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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1230, 8 July 1872, Page 2

There are at present before the public two projects the avowed purpose of which is to facilitate the conveyance of stock and produce, by means of overland carriage, from the producing districts of the East Coast to the consuming districts on the West. One of these is the proposal to construct a road from the Amuri District of Nelson Province to the Ahaura, and, as a parallel or preferable project, it is even suggested that a railway should be made by the Bame route. Tho other and antagonistic proposal is to construct a road from a certain point on the present Canterbury and Westland trunk road to the same terminus, the Ahaura, with the double object, we suppose, of establishing easy communication between Hokitika and Inangahua, and between the Canterbury settlers and the important market for their produce which is. certain to be created by the settlement of population at the reefs. Though aiming at the same object, these projects are, as we have said, in a considerable degree antagonistic, and it is for the public and their representative's, aided by engineering advice, to declare to which a preference should be given. Especially Bhould this be done when an effort is being made to have one of the proposals recognised as a work of colonial necessity, the cost of which should be charged to the fund at the Colony's command for public works of primary importance. This effort has already been partially made in Hokitika, and now, as we learn by telegraph, similar support is being given to one of the projeotß by the people of Christchurch. That particular project is the construction of a

road to the Ahaura from the thirty-second mile-poat on the present, overland road. To that project, we imagine, the inhabitants of Inangahua, equally with the inhabitants of Hokitika and the producers of Canterbury, would gladly give their assent in the absence of any^ other existing route which could, even^t'eqiial cost, be adopted so as to render theft? 'district accessible for the easy introduction of supplies. In view of the vastness* of tho value of the Inangahua District, present and prospective, it is desirable that it should be made aB approachable as possible from all points of the compass, and especially from that point which is likely to prove the greatest aource of supply. It may be fairly questioned, however — and without the importation of any local or petty jealousies —whether the route ihus proposed to be adopted is the route to which, while others equally accessible exist, a preference should be given, and to that question, we fear, the inhabitants of Christchurch have not given the consideration which it deserves. Viewed even from a Westland and Hokitika point of view, the project, we venture to think, is one to which serious and substantial objection may bo taken. From Hokit'ka northward there has already been undertaken a main trunk road which only requires to be completed for a distance of some eight miles. to,.connect it with the County road which is already in course of construction as far as the Arnold, and the construction of one comparatively short link — that between the Arnold and the Ahaura — will establish a line of communication infinitely preferable to the line proposed, in point of ease of travelling and in several other particulars. And, viewed from a Canterbuiy point of view, the road by way of the Amuri, especially when considered in connection with the railway system of that Province, is the road which recommends itself by the comparatively accessible country over which it would pass, by its shorter distance, and by its more closely connecting the consumer with the actual producers on the Amuri and 'Canterbury Plains. Already has that route been selected by the Nelson Government as the route, for a road which it is highly desirable to construct both in the interests of the mining population on this side of the range, and of the extensive stock-breeders of the Amuri, and if the performances of that Government should for 'once follow their promises with anything like expedition, we do not hesitate to say, on the faith of what we believe to be thoroughly reliable information, that the road constructed in that direction would be the road patronised by the majority of the producers even on the Canterbury Plains. The difficulty in the way of the Nelson Government is the chronic difficulty with which Provincial Governments have to contend — the multiplicity of works requiring to be undertaken and the minuteness of their resources. Their difficulty in that respect is enhanced at the present time, when there is a Beries of works requiring to be undertaken with equal urgency, and, in consideration of this urgency, a claim for assistance from the General Government might be fairly made, even were it only of a x temporary character. Were such a claim put forward in relation to this proposal, we are confident that the General Government would discover that, by recognising such a claim, they would promote a work which, while costing the country less, would serve the general interests of the country infinitely more than would the construction of any such road as that proposed between the Hokitika road and the Ahaura.