COMPLETION URGED

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21416, 7 March 1935, Page 4

COMPLETION URGED

♦ CONSTRUCTION OF LEWIS PASS ROAD PROGRESS LEAGUE >r fO MAKE REPRESENTATIONS On the recommendation of its highways committee, the executive'of the Canterbury Progress League decided last evening to make the "strongest possible" representations to the Government. and to secure support from other interested bodies for these representations, that the work on the Lewis Pass road be taken over by the Public Works Department as a standard work, and pushed on to completion. A deputation from the league will wait on the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon G. W. Forbes) at an early date.

On Saturday last a party organised by the league and representing many interested bodies in the South Island, | inspected the work done to date ou the road. A report on the inspection, drawn up by Professor A. H. Tocker. was submitted to the executive of the league by Mr J. E. Straclian, on behalf of the highways committee last evening as follows: — "More than five years have passed since a large and i*cpresentative paity, organised by the league, travelsed the Lewis pass route from Christchurch to Reefton and back, in May, 1929. At that time there was a rough road from near the Ferry bridge, on the Christchurch-Hanmer highway, to Glen wye, about 18 miles along the Lewis pass route up the Waiau valley. Since then unemployed single men have been camped along the route and have worked on this road. The numbers so employed have never exceeded 30—at present 60 are employed —•the hours of actual work are short, and the conditions of work are such that progress is very slow and, m spite of the low wage paid, the cost is high. "None the less this road has been greatly improved. A new deviation has been made where the road is entered from the Haniner highway, all the major formation work has been done, the worst streams are bridged, and protective groynes have been placed in position to prevent erosion. Little more is required to, put this part of the route in good order, and even now it will perniit an average speed of about 30 miles an hour with ease and safety. This section of the road now ends at the Poplars on the Hope river, which requires a bridge estimated to cost £OOOO. Beyond the bridge site some formation work has been done, but at present no progress is being made with the road between the Hope river and the Lewis pass. The 18-Milc Gap "On the West Coast, side there have long been good roads from Reefton and Murchison to Springs Junction. From Springs Junction to iVlaruia Springs, about four miles, a good road, metalled and bridged, has been completed within the Jast five years, and this road has been carried on about two miles up the ascent to the Lewis Pass. There remains perhaps two miles of well-graded track, four fret wide, from the end of this metalled road to the top of the pass, and another two miles of similar track across the pass itself. "Between the end of this metalled road on the western side and the end of the metalled road on the Canterbury side at the Hope River bridge site, there remains a gap of only about 18 miles of comparatively easy country with a steadv climb of about 140t feet, or 70 l'eet a mile, to the top ot the pass, and an easy graded descent on the western side. This 18 miles oi new road, including two bridges ot fair size and a number of smaller ones, traversing the easiest and lowest of all alpine passes north ot the Haast. is all that is now required to complete an arterial road connecting the highway systems on the eastern side of the mountains with those on tne western side. Tne inspecting party, which included members who knew the road systems on both sides of the pass, and had also traversed the unroaded portion, held a meeting on the Hope River bridge site, where the iinished road ends, examined maps 01. the country affected, and, after a full discussion, resolved unanimously: 'That this meeting, after inspecting' progress on the Lewis Pass road and investigating the possibilities of this road, urge upon the Canterbury Progress League the necessity to use every effort to expedite work on the road and to secure its early completion.' Distances and Costs "It is worth while to emphasise again that only about 18 miles of new road is now required to link together the highway systems of North Canterbury on the one side, and those of Westland, Buller, and Nelson on the other. This 18 miles of new road would open up a new through route with easy grades, great scenic attractions, and considerable commercial possibilities, which would bring both Reefton and Murchison within six hours of Christchurch by easy motor travel. The Maruia Spring's would be within four hours from Christchurch and within two hours from Hanmer. Compared with alternative routes —the Arthur's Pass and the Blen-heim-Nelson routes —the Lewis Pass road would bring Nelson closer to Christchurch by 33 miles, Murchison closer by 80 miles. Inangahua and Westport closer by 30 miles, and Reefton closer by 40 miles. It would also permit round trips, by Arthur's Pass or Nelson to the West Coast and back by the Lewis pass, providing magnificent and varied scenery and sporting possibilties that must prove very attractive to tourists.

"Speaking at Reefton. after traversing the route in 1929, Mr A. J. Baker, inspecting engineer to the Public Works Department, estimated the cost of a good motor road, completed from the present Hanmer road to the Maruia Springs, as in the vicinity of £IOO,OOO. Since then the route lias been surveyed, the project approved, much work has been done on the Canterbury side to the Hope river bridge site and considerable new formation has been done on the western side. Out of about 50 miles of road requiring either reconstruction or new formation when Mr Baker made his estimate, about three-fifths is now practically completed and only about 18 miles of new road, over country which offers no serious difficulties, remains to be constructed. The Case for the Road "The case for the Lewis Pass highway was set out in a report presented to the league and published in 1929. The conclusions then stated still hold good and may be summarised as follows: (1) Road development, opening up areas hitherto relatively inaccessible, and connecting centres hitherto separated, is largely the key to closer settlement and progress in New Zealand. Probably in no part of the country is the need so great as in the districts which would be opened and connected by the Lewis Pass road. (2) The Lewis Pass road would provide direct connexion between practically all eastern areas and the northwestern district between Greymouth to Nelson by a route appreciably shorter, quicker, and easier than any other available route.

(3) It would open new and promising areas for closer settlement in both North Canterbury and the Buller basin, would make the valuable Maruia Springs accessible, and would provide a distinctive and beautiful scenic route making round trips possible to attract tourists and travellers.

(4) It would open up several other passes and much country now inac-

cessible in north-west Canterbury and the Buller basin for camping, tramping, shooting, fishing, and such recrealional pursuits. (5) It would provide a means of direct communication between east and west which would be invaluable, and indeed essential, in any emergency which might either close the present routes, or render them inadequate. (6) It would speedily become one of the national arterial highways, comparable in importance with the present Christchurch-Blenheim highway or the Nelson-West Coast highway. It would create and attract traffic more than sufficient to justify its construction and maintenance, not only from both ends, but also from the developments which its opening would stimulate. in the neighbourhood of its route. (7) Its grades and alignment would be remarkably good, its construction easy, and, in relation to its great advantages and the national gain to be expected, remarkably cheap. (8) It is a main through route essential to the full development of South Island resources. "This latest inspection of the work done on the Lewis Pass road has strengthened' the conviction in the minds of members of the Highways Committee that every effort should be made to complete the road with the least possible delay. If any impartial observer would but study the- map issued with the 1929 report arid remember that now only about 18 miles of easy construction is required to cover the gap between the road systems of Canterbury and the east on the one side and of the whole northwestern area on the other, we believe that he will be equally convinced of the necessity for completing this road." Mr Strachan said that the Prime Minister's reply to a question concerning the completion of the Lewis Pass read by Mr K. J. Holyoake, M.P., reported in "The Press" yesterday morning, could scarcely be more vague. It appeared to be a matter of finance, but the speaker believed that the bodies interested had not made their representations sufficiently strongly to the Government. The Government must be made to realise that the work was one of major importance. Mr A. E. Langdale-Hunt seconded the adoption of the report and recommendation. Other speakers supported the recommendation, and Mr F. W. Johnston, the president, remarked that the taking over of the project by the Public Works Department as a standard work instead of a relief work would have the effect of raising the morale of the men now employed on the scheme, which had been sapped by working at starvation wages.