Road named after town stalwart

HONOUR: A new road off Armstrong Ave in Carterton is to be named Austin Reid Ave.

Austin Reid was a dairy farmer, war veteran, councillor and community man and now he will have a road named after him in Carterton.

His grand-daughter Sylvia Wildermoth, branch manager at LJ Hooker Carterton, applied to the council for a new road leading to the subdivision off Armstrong Ave to be named Austin Reid Ave.

The council approved the name at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.

Mrs Wildermoth made the application because her grandfather had positively contributed to the Carterton community for most of his life.

Mr Reid was chairman of the Wairarapa South County Council for 28 years and was a councillor for the eight years before that.

An article written about him by George Fraser indicates his commitment to the cause: "Without his skilful management, his determination to eke out government funds, and possibly skim a little more butterfat money from the ratepayers when the season was good ... there wouldn't have been the upgraded arterial links with the out-of-town farmer, the clear water races or other fundamentals by which the South Wairarapa has prospered."

Mr Reid joined the Wellington Division to fight in the trenches on the Western Front in World War I and won the Military Medal for capturing a German machinegun post.

He also held executive positions on the Board of Health, the No10 District Roads Council, the NZ County Councils Union of Employers, the Wairarapa Farm of Instruction Board, the Rehabilitation Committee, the Welfare Board, Carterton RSA, Federated Farmers and the Carterton Racing Club.