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Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22515, 24 September 1938, Page 16

The West Coast road is blocked at Porter’s Pass, and because more debris came down on to the road than was anticipated during blasting, it is considered that it will be a month before it is cleared, states a message issued by the Automobile Association (Canterbury) last evening. However, motorists can travel to the West Coast via the Lake Coleridge road and Lake Lyndon, and the association will erect directing signs to this route to-day. The Lewis Pass road is still open. One of the most modern mine rescue stations in the world will be established at Dobson at a cost of £4OOO. The Minister for Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) hopes that the station will be ready in November. Dobson had been chosen. Mr Webb said yesterday, because it was considered the most central place among those mines likely to be faced with gas troubles. In addition to providing safety measures for the men, the rescue station might also, from the companies’ point of view, be a means of saving the burning away of valuable assets. The Government had advanced the £4OOO required to equip the station with the most modern safety devices procurable. The £4OOO would be repaid to the Government by a Id a ton tax on coal from the mines in the district, so that ultimately the industry would pay the charge occasioned through the provision of the eauipment and the training of the men operating the rescue station. Numbers of young men were already being trained at the State mines with apparatus which the State possessed and when the rescue station opened there would be qualified men in charge.—From Our Own Reporter.