There is a fascinating question hiding in plain sight in the name of one of Northland's best-known cities:
When did Wangarei become Whangarei — and why?
The answer to the first question is reasonably clear.
The answer to the second is less straightforward.
The historical record shows that the modern spelling was not the form universally used throughout the nineteenth century. For generations, the name appeared in several forms — including Wangaree, Wangahree, Wanga Ree, Wangari and Wangarei.
So how did Whangarei become the accepted form?
And who decided that it was the correct one?
It wasn't always Whangarei
Today, Whangarei looks so familiar that it is easy to assume it has always been written that way.
It hasn't.
Samuel Marsden recorded Wangaree in 1820. John Butler used several variations in 1821, including Wangaree, Wangahree and Wanga Ree. [1]
French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville's expedition also used Wangari. A lithograph published in Paris in 1833 was titled Vue du Cap Wangari (Nouvelle-Zélande), and the accompanying historical record refers to “Wangari Bay.” [2]
These were not modern inventions. They appear in missionary records, maps, newspapers, Government documents and official correspondence over much of the nineteenth century.
There is particularly striking cartographic evidence.
Captain John Lort Stokes surveyed the harbour in 1849 aboard HMS Acheron. The resulting Admiralty chart, published in 1851, was titled “Wangari Harbour.” The British Admiralty's own historical chart catalogue records Chart No. 2047 as Wangari Harbour, surveyed by Captain Stokes in 1849. [3]
Archives New Zealand holds the same historical chart as R21488170.
So an official British hydrographic survey was using Wangari nearly half a century before the eventual Government spelling correction.
Wangari, Wangaree and Wangarei
The historical spelling continued to vary.
An Archives New Zealand record dated 23 December 1864 concerns Captain Hannibal Marks of the colonial steam gunboat Sandfly and refers to putting into Wangari [Whangarei]. The bracketed modern identification is catalogue terminology; the historically significant form in the record description is Wangari. [4]
By the later nineteenth century, Wangarei had become a common form in Government and public records.
The important point is that these forms coexisted.
The spelling history therefore cannot simply be described as one consistent name that was obviously “wrong” until somebody finally corrected it.
Instead, the documentary record shows a long period in which European writers were representing a Māori name in different ways.
The older pronunciation
Historical recollections suggest that the pronunciation also varied.
In 1947, A. H. Reed wrote to the New Zealand Listener that when his father settled at Whangarei about 60 years earlier, he recalled that everyone called the town Wangaree. Reed cited Marsden's 1820 Wangaree, Butler's 1821 Wangaree/Wangahree/Wanga Ree, and Dieffenbach's Wangari. He also recalled hearing the older pronunciation himself. [1]
In 1954, Reed returned to the subject and wrote that when his family lived in Whangarei from 1887 to 1895, he had never heard the name pronounced with the modern initial “wh” sound. He suggested that the older form was closer to Wa-nga-ree and asked:
“It would be interesting to know when and by whose authority the present spelling of the town was adopted.” [5]
That is a remarkably pertinent question — and one that still deserves an answer.
There was also an old “Wong-a-ree”
Another 1954 correspondent, Alex Main, provided an independent family recollection.
Main said his family possessed an old rate book and ledger dating from 1850. The records used different spellings, including WANGAREI and WHANGAREI. He said his grandparents, who settled in the district in the early 1850s, always spelled it WANGAREI and pronounced it “WONG-A-REE.” [6]
That doesn't prove what the original Māori pronunciation was.
But it is interesting that Wangari, Wangaree, Wangarei and Wongaree are all sufficiently similar to suggest that at least some of the nineteenth-century spelling differences may have been attempts by English-speaking writers to represent a heard Māori name using the spelling conventions available to them.
That is a reasonable historical possibility, not proof of a particular original pronunciation.
Then came 1 December 1896
This is where the documentary record becomes very precise.
The Post and Telegraph Department's official report for the year ending 31 March 1896 was still using Wangarei in its lists and descriptions. It refers, for example, to the Wangarei telephone line and the Wangarei post office. [7]
Later that year, however, the spelling was changed.
The New Zealand Gazette subsequently published a list headed:
”DESIGNATIONS CORRECTED”
Among the corrections were:
Wangarei → Whangarei
Wangarei Heads → Whangarei Heads
Wangaroa → Whangaroa
Mongonui → Mangonui
and several other place-name changes.
The Wangarei changes took effect on 1 December 1896. [8]
The Post and Telegraph Department's 1897 annual report independently confirms the change, stating that names were corrected and specifically listing:
“Wangarei to Whangarei, Wangarei Heads to Whangarei Heads, Wangaroa to Whangaroa…” 1897 Post and Telegraph Department report [9]
So the crucial date is firmly established:
1 December 1896.
But why was it changed?
This is where the story becomes more complicated.
One explanation that appears in later accounts is that Wangarei could be confused with Wanganui in handwritten postal addresses, causing mail to be misdirected. Adding the “h” would have made the names more visually distinct.
That is a plausible explanation for a nineteenth-century postal system.
But there is an important qualification:
No contemporary Post Office document could be found that explicitly states that confusion with Wanganui was the reason for the Wangarei → Whangarei correction.
