Page 4 - Patrick Oregan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

"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 'Māoriland'. "[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." Māoriland. 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 Māoriland Film Festival). But if you jumped in a time machine and headed back to the 19th or early 20th centu...

Analysis - In 2015, New Zealand's Parliament was in the middle of a fierce debate to change a part of our heritage, the national flag. But 110 years earlier, there was an argument over an even more fundamental part of NZ identity. Our name. Musings in Māoriland was a collection of poetry by Thomas Bracken, author of NZ’s national anthem. Photo: Supplied / Te Ara It was 1895 and the radical liberal MP Patrick O'Regan took the floor of Parliament with a proposal to ditch "New Zealand" in favour of a new name. "Mr O'Regan asked the premier if the government are in favour of changing the pres...