Alternate reality

Nick Perry, writing from Wellington (your report, 11 October) on the subject of the official naming of New Zealand’s islands, said that equal status would be given to the “alternate [sic] Maori names”.

Unless the English titles are to alternate on a daily, weekly or monthly basis with the Maori, then the correct word is “alternative”.

Such distinctions every schoolchild used to know.

Donald Murray

Insch, Aberdeenshire