Borrows, Burrows: it's your call

It's often misspelt, generally mispronounced, and usually mangled in the translation, but it's something Whanganui MP Chester Borrows has got used to.

It's his surname and now he has taken to running two spellings in the local telephone directory to keep in contact with his constituents.

Mr Borrows is listed on Page 44 of the White Pages as "Borrows Chester MP".

But look at the facing page and you'll see a listing for "Burrows Chester MP - see Borrows Chester MP".

Of course, the phone numbers for both listings - to his electorate office - are identical but it's something the MP has had to do because of the aforementioned misspellings, mispronunciation and mangled translations.

"We did it because a lot of people appeared to have trouble spelling it and saying it," he said.

Mr Borrows often got emails addressed correctly (Borrows) but then the correspondent would begin with a "Dear Mr Burrows ..."

It's not unusual. Even his National Party colleagues and Opposition MPs will often drop in a "u" where an "o" should be.

So how long has this been a problem for the local MP?

"Fifty-five years and five months, roughly," he told the Chronicle. (Mr Borrows was born on June 20, 1957).

He remains philosophical about it, though.

"I remember writing one of my newspaper columns about the debate over the 'h' in Wanganui and mentioned then that my surname was spelled 'Borrows, as in scrounging stuff'.

"Soon after that, Tariana Turia apologised to me because she thought it had been spelt with a 'u'."

Mr Borrows said that on another occasion his parliamentary colleague, Wayne Mapp, made reference to the "hard-working MP Chester Burrows".

"Immediately, Opposition MP Annette King called out 'It's Borrows!' She'd know because she's a distant cousin on the family tree."

He said the extra listing did come with a small cost but then that was picked up by the taxpayer.

"We're trying to be accessible because regardless of their party they're all voters in this electorate," Mr Borrows said.

He doesn't have the same trouble in South Taranaki, which is part of the sprawling Whanganui electorate.

There, the MP is listed just once.

Look under "Borrows".