Hokitika Guardian and Evening Star SATURDAY. JAN. 20 1917 THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian and Evening Star SATURDAY. JAN. 20 1917 THE WEEK.

There was a very important southern matter referred to in the admirable report this week of the District Improvement Committee at Brace Bay. We refer to the completion of the Waiho to Cooks inland road for vehicle traffic. This road links on to the main south road which at present ceases to carry vehicle traffic at the Wailo Gorge. A few miles further •outh, on the inland route, is Waikukupa Saddle, where some two miles of road still require to be made to join up with the Brace Bay road. If this connection were made it would mean the addition of 40 miles of vehicular road for main south traffic, and supply a very important connection for the far Bouth district, where so much of the future prosperity of Westland is to come from. Incidentally, it might be remarked that settlement will not be the limit to that degree of prosperity which we are persuaded will come from South Westland. The great store of minerals and other natural deposits in that remote country will- be the prime factor to give this West Coast a great impetus in the future—to ■ay nothing of the great adjacent water-power sources for industrial development are going to be. But to return to the road. The Waikukupa Saddle gives the most beautiful outlook in the world from a scenic point of view. Otira Gorge, the Bnller Gorge, Mount Hercules, and other wonderful beauty Bpots we know of, are not to compare with Waiknkupa, which a world-wide traveller has already written is “ the finest scenic picture in the whole world !”

It should be of great interest, then, to have so notable a locality linked up with the main roads of the Dominion, and rendered easily accessible. Waikukupa Saddle is steep and rocky, and the road has to be hewn, out of the rock. Thus, though there are but two miles to make to finish the connection, it is nevertheless awork of some cost. Still, the job is worth while. We have extolled its great scenic glory. On the immediately practical side it will be of: immense service to the far south settlers. It will mean road access to three important settlements—Cooks River, Karangarua, and Bruce Bay. The last named is some forty miles below Waiho Gorge, so that a great stretch of country will be benefitted by the improved access. The three settlements referred to are hampered solely by their isolation. Those who have settled there have good 'homesteads, and after the hard struggle of the pioneer, have come into their

own, and are doing well. The districts are advancing. The herds are increasing, and year by year more and more stock are being taken off the land. Stock raising is the onlyindustry the people may touch profitably, because owing to the lack of communication, unless their produce can walk out on their own account, a market could never be reached. It is this languishing country which the road would serve. If the people of Westland were alive to their district's needs, they would soon see where expansion could be affected, and a very united chorus of support would go up to the demand from the south people for the finishing of the two miles of road involved.

The old story of official neglect applies to the road in question, as to other matters affecting back-block Westland in paraicular. Parliament has voted the money, but it is not being expended. As a matter of fact, sums running into some thousands of pounds, ear-marked for South Westland, are calmly withheld. And it cannot be for the want of money in the exchequer. It is a fact that for the financial year now drawing to a close the Minister of Finance will announce a snrplns of (what one paper describes as) “ staggering proportions.” The revenue has shown a wonderful buoyancy during the year. The Treasurer’s estimates are being knocked over like nine-pins. Revenue for the past nine months of the year has exceeded the expenditure by £376,000, so that the credit bal-. ance, with which the year opened, now stands at over two millions and a half. The largest quarter of the year has still to come, and it is estimated that the .credit balance we have quoted might be nearly doubled. It is a phenomenal result. But it is also a result which Westlanders ■hould note and demand that the district receive its fair share and, above all, fair treatment. The Minister of Public Works has promised to come this way in Februaiy. If he does, he should appropriate at least a fortnight of his time to visit South Westland, and learn something of the potentialities of that country. It will stand inspection, and to make the inspection the more thorough we hope he will be accompanied by the heads of departments, so that they, too, might have their eyes opened. Such a visit would well repay the Dominion. Then let it be soon,

M. Bloch, a noted Russian banker, whose prophecy in 1899 that trench warfare in a big European conflict would reveal the great importance of the economic struggle, has been thoroughly substantiated, (says the Lyttelton Times) insisted on the vital values not only of the wealth of a nation in so far as it supplied the means of financing the fighting forces, but also the moral effect the magnitude of the golden artillery ” would have on other belligerents. Britain, who has been the purse of the Allied campaign, is at present engaged in carrying out the dual purpose suggested by M. Bloch. The issue of the “ Victory,” war loan, of unlimited amount at the present stage will be watched with considerable interest by the Teuton Governments, who will expect to obtain from its barometrical readings by which they may gauge the strength of the most formidable of their foes. The first rush to subscribe in the loan cannot, of course, be taken as an infallible guide to an estimation of what the loan will total, but the fact that the first hundred millions were obtained in a few hours will not make pleasant reading in the Wilhelmstrasse. Despite the juggling with paper money and the desperate appeals. of the German Minister of Finance, the last war loan raised by Berlin fell below expectations—that much has been generally accepted—and a success by Britain now will increase the dampening effect of the Teuton failure. And at present it would appear that the British loan is going to deserve fully the confident qualification that has been attached to it by the British Press.

Mr Philip Gibb, in his brilliantly devised pictures of the fighting on the Somme front, has rarely extended his activities to an interpretation of the plans of the high command, and his firm forecast of “ bigger tilings ” on the British lines, for this reason alone, says the Times, is interesting. It was anticipated that, though the arrival of winter would put a stop to the Somme offensive as .a definite battle, the opportunity would be seized when the weather conditions were favourable to make local adrances, securing positional advantages and keeping the enemy occupied. The latest advance in the region of Serre gave Sir Douglas Haig an important ridge north of BeaumontHamel, and now Mr Gibbs is preparing for a move of greater magnitude, though, of course, he must be aware of the importance of the weather conditions in any plans of the British command. The news from Russia discloses a German move on the Sloniki, where there was some activity a few months ago, but so far it is impossible to tell what weight is behind the enemy’s advance. The position in Rumania has not altered materially. The Russians are being pressed back upon Galatz, but with the Rumanians seem to have Jield their ground on the western side.