What's in a name?� Shakespeare may have had his own ideas, but the subject of whether Whangarei's Mt Parahaki should in fact be named Mt Parihaka caused a strong and often bitter debate in 2005.�

While many local residents - and also the owners of businesses which had named their companies after Parahaki - clearly supported retention of that name, iwi believed it was wrong.� Kaumatua Te Ihi Tito had approached the district council in 2003 about the name returning to its original Maori, Parihaka (name of another famous site in Taranaki).�� The then mayor, Pamela Peters, had announced in June that the proposal to correct the name was being recommended by the NZ Geographic Board on precisely that basis. The final decision was eventually� made in favour of Parihaka by the minister of land information.

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