The Post Office's own 1897 report describes the exercise differently.
It says the names were “corrected”, and lists Wangarei among a group of Māori place names whose spellings were altered. [9]
That suggests the Department regarded the exercise as a broader matter of name correction or standardisation, rather than simply a solution to one postal-routing problem.
Was there one person responsible?
No evidence has been found that a particular clerk or local postmaster simply decided to add an “h”.
The change occurred as part of a departmental exercise involving numerous place names.
The Post and Telegraph Department implemented the change, but that does not necessarily mean the Postmaster-General or a particular Post Office official personally originated the spelling.
The more interesting question is:
Was it:
And that distinction is important.
It is known the Post and Telegraph Department implemented the change.
So how did Whangarei become the accepted form?
And who decided that it was the correct one?
It wasn't always Whangarei
Today, Whangarei looks so familiar that it is easy to assume it has always been written that way.
It hasn't.
Samuel Marsden recorded Wangaree in 1820. John Butler used several variations in 1821, including Wangaree, Wangahree and Wanga Ree. [1]
French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville's expedition also used Wangari. A lithograph published in Paris in 1833 was titled Vue du Cap Wangari (Nouvelle-Zélande), and the accompanying historical record refers to “Wangari Bay.” [2]
These were not modern inventions. They appear in missionary records, maps, newspapers, Government documents and official correspondence over much of the nineteenth century.
There is particularly striking cartographic evidence.
Captain John Lort Stokes surveyed the harbour in 1849 aboard HMS Acheron. The resulting Admiralty chart, published in 1851, was titled “Wangari Harbour.” The British Admiralty's own historical chart catalogue records Chart No. 2047 as Wangari Harbour, surveyed by Captain Stokes in 1849. [3]
Archives New Zealand holds the same historical chart as R21488170.
So an official British hydrographic survey was using Wangari nearly half a century before the eventual Government spelling correction.
Wangari, Wangaree and Wangarei
The historical spelling continued to vary.
An Archives New Zealand record dated 23 December 1864 concerns Captain Hannibal Marks of the colonial steam gunboat Sandfly and refers to putting into Wangari [Whangarei]. The bracketed modern identification is catalogue terminology; the historically significant form in the record description is Wangari. [4]
By the later nineteenth century, Wangarei had become a common form in Government and public records.
The important point is that these forms coexisted.
The spelling history therefore cannot simply be described as one consistent name that was obviously “wrong” until somebody finally corrected it.
Instead, the documentary record shows a long period in which European writers were representing a Māori name in different ways.
The older pronunciation
Historical recollections suggest that the pronunciation also varied.
In 1947, A. H. Reed wrote to the New Zealand Listener that when his father settled at Whangarei about 60 years earlier, he recalled that everyone called the town Wangaree. Reed cited Marsden's 1820 Wangaree, Butler's 1821 Wangaree/Wangahree/Wanga Ree, and Dieffenbach's Wangari. He also recalled hearing the older pronunciation himself. [1]
In 1954, Reed returned to the subject and wrote that when his family lived in Whangarei from 1887 to 1895, he had never heard the name pronounced with the modern initial “wh” sound. He suggested that the older form was closer to Wa-nga-ree and asked:
“It would be interesting to know when and by whose authority the present spelling of the town was adopted.” [5]
That is a remarkably pertinent question — and one that still deserves an answer.
There was also an old “Wong-a-ree”
Another 1954 correspondent, Alex Main, provided an independent family recollection.
Main said his family possessed an old rate book and ledger dating from 1850. The records used different spellings, including WANGAREI and WHANGAREI. He said his grandparents, who settled in the district in the early 1850s, always spelled it WANGAREI and pronounced it “WONG-A-REE.” [6]
That doesn't prove what the original Māori pronunciation was.
But it is interesting that Wangari, Wangaree, Wangarei and Wongaree are all sufficiently similar to suggest that at least some of the nineteenth-century spelling differences may have been attempts by English-speaking writers to represent a heard Māori name using the spelling conventions available to them.
That is a reasonable historical possibility, not proof of a particular original pronunciation.
Then came 1 December 1896
This is where the documentary record becomes very precise.
The Post and Telegraph Department's official report for the year ending 31 March 1896 was still using Wangarei in its lists and descriptions. It refers, for example, to the Wangarei telephone line and the Wangarei post office. [7]
Later that year, however, the spelling was changed.
The New Zealand Gazette subsequently published a list headed:
”DESIGNATIONS CORRECTED”
Among the corrections were:
Wangarei → Whangarei
Wangarei Heads → Whangarei Heads
Wangaroa → Whangaroa
Mongonui → Mangonui
and several other place-name changes.
The Wangarei changes took effect on 1 December 1896. [8]
The Post and Telegraph Department's 1897 annual report independently confirms the change, stating that names were corrected and specifically listing:
“Wangarei to Whangarei, Wangarei Heads to Whangarei Heads, Wangaroa to Whangaroa…” 1897 Post and Telegraph Department report [9]
So the crucial date is firmly established:
1 December 1896.
But why was it changed?
