CORRESPONDENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1921, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT. j (To the Editor). i Sir,—] have read with interest your articles relating to the resources of ( South AVestland, which were read by members of the Progress League at Hokitika. The resources are here alright—land, timber and gold, but the question is, , AYliy is it not progressing as it should? j I will endeavour to point out a few reasons why it is not. As far as tim-1 her is concerned, under the Forestry j Department, their object seems to he to reserve the timber for future genera- j tions to come. Now, every reserve that • is made, tends to isolate backbloek j settlers, and hinder settlement, besides being a waste of natural resources that could be turned into money. Standing! i timber produces nothing. Grass will. The best and the most thickly populated parts of New Zealand are the cleared lands. The best part of the country lias had to be literally chopped out of the forest, and, so, in every other conn- j try, tho cleared lands are the most j valuable. Tlie best milling timber on tlio main trunk line, right alongside the railway, only brought some £8 per acre royalty. The same land now with dairy factories brings in from £lO te £ls every year, besides growing men and women, instead of trees. I would like to sec all icstrictions removed off native limber. Any man who has spent a life time in j clearing up bush country for grass will ! take a lot of educating to find out the value of standing hush, unless there happens to bu a mill close handy. Enough timber will be left to make butter-boxes for a 100 years to come. By that time the chnnees are that there will lie no butter to spare for export. If the timber industry were encouraged instead of being clocked, ii alone would give South Westland a big lift towards progress. As to roads, no district can possibly progress without roads. By roads J mean the levelest and the shortest possible mads An.! no public money should be spent on any proposed road, until every possible route has been tboroitgliL prospected on the ground, not merely from a plan on a writing table. Our old time road-makers were too fond of climbing hills, and making deviations. The old saying that any road is only as good as the worst hill on it. evidently did not- count with them. I wonder if any of them ever took the. trouble to count up what a deviation of oven three miles on a main road, costs the general public per year. Say a, main road carries one six horse wagon per day. or the equivalent in other traffic which is not heavy traffic for a main road. Now, the wagon travels in that case six miles out of its way, which means at the present rate of cartage at least £2 pci day for getting nowhere, and there are 3(>5 days in a year, or over £7OO that three miles of deviation costs the public every year. That is independent of the initial cost of making that deviation. Few people seem to realise that efficient roads nowadays are nearly as good as a railway. Given efficient roads there is nothing to prevent Okarito in its present state to supply the district trim Mound Hercules to Cooks river. The freight from Hokitika is 13 per toil by steamer. Overland it is Lit) to £P>. so Okarito is the natural port of supply for hereabouts—given of course decent mads.

In the first place, the road from the Forks to Okarito is only half a road. The Fork’s hill is a horse-killer—in fact the whole five miles is a succession of hills and bridges. Yet a level, and 1 believe, a shorter and cheaper road, could have boon had hv filling across the mud Hals and going up the Forks river mi the level. As to the main south road, it- is the only road we have about- here to speak of. It turns off live or six miles north of Okarito proha lily to give the miners at Mapouiika access in the early days. But it gives the Waiho settlers L miles t.o their port of supply, instead of about It) miles as it should have boon, had the road gone on to Okarito, and turned south from there, giving them a two days’ trip instead of one. Again, after the south road leaves the Wnilio Hat, it enters a bleak mountainous region, with rock cuttings a 100 feet high in places; with heavy guides lour or five miles long. Nobody lives there ; nobody is ivory likely to live there. Last time i came down one ot tho long grades, I met two men in a dray. It was practically empty, yet the two draught horses were in a lather of sweat. Now a road like that is absolutely useless tor heavy traffic. Yet four or live miles lower down it is practically all Hat country. This portion at least, of the main south road is a bar to progress, in that it tends to prevent ro;U | being made, where it should have been made .in tbe first instance, that is, south I'roin Okarito right f liroMg!i tho centre of the Coastal flats, anil opening up settlement and country, and timber country en route. Resides, tbe work would have boon done at about half the cost, anil a lot shorter ■ raj less upkeep after it was made. Even now, if the bluffs along the Kaieli were passable at all tides, praeticallv all stock would come the beach way as offering a shorter and safer iwide for travelling. As tar as the mountainous portion oi this pait oi tlio main south route is concerned, it must |,o counted as a national blunder fit to be classed with the Riniutaka Incline railway, and the sooner it is gut rid ol' (lie better for all concerned. Yours etc.. bagkbi.ocker.