Ask Phoebe: Auckland's 'grammar schools' a mystery

Auckland seems to be the only place in New Zealand where there are state "grammar schools". Photo / Doug Sherring

Auckland seems to be the only place in New Zealand where there are state "grammar schools". Can you tell us how and why this terminology was adopted, and why it doesn't seem to be used anymore? Ian Dally, Mt Albert.

No, I can't. I cannot find anything about this nomenclature, but would be delighted to hear. But in the course of my research, I found the Cathedral Grammar School in Christchurch.

Vivienne and Garth Cumberland of Grey Lynn have disputed my interpretation of the name Bullock Track, and taken me to task. They provided the following, for general edification, for which I thank them:

"No teamster in his/her right mind would ever divert a team of animals from a mostly level roadway (like Great North Rd going one way - or Surrey Cres the other) to face a track with the extreme slope of "Bullock Track". The course of Bullock Track is way too steep for any animal-drawn conveyance, and certainly not a heavily loaded one.

"For safety, a competent teamster will always stick to the level or to minimal slopes, even if it involves greater travel distances. There has always been a more level alternative to Bullock Track, by accessing the nearby junction of Surrey Cres and Great North Rd - where the Grey Lynn shops are.

"Also, consider what business a harnessed, loaded bullock team would be doing on Bullock Track? We can't imagine a compelling reason for a bullock team to travel to or from the top of Bullock Track.

"The road has never provided shorter travel to or from the city. Your contention that it was used for travel from the city to the west doesn't really stack up. Not since Great North Rd existed; or Tuarangi Rd before the Chinaman's Hill deviation was constructed.

"Further, Bullock Track faces south (it gets little drying sun) and is reputedly built upon a geological area with a rising aquifer and a lot of springs (Western Springs).

"On the other hand, there is one possible explanation for the road name. That lies with the fact that there is reported to have been an abattoir on Old Mill Rd. Its position is illustrated on a brass map mounted on a traffic island at the Garnet Rd/Old Mill Rd junction. It points to a site about where the now unused Old Mill Rd high-level entrance to the zoo is, near where the zoo trams terminated.

"It's just possible that prime animals from extensive farms at Point Chevalier, Waterview, Avondale and Mt Albert, being driven - as individuals in a mob - to the abattoir, may well have turned west and climbed the steep slope - now the Bullock Track - to access Old Mill Rd and that abattoir. For individual animals (not harnessed) this would have represented a considerable saving in distance and time - compared with taking on Chinaman's Hill to the Grey Lynn junction."

"And Linda Stopforth, formerly a taxi driver, says that it was common knowledge that the Bullock Track was widely known as Zena Rd. This is supported by an entry in Wises' Greater Auckland Kwik-find Street Index."