NEW STREET NAMES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9667, 7 October 1909, Page 1

NEW STREET NAMES.

REASONS FOR THE CHANGES. RENUMBERING THE CITY. The alteration in the names of a number of well-known streets in the city, which were agreed upon by the City Council on Monday evening, have not been received with entire favour, objection being expressed to a change being made at all in the case of so well-known a thoroughfare as Windmill Road, for instance. A "Lyttelton Times " reporter, who interviewed the Mayor on the. subject yesterday, was j 'ihfojmed that in nearly every case the change in nomenclature had been made to remedy the multiplication of names which at present existed, and with a view to facilitating the delivery of correspondence and in other , matters in which the address was an essential consideration. ' The special committee of the City Council nad conferred with the authorities controlling the road board districts adjoining the city, Avon,. Riccarton and Heathcote, and with the Woolstou Borough Council, and wherever a name was used for two or more "streets it was retained for the best-known and more important of them, and new names were selected for the others. " Church/* ■ for instance, was found to be a very common name, occurring in no fewer than six instances within the area under consideration. There were three Church streets, a Church road, a Church lane and a Church, square. The Council had not ■ been able to remedy every case- of dupli- ' cation, as there were several streets in both Riccarton and Woolston which were similarly named to important ones in the city, and as the suburban authorities declined to make an alteration, and the city names could npt be rechristened, there was still duplication. Wherever two . streets formed sections of practically one continuous thoroughfare the less familiar of the names had been discarded and the other applied to the whole length of the street. Thus, the name Windmill Road had been done away with, and the name Antigua Street would be applied to the whole street from Victoria' Street to Brougham Street. The name "Park .was found in several parts of the city, so that there were two reasons for abolishing the name Park Terrace and extending Rollteston Avenue from the Antigua Street bridge to Bealey Avenue. The Mayor added that in choosing new names for those streets % in the Central Ward in which alteration was necessary, the committee had conformed to the principle that had been followed in naming the majority of the streets in the city proper after bishoprics. Many of the streets in Sydenham bore the names of authors, and the new names were of similar origin. For a like reason the new titles given to streets in the St Albans Ward were those of famous English schools. There were four streets in. Linwood which had been named respectively Clive, Havelock, Wellington and Marlborough, and the Council had followed out the idea, in selecting the names of the naval heroes Beresford and Seymour. It so happened that the last-named might also be regarded as the name of one of the first four ships. A correspondent writing to the t( Lyttelton Times" had raised an objection to the substitution of "'Wesley Street" for "Church Street," but the redundancy of the name demanded a change, and as there was a Methodist church on the corner of the street, the name was considered quite suitable. Referring to the re-numbering of the streets throughout Greater Christchurch, whioh is being carried out at present, the Mayor said that the existing state of affairs was most unsatisfactory. Comparatively few houses and places were numbered at all, in many cases the numbers were incorrect, and in other instances the numbers had been obliterated. The system of street numbering which was formerly followed was that all streets within the four principal avenues were numbered from south to north and from east to west. Streets outside that area were numbered from the belts, so that unless the ward was particularised in an address, the street number was of little assistance. It had now been decided that all streets in Greater Christchurch should be re-numbered, commencing from the southern and western boundaries, and continuing straight through to the northern and eastern boundaries. This would mean that practically every private house and every place of business would be allotted a new number. Where there was already a number, the City Council would provide a correct one in brass figures, but where there was no number, the occupier would have to pay for the new figures. Unless objection was made, the numbers would be placed on the gateposts -of each house. AU the streets in Linwood, with the exception of those which run right through, the city, had already been re-numbered. A big order for street name-plates would be sent Home shortly, and it was hoped that when the work was completed there would be much less difficulty than at present in finding an address.