21 September 2009
Media Release

Adding a ‘W’ gives Hamilton more oomph!

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The Laird McGillicuddy today made a hard-hitting call for the City of Hamilton to change the dead famous person after whom it is named.

New Zealand’s greatest inland metropolis is currently named after an obscure Victorian British naval officer, Capt. John Fane Charles Hamilton, who was killed at the Battle of Gate Pa, (near Tauranga), in 1864.

“Forget the embarrassing colonial past, let's look to the future and name our city after a zooming high-tech modern industrialist”, says the Laird, Graeme Cairns.

“Who better than the inventor of the Hamilton Jet Boat - William Hamilton.

“However, as a city name, ‘William Hamilton’ is a bit of a mouthful, and will cost far too much for signage alterations, so we propose to just add the ‘W’ and call this marvellous city of ours WHAMILTON! Now there’s a name with real impact!

“Whamilton is a punchy kind of name that reflects the city’s status as the country’s leading boxing and V8 racing venue. It works extremely well for promotional purposes too. By inverting the ‘i’, you can spell it ‘WHAM!lton’ (see proposed billboard, attached). The City Council Marketing staff are going to just love it”, predicts the Laird

“The late W. Hamilton’s huge internationally-recognised contribution to high-speed boating makes Whamilton – New Zealand’s largest and most significant ‘river city’ - the perfect place to immortalise his achievements.

“Like the British Capt Hamilton, W. Hamilton, never actually lived here, but like all New Zealanders he probably passed through Whamilton once or twice, (in his case probably at speed), so compared to some of Whamilton’s other claims to reflected fame, that’s more than enough of a connection.

“And best of all – adding a ‘W’ to the name will differentiate us from the 26 other towns and cities called Hamilton all around the world,” says the Laird of Whamilton.

ENDS

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