the mine employed about 2,000 people. But it closed in the late 1990s and the town began to empty. Its current population is about 170.

We cross the street straining our ears for sounds of life. The Benneydale Lodge looks open, rock music streaming out of its doors.

A town resident is working there today.

'It's just ridiculous,' Carollyn McFarlane says.

Graeme Reinhardt organised a petition to keep the Benneydale name.

'I saw it in our local paper last year and thought 'oh my God' - now everybody's up in arms about it really.'

'It's been like this for years and years and years. Why change it now?'

The application for the name change is part of the Crown's treaty settlement with the iwi, Maniapoto Māori Trust Board deputy chair Keith Ikin said.

'As with all of the redress for Maniapoto which is being negotiated through the settlement, the names including spelling of our wāhi, our towns, rivers and other places, is recognition of our mana whenua and demonstrates the Crown's willingness to address past Crown actions and wrongs.'

The original application was to change the name to Te Māniaiti, but further discussion with local knowledge holders has meant a submission for Maniaiti has since been put forward, Ikin said.

One local man, Graeme Reinhardt, believes the town's connection with its namesakes is strong.

'It's our tūrangawaewae, it's our base, it's our heart.

'Mr Benney was still alive for a long time and his descendants have come and stayed here, so the connection is still there.'

Reinhardt has launched a petition to keep the name as Benneydale. It garnered 292 signatures.

The signatures are mostly from local residents, or people who previously lived in the area, Reinhardt said.

'It [Benneydale] was the name of the township built from the ground up, the ground itself could be a different name, but not the township.

'99.9% of the names of anything in the King Country are in Māori…partnership is talked a lot about so maybe we should be allowed at least one or two English names.'

It is the only township in the King Country with an English name, he said.

He said having a dual English and Māori name would be 'the lesser of two evils', and people would eventually get used to it.

But he maintained that would be confusing.

'Benneydale is the name it was given and that's the name it should stay.'

Edward Emery of Ngāti Rereahu. Emery says he is upset by the lack of consultation from the Maniapoto Māori Trust Board over the name.

Historian for the Maniapoto Treaty Settlement, Paul Meredith, said the name Maniaiti comes from significant land marks in the area.

'The name Maniaiti is supported by the local Ngāti Rereahu.

'Maniaiti is the name of the hill immediately behind Benneydale and is a geographical feature and name of cultural and historical significance for Ngāti Rereahu and Maniapoto generally.

'There is a Māori reservation at the end of School Rd in Benneydale which carries the name Maniaiti papakāinga.'

The late Piripi Crown (Ngāti Rereahu and Maniapoto historian) noted that Te Ihingaarangi, the eldest son of Rereahu, is buried in a cave on Maniaiti, he said.

Meredith said Maniaiti well predates the name Benneydale.

But some Ngāti Rereahu residents of Benneydale are not happy with the Trust Board's actions.

Edward Emery, of Ngāti Rereahu, said the community had not been consulted about the change.

'They're making decisions without the people.

'We're from Ngāti Rereahu, we know what's been happening with the Trust Board, but nobody has come to us.

'If you lived somewhere and it was your family farm, how would you like us to come over into your fella's farm and start changing things around, this is part of our family land.

'The only thing we would like to be changed here is to put it as Ngāti Benneydale.'

He does not accept the names suggested by the Trust Board.

Benneydale was named after two government officials in charge of mining.

'Whoever was the historian they [the Trust Board] has used, we've never ever heard of him. They've started making up stories that we think 'where the hell did they get that from?''

Comments on the nearby Mangapeehi Marae's Facebook page suggested others were concerned there had been no local consultation, and there may be other names that had been used historically by Māori in the town.

Ikin said the Trust Board will further discuss the application at their next meeting and expects community consultation on the matter.

The New Zealand Geographic Board has received 35 submissions on the name change, which will be considered at its next meeting on April 11.

But Emery is clear in what he thinks the name should be.

'To incorporate with Māori they should put Ngāti Benneydale aka hearty [as the name.]'

'You have to be hearty to live around here,' he said.