Educator street name proposed

RESPECTED TEACHER: The late John McDonald. PHOTO/FILE

Names for two new streets have been forwarded to Masterton District Council for approval and are likely to be considered at a Policy and Finance Committee tomorrow.

Developer David Borman is asking for one, which will provide access from Casel St to a new housing development, to be called John McDonald Mews and the other accessing a Rimu St development to be known as Tarata Grove.

The committee is expected to approve and to recommend the names to a full council meeting for ratification.

Consent for the two new housing projects that will see the building of 60 new homes in total, has been granted and a decision on names for the streets servicing them needs to be made to enable survey plans to be deposited.

John McDonald Mews would honour a former long serving Masterton borough and later district councillor and deputy mayor John McDonald who died earlier this year.

Mr McDonald, a Fulbright Scholar, was a prominent teacher in Wairarapa and principal at three Masterton schools, Harley Street, Lansdowne and Masterton Intermediate, in the years spanning 1964-1986.

Apart from his school work, he was a trustee and later chairman of Masterton Trust lands Trust, member and deputy chairman of Wairarapa Hospital Board, life member and foundation patron of Aratoi and a member of the New Zealand Founders Society.

He was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in 1996 for services to the community.

In earlier times the land on which the Casel St housing complex is being built was the site of the Dixon Farm where there were stables and this lead Mr Borman to include the word "mews" in his preferred street name.

Mews is an old word used to describe a row of stables, usually with carriage houses below and living quarters above, built round a paved yard or court, or along a street, behind large homes.

The name wanted for the Rimu St project is in keeping with the names of other streets in the vicinity that feature tree names.

Mr Borman has told council it is his intention to have groves of lemonwoods planted there, the Maori name being Tarata.