"Mr O'Regan asked the premier if the government are in favour of changing the present inappropriate name of the colony for the more suitable one of 'MÄoriland'. "[Premier Richard Seddon] thought, for weal or woe, we had better stick to the name of New Zealand, and he was not inclined to change the name." MÄoriland. If you used that term today, nobody would know what you were talking about (unless they were a film buff, in which case they might think you were talking about the MÄoriland Film Festival). But if you jumped in a time machine and headed back to the 19th or early 20th century, everybody would know that MÄoriland meant New Zealand.