Gazetting will bring updating

Land Information New Zealand will begin updating its electronic databases and hard copy publications to include the spelling of Whanganui.

Electronic databases - including Landonline, Topographic and Hydrographic datasets, the Authoritative Streets and Places (ASP) database - will be updated upon gazetting of the names, while hard copy materials - such as maps and charts - are to be updated at the time of their next publication run. The precise wording will be "Whanganui or Wanganui", said LINZ senior communications adviser Chas Te Runa.

A spokeswoman for Yellow said the latest phone book had only just been delivered and it would be some time before the company decided which spelling of the city it preferred.

Wanganui Chronicle general manager Andy Jarden said there were no immediate plans to change the newspaper's name.

"For more than 150 years, the spelling of the Wanganui Chronicle has reflected the spelling of the city, and we will continue to do so," he said. "Any change to a masthead [title] of a newspaper would need to be approved by the full board of APN New Zealand."

Numerous government agencies have already started adopting the H including Police and departments of conservation and corrections.