New Zealand, new names

Here's an interesting story from the other side of the world. It concerns New Zealand, or rather it concerns the two islands which make up the large part of New Zealand.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, a discovery by officials that the existing names had never been adopted in law has increased pressure from Maori nationalists for the names to be dropped.
However, some opposed to the idea criticised the suggestion as "political correctness of the worst kind".
The New Zealand Geographic Board, the statutory body charged with gazetting placenames, said it stumbled on the anomaly after a member of the public proposed changing the name of South Island to Te Wai Pounamu, the Maori alternative.
The Maori name means "place of greenstone" after the island's outcrops of jade, from which tribes traditionally crafted weapons and jewellery.
Maori know North Island as Te Ika a Maui or "the fish of Maui", based on a legend about how the god Maui hauled the island up from the sea while fishing.
"The English names North and South Island are not official," said Don Grant, the board's chairman.
"They had appeared in maps for a long time, but they were not official."
Dr Grant said the board would consult Maori tribes in the next few weeks, then put up suggestions to the wider public in 2010.
He said the Maori names might run in tandem with today's or could even replace them altogether.
Hone Harawhira, an outspoken Maori Party MP, said: "It's time to drop the North Island, South Island. Those names don't have any connotation except these people are too dumb to work it out for themselves."