Residents ask if council is on the right track

Press, 15 March 1980, Page 16

Residents ask if council is on the right track

By

GARRY ARTHUR

Imagine how you would feel if you went out one morning and found' that the name of your street had been changed without warning from Merivale Lane, say, ■ to Stinker’s Lane.

Not only would you be aggrieved at not being consulted, but you might also feel that there was something not quite nice about your new address. That was exactly how Mrs Rena Searle felt when she found that the City Council had changed the sighs on Scarborough Track to read “Mouldey’s Track”. It happened without warning or consultation, and she doesn’t , like it. If anyone should have been consulted, she feels that it should have been her. The Searles are the only residents with an address in what was Scarborough Track, although other properties have back entrances there. “We find the name Mouldey’s Track unattractive, and we want it changed back to Scarborough Track,” she says. “The ne\v name has an association with mould, although I realise that it has a good historical background. We wouldn’t mipd so much if it was Edwin Mouldey Track. But

it’s a silly name. “To be fair,” Mrs Searle adds, “I believe the track was originally called Mouldey’s Track.” But it has been called Scarborough No. 2 Track for at least 30 years, according to a council workman who knows the area well. Scarborough No. 1 Track ceased to

exist' when the old tearooms were demolished at the foot of the cliff where the track began.

Edwin Mouldey was a First Four Shipper who made a fortune as a wine merchant and land speculator. He came out on the Cressy as a boy of eight years old, as Gordon Ogilvie records in his informative book, “The Port Hills of Christchurch.” He became a successful confectioner, speculative builder, merchant, and land dealer. At one stage he was Christchurch’s , third biggest ratepayer. Mouldey bought land in Heathcote Valley in the early 1870 s and established an orchard and winery. He sold his fruit wines from his own shop in the city. He bought land on Scarborough too. and later lived there until his death in 1925 at the age of 83. Mouldey is believed to have formed the track which has now been given his name. It was Edwin Mouldey’s grandson, Mr Andrew Mouldey of Riccarton, who asked the Sumner Redcliffs Historic Society to name the track after his ancestor. The society has an understanding with

the City Council whereby any new placenames in the area are referred to it, so the society’s recommendation carried some weight with the council. But Mrs Searle said that the Mayor of Christchurch

(.Mr Hamish Hay) had told her that the council had “slipped up” in not discussing the change with the residents first. Since ' the name was changed, Mrs Searle has had telephone callers making weak jokes about her breqd going mouldy. It may have been the

same kind of jokes which persuaded Eva and Amy, two daughters of the original Mr Mouldey, to change their ■ names by deed poll. And his son Walter wrote on nautical themes, not qnaer his own

name, but under the penname of “Main Royal." Gordon Ogilvie remarked: “Walter Mouldey must have found it difficult enough selling wine and fruit with such a risky appellation, without running risks with his books. Hence his decision to write under a penname.”.

Mrs Searle is not very pleased that the Historic Society has taken it on itself to suggest a change of name for her street. “They’re only half a dozen people,” she says, “and I’m angry that they could inflict their ideas on me.” Mrs Searle is getting up

a petition to the council,:' urging it to change Moul-< dey’s Track back to, Scarborough Track. Shehas 32 signatures already, and says only one person has declined to sign.

“The council tried to tell me that Scarborough. No. 2 was not an official; name, but it’s been there, at least 30 years, apd it’s in Wise’s street direct-, ory.” . • The “No,. 2” is no longrer necessary, and Mrs" Searle will be perfectly happy if the council changes the name back to Scarborough Track. They don’t even have to tell her they are doing it.