THE FIRST OFFICAL NAMINGS
The few roads and streets constructed in the early period were generally not well made. Richard Brown, Masterton’s Town Clerk for many years, remembered the state of the roads on his arrival in 1874. “The roads, formed by digging a ditch on either side and casting the spoil inward, were a morass of mud in winter and very dusty in summer. For many years afterwards, stumps left in roads continued to give a great deal of trouble when excavation work was at hand.”
The township was growing (it was to number 1673 in the 1878 census) and as a reflection of that population increase the settlers decided to call for their town to be constituted as a Borough. The Masterton Borough Council was duly formed and elections were held on 28 July 1877. The new Council, under the leadership of Mayor R.G. Williams, quickly moved to raise sufficient funds to form the many streets the residents needed. They also moved to officially name the streets that had already been formed. At a meeting of the Council in November 1878 the official list of proposed street names was submitted for discussion.