Murihiku is a region of the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, as used by the

Māori people Māori () are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of Māori migration canoes, c ...

. Traditionally it was used to describe the portion of the South Island below the

Waitaki River The Waitaki River is a large braided river in the South Island of New Zealand. It drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast. It starts at the confluence of the Ōhau Ri ...

, but now is mostly used to describe the province of Southland. The name means 'the tail end (of the land)' (literally , 'the end of'; , 'tail'). In 1861, when Southland became a province, the settler population wanted to retain the name "Murihiku", but this wish was ignored by Governor

Thomas Gore Browne Colonel Sir Thomas Robert Gore Browne (3 July 1807 – 17 April 1887) was a British colonial administrator, who was Governor of St Helena, Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Tasmania and Governor of Bermuda. Early life Browne was born on ...

. This was "much to the inhabitants' indignation and disgust".

References

Further reading