Wikipedia:NZGB Independent Sources

The New Zealand Geographic Board Act 2008 (NZBG Act 2008) grants the New Zealand Geographic Board various powers related to official names for geographic features in New Zealand. This includes a broad requirement for government entities and some non-government entities to use the official name in all publications, a requirement which NZGB is actively involved in ensuring adherence to.

Under WP:COMMONNAME we prefer to use independent sources in order to avoid giving undue weight to compulsory usage of a specific name. This explanatory supplement is intended to assist editors in identifying those sources.

NZGB Act 2008

The relevant sections of the act are as follows:

32 Official geographic names must be used
(1) If there is an official geographic name for a geographic feature or Crown protected area, that name must be used in all official documents.
(1A) If 2 or more alternative official geographic names exist for the same geographic feature or Crown protected area, the use of any 1 of those names, or all of those names, is sufficient to comply with subsection (1).
(2) However, subsection (1) does not apply if an official document containing a name other than an official geographic name states that the particular name is not the official geographic name of the geographic feature or Crown protected area to which it applies.

— New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008, Section 32

The term "official geographic name" is defined in the act, and can be determined by searching the name in the gazetteer; official names are listed in bold, and the "details" sections contains "This is an official name". The term "official document" is defined in the same Act:

official document—

(a) means a published document created by a public office or by a local authority in the course of business; and
(b) includes, in relation to documents published in New Zealand or prepared in New Zealand for publication outside New Zealand (whether or not created by a public office or by a local authority in the course of business),—

(i) geographic and scientific publications and manuscripts; and

(ii) publications intended for travellers or tourists

— New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008, Section 4

Government Sources

All government entities are required by the Act to use the official name in all written publications. It should be noted that crown entities are considered separate to government entities and are instead held to the same requirement as non-government sources; for assessing their independence, see WP:NZNGS.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of government sources required to use the official name, provided by the NZGB:

• Legislation
• Government websites
• LINZ maps and charts
• LINZ Landonline
• Road signs

Non-Government Sources

The NZGB Act 2008 requires three forms of publications to use the official name; publications intended for tourists, scientific publications, and geographic publications.

According to the NZGB, as of 2019 they consider "publications intended for tourists" to be defined as "information for tourists", and so publications that go beyond this scope can be considered independent. The definition of "information for tourists" is unclear.

Scientific publications covers both those published in New Zealand, as well as those published outside New Zealand that were prepared in the New Zealand. This means that New Zealand scientific publications cannot be considered independent for the purpose of determining place names, while foreign publications should first be assessed to determine whether they were prepared in New Zealand before considering them independent. This can be done by reviewing the list of involved entities and authors to determine a connection to New Zealand.

"Geographic publications" covers all maps published or prepared in New Zealand. The NZGB considers this to extend to international entities such as Google Maps, but the enforcement in these cases may vary as they find that they have "limited control" over them. These international entities are covered in more depth below.

Other New Zealand sources, such as news articles, can be considered independent. This includes articles from public-service broadcasters such as RNZ, per the requirements for crown entities.

Online maps

While the NZGB considers the NZGB Act 2008 to apply to international services such as Google Maps, in practice their ability to exert control is limited and it appears that as of 2019 these services do not explicitly comply with the law. However, because of how these services build their maps, in some cases they are not independent of dependent sources, and so should be used with caution, and it is preferable to use the underlying source if it can be identified.

Online Map Independence Assessment

Service	Independent?	Reliable?	Notes
Google Maps	Maybe	Maybe	Google Maps does not provide a clear statement about its sources but it does provide a general statement about sourcing from government organizations, as well as minimal list of attributions. In the case of New Zealand, these attributions makes it clear that it relies heavily on non-independent sources, though NZGB does consider it to show "incorrect" place names for some locations suggesting that there is some degree of independence. Further, there is a brief mention of a "(CC-BY-4.0)" attribution, without further details, suggesting it relies on user-generated sources in some cases, which would make it unreliable. If it is to be used it should be used with significant caution.
Apple Maps	Maybe	No	As of 2021, Apple Maps sources from a variety of entities. These include reliable sources, but also includes user-generated sources which are considered unreliable. These also include independent sources, but also non-independent sources like LINZ. Given the impossibility of determining where a specific name is sourced from an independent and reliable source, Apple Maps should not be used; instead editors should rely on the underlying sources.
Bing Maps	Yes	?	As of 2021, Bing Maps sources from TomTom, which appears to be independent of the NZGB Act 2008, though this independence may change in the future. Note that in circumstances where TomTom does not have information on a location, Bing Maps may source an entities name and location from Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap.

Multiple official names

In some cases, geographic locations may have multiple official names, such as "Wanganui" or "Whanganui". In some of these cases it may be specified which form some government sources, such as road signs, are required to use, but all non-government sources can be considered to be independent when it comes to assessing which of two official names are the common name.

See also

• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (New Zealand) - Guideline on New Zealand Naming Conventions

External links

• Public Interest Journalism Q and A, which provides information about the government funding eligibility criteria for New Zealand media.