LIVING DOWN ITS LURK PAST

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 259, 23 January 1928, Page 14

LIVING DOWN ITS LURK PAST

PROSPEROUS SILVERDAI.E Silverdale is effectively living down the reputation of the Wade. The old name is a European corruption of Te Weiti—“the little dwarf”—derived from the name of an old-time Maori who had fortified a headland there. In the carefree fifties and lat€;r in the last century the Wade achieved a colonidl reputation. Savouring of that of the Wild West towns of the United States, the centre of activity was Maurice Kelly’s hotel, and tradition credits it with many activities. The gum-diggers who followed in the wake of the timber-getters added a few pages to the already lurid story of the village “on the crik,” as the tidal Te Weiti River was generally called. CHANGE OF NAME When the gum was all dug out the Wade became a place to avoid. The land, being second-class, gave but a scanty living in the days of low prices, but a few of the old hands hung on. In a quarter of a century a few newcomers risked buying land. The arrival of motor traffic changed affairs, as it brought the old place within an hour of Devonport. New settlers brought new ideas and in conclave they resolved to make a complete break with the past and rename the village Silverdale, from the silvertinted under shade of a variety of grass that flourishes in the dale. Cheered up by the poetical touch in the name, the settlers plucked up courage and the last decide has seen a new settlement emerge.