‘Character’ dies

Press, 31 October 1979, Page 1

‘Character’ dies

One of Canterbury’s best known “characters,” Mr Walter Moore, has died at his daughter’s home in Christchurch after a short illness. He was 73. Mr Moore had spent his life in Canterbury as a classics master at Christ’s College, a rose gardener in St Albans, and finally, as a fisherman and an irritant of the powers that be at Akaroa, where he lived until just before his death.

Mr Moore was born in England into a family that once owned coalmines; his father was a Sussex farmer. He attended an English Cublic school and Camridge University. He taught at a secondary school in Wales and was a yachtsman of some note before he came to New Zealand in his 20s and began teaching at Christ’s College in 1930 having been attracted to New Zealand by stories of fine sailing opportunities here. In his 18 years as a master at Christ’s College, ‘Wombat,” as he was known, left behind a reputation as a disciplinarian. He required one hapless schoolboy who broke a window on a wintry day to sit in the window with his posterior keeping the ele-

ments out of the classroom for an entire Latin period. A keen chess player himself — he won many local and national championships — Mr Moore started the schoolboy chess competition in Christchurch while he was a schoolmaster. He decided to leave teaching when another retiring colleague remarked that he felt as if he had reached the end of a prison sentence.

Mr Moore bought land on the outskirts of Christchurch and began growing roses, until the city came out to meet him. He then moved to Akaroa to put his sailing knowledge to good use as a fisherman. While at Akaroa, Mr Moore had a number of differences with local authorities. On one occasion, he thwarted the Akaroa Civic Trust by painting out a billboard the trust had erected on the road into Akaroa — “Akaroa welcomes you” — which he and many other residents found offensive. Another “fight” Mr Moore had with county officers was when they blew up an old house at the Kaik which two Maori brothers had been accustomed to live in when they

waited to remove themselves from the temptations of Akaroa’s hotels. Mr Moore took the case up legally, and won it. He said last November that what he enjoyed most about living in Akaroa was the “life of small things round about”; he could count from his veranda 25 different species of birds, he said. Mr Moore married Miss Phylis Bel] after he settled in Christchurch. They had three sons and three daughters. Another child died young.

Hugh, the third son, was killed in a shooting accident in Southland last year. His son-in-law, Mr Sidney Ashton, yesterday recalled Mr Moore as something of a “character.” He had a tremendous grasp of Latin and Greek and could quote long passages in both languages, Mr. Ashton said. Mr Moore could also speak French, German, and Maori. He had made great friends with the Maori people at Akaroa. “He could talk to anyone, from a university professor to a labourer,” said Mr Ashton. "He was very well read, but no snob.”