New Zealand Drops Racially Offensive Place Names

WELLINGTON, Dec 8, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Dec, 2016 ) - New Zealand is to erase the racially offensive word "nigger" from its landscape, the government said Thursday. The Names of three areas in the Southern Alps of the South Island have been changed to words taken from the indigenous Maori language.

Nigger Stream will now be known as Pukio Stream, Niggerhead becomes Tawhai Hill and Nigger Hill is renamed Kanuka Hills. Land Information Minister Louise Upston said the use of "nigger" reflected a time "when attitudes towards this word were markedly different to what they are now".

"It is a word that is clearly offensive to most people today," she added. "This isn't about rewriting history. It is and will remain a matter of public record that these three places used to carry different names.

"However, in a society like ours that is multicultural and where most New Zealanders do not go out of their way to be offensive or exclude others, I do not believe this word has a place in our official names."