Talk:Pounamu

Untitled
This page should be modified to redirect to Greenstone Fanx 23:19, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Two things
This page should not go under Greenstone. Greenstone correctly refers to a disambiguation page and then Pounamu. The other things is I cannot find a reference to the Michael Hurst story which I saw in an interview. I guess at some stage it will be removed which is a bit sad but in the interim I will try and find some reference which will allow it to stay in some form as it is an interesting piece of trivia which shows to some degree the value people place on pounamu above its monetary considerations L-Bit 07:17, 19 July 2007 (UTC).
 * Well, it's been 13 years and no reference. There are probably lots of other accounts of important pounamu pieces and their ownership that are more worthy for an encyclopedia article. ——Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 08:25, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 03:18, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

West Coast Picture
, I think you may have misread the caption when you deleted the sat photo. You write, "the green colour of NZ is NOT due to Pounamu, it is due to green grass. ANY rock, or any other SUBSTANCE covered by green grass will appear green, so it seems a fatous unencyclopedic point." That caption did not say that NZ's colour was due to Pounamu. Instead, it says that that coast was named for the stone. I do not think that statement is fat[u]ous or unencyclopaedic. In fact, I got to this article the first time from the South Island section that talks about it being named "Waters [or place] of Greenstone]]." Could you discuss the issue here before deleting it again, please? Last1in (talk) 14:17, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

I am not the person who removed it but I am not sure if this wording is correct. "The west coast of New Zealand, Te Wai Pounamu, is named for its resemblance to the greenstone". It was not named after its resemblance to the greenstone, it was named because greenstone was found only in the rivers and beaches of the South Island.

I believe the caption should say "The West Coast of New Zealand, Te Wai Pounamu, is named for the Pounamu found in its rivers and on its beaches."

--Teruakohatu (talk) 22:46, 16 January 2020 (UTC)


 * Last1in, I'm happy to discuss this image. You claim that the caption text did not say that NZ's colour was due to pounamu. The caption text said "From space, the west coast of New Zealand, Te Wai Pounamu, resembles the greenstone after which it is named." (version https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pounamu&oldid=935898431). The NASA source webpage text for this satellite image states "From space, the west coast of New Zealand resembles the greenstone for which it is named. Dark green native forest extends from the mountain tree line to the shore. Southern beech, rimu and kahikatea (both tall conifers) once covered more than 80 percent of New Zealand, but the lowland forests are now less extensive. The lighter green land in the southeast was once forested, but is now grassland or agriculture. The remaining forest is as precious as the greenstone it resembles." (The image description on Wikimedia Commons omits NASA's last sentence). I think the NASA source text includes (a) an explicit resemblance because pounamu and the forests/grass are both precious -I suppose this raises the issue of how does one demonstrate "precious" in an image?- and (b) an implicit resemblance because both are green. I do not object to the claim that the coast is "named after greenstone", I object the the "resembles greenstone" claim. My objection to the photo is that it shows large areas of green forest/grass, not small green pounamu outcrops too small to be seen from space. I think NASA's and your point about the coast being named for pounamu/greenstone is fair enough. My objection is that the image is not good/suitable support for NASA's and your "named for" point - greenstone is not giving the green colour in the image, hence my earlier comment in my edit summary when I removed the image. Perhaps this issue could be resolved by not having this image to support the naming point - i.e. make the naming point as ordinary text in the article and discard the image? GeoWriter (talk) 15:55, 17 January 2020 (UTC)