This is where the story becomes more complicated.
One explanation that appears in later accounts is that Wangarei could be confused with Wanganui in handwritten postal addresses, causing mail to be misdirected. Adding the “h” would have made the names more visually distinct.
That is a plausible explanation for a nineteenth-century postal system.
But there is an important qualification:
No contemporary Post Office document could be found that explicitly states that confusion with Wanganui was the reason for the Wangarei → Whangarei correction.
The Post Office's own 1897 report describes the exercise differently.
It says the names were “corrected”, and lists Wangarei among a group of Māori place names whose spellings were altered. [9]
That suggests the Department regarded the exercise as a broader matter of name correction or standardisation, rather than simply a solution to one postal-routing problem.
Was there one person responsible?
No evidence has been found that a particular clerk or local postmaster simply decided to add an “h”.
The change occurred as part of a departmental exercise involving numerous place names.
The Post and Telegraph Department implemented the change, but that does not necessarily mean the Postmaster-General or a particular Post Office official personally originated the spelling.
The more interesting question is:
Where did the authority for choosing “Whangarei” come from?
Was it:
- a recommendation from another Government department?
- information obtained from Māori informants?
- advice from a Māori-language scholar?
- a surveyor or mapping authority?
- an established spelling already appearing on Government maps?
- or a practical departmental decision?
And that distinction is important.
It is known the Post and Telegraph Department implemented the change.
But not yet known who first established the preferred spelling or precisely what evidence supported it.
The Post Office may not have invented “Whangarei”
There is another important clue.
Whangarei was already appearing in some Government usage before the Post Office's December 1896 correction.
That means the Post Office may have been adopting or standardising a form already circulating elsewhere, rather than inventing a completely new spelling.
This makes the question of the original source of the spelling even more interesting.
The Post Office correction may therefore have been the final administrative adoption, rather than the moment when somebody first decided that “Whangarei” was the preferred form.
What does the New Zealand Geographic Board say?
There is also modern official confirmation that a change occurred.
In a New Zealand Geographic Board FAQ concerning the proposed change from Wanganui to Whanganui, the Board notes that many “whanga-” names were changed in the late nineteenth century, including Whangarei, which was changed from Wangarei. [10]
So the historical change itself is not in serious doubt.
The unresolved issue is the reasoning and authority behind it.
This isn't an argument to rename Whangarei
There is no need to turn this historical investigation into an argument about what the city should be called today.
That isn't the point.
The point is simply that names have histories, and sometimes those histories are more complicated than the modern spelling suggests.
For much of the nineteenth century, official and contemporary records used forms including Wangari, Wangaree and Wangarei.
Then, in 1896, the Government adopted Whangarei as the corrected form for Post Office purposes.
The date is known.
The Department responsible for implementing the postal change is known.
The wider correction exercise is documented.
But the precise origin of the preferred spelling remains less clear.
And that leaves the question A. H. Reed was asking back in 1954:
When — and by whose authority — was the present spelling of the town adopted?
Perhaps the answer was practical.
Perhaps it was linguistic.
Perhaps it was both.
But before Wangarei is dismissed as simply “wrong”, it is worth remembering that it was not an isolated spelling mistake. It was a form used for generations in maps, Government records, correspondence and everyday life.
The history of the name is therefore worth knowing — even if the name itself remains unchanged.
Because the spelling that is inherited today is not necessarily the spelling history began with.
References:
1. A.H. Reed, “Wan-Garee,” New Zealand Listener, 24 January 1947.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19470124.2.10.7
2. National Library of New Zealand, Sainson, Vue du cap Wangari (Nouvelle Zelande), from Dumont d’Urville’s 1833 expedition atlas.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23246674
3. United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Archives Catalogue, Admiralty Chart No. 2047, Wangari Harbour, surveyed by Captain Stokes, 1849; published 1851.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7d64cbe5274a7b50cceb31/UKHO-1870-Archives-Catalogue.pdf
4. Archives New Zealand, record R24079897, letter from Captain Hannibal Marks, Sandfly, 23 December 1864, referring to Wangari [Whangarei].
5. A.H. Reed, “Spelling of Whangarei,” New Zealand Listener, 19 March 1954.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540319.2.12.5
6. Alex Main, “Spelling of Whangarei,” New Zealand Listener, 11 June 1954.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540611.2.12.2
7. New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department, Annual Report, 1896. The report still uses Wangarei in official postal and telephone references.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1896-I.2.3.2.1
8. New Zealand Gazette, 1897, “Designations Corrected.” The notice records Wangarei → Whangarei and Wangarei Heads → Whangarei Heads, with the changes effective 1 December 1896.
https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1897/issue/4/page/118
9. New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department, Annual Report, 1897. The report states: “Names were corrected as follow,” including Wangarei to Whangarei.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1897-II.2.2.4.1
10. Land Information New Zealand / New Zealand Geographic Board, Frequently Asked Questions: Wanganui/Whanganui.
https://www.linz.govt.nz/sites/default/files/consult/nzgb_faqs_wanganui-proposed-change-whanganui_20121206.pdf
Geoff Parker is a passionate advocate for equal rights and a colour blind society.
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