The Evening Star. DUNEDIN, MONDAY, NOV. 6, 1865.

Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 781, 6 November 1865, Page 2

The Evening Star. DUNEDIN, MONDAY, NOV. 6, 1865.

The Wakatip Mail of last Wednesday contains an account of the journey of a party of miners who have just returned from a trip to the West Coast via Dr Hector's route to Martin's Bay. The experience of this party fully bears out the opinions we have held with regard to the present practical value of this line of communication. The party in question, consisting of four miners, started from the Greenstone with the idea of following Ur Hector's track, but they were persuaded to try another route, which, like many other "■ near cuts," proved vastly the most difficult, protracting their journey to the coast by several days. The object of the party was, after reaching Martin's Bay, to endeavor to get along the coast northwards to Jackson's Bay, and so on, if possible, to Hokitika, although former explorers had pointed out the almost hopelesness of such an attempt. After toiling painfully along a very rough road by the beach, they passed a small bay with a river running into it, -which -was doubtless that marked " Big Bay" on the chart; b\it beyond this was another river, and a " large point running out into the sea " which they could not pass. Here their provisions began to give out, and so they were compelled to retrace their steps, and they wisely took Dr Hector's track back, the superiority of which is established by the fact that they consumed only five days in traversing the entire distance from Big Bay to the Wakatip. We have on various occasions commented on the feverish longings of the Wakatip people for direct communication with the West Coast, and questioned the advantages which they allege would follow the establishment of the road to Martin's Bay which they so much desire. -We pointed out that, even supposing regular communication to be established between the Wakatip and the Coast, little (if any) positive benefit would accrue. In <the first place, Martin's Bay is one of the

worst of the bad harbors of the West Coast, inaccessible to vessels of considerable .tonnage. In the next placa, the j difficulties of the coast route northwards are such as to forbid the idea of any easy communication being opened up with any of the existing West Coast Goldfields. Our predictions are strengthened by the experience of the party whose journey has proved so unsuccessful. The headland which they were unable to pass is not an insurmountable difficulty, because the Canterbury survey party, under Mr Bain, passed round it last year. But even sup posing this to have been overcome, there is the barrier formed by Cascade Point, which, according to ail the evidence as yet available, is quite impassable by land. The Point which our travellers found a bar to their further progress, can be traversed by an old Maori track amongst the huge boulders which form the seaward face of the headland but Cascade Point presents physical difficulties which are practically insurmountable. Althoxigh possibly future investigations may reveal a track along the entire coast line, it appears tolerably certain that at present no real advantage will be derived from making a road to Martin's Bay. Comparing this route with that traversed by Mr. Pyke's party, the latter presents a great superiority, although we are not inclined to believe in the wisdom of incurring any great expense to make Mr Pyke's track available. Mr Pyke's own report, perhaps unintentionally, certainly gives the idea of its being by no means an easy one ; and we have still to learn the possibility of communication between the mouth of the Haast River and Jackson's Bay ; or the Goldfields further north. The Canterbury Government are believed to be willing to cooperate with that p£ Otago to open out Mr Pyke's track, and we would not object to a moderate outlay for that piii"pose. But until the nature of the communication beyond the point reached by Mr Pyke is made known, Ave certainly think the Government would not be justified in expending any considerable sum of money. As to the Martin's Bay x-oute, we most emphatically protest against the expenditure of the public funds for the sake of pandering to the morbid longings of the Wakatip people.