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Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1921, Page 2

Tin: correspondent “lfackblock” wlio wrote us Yesterday on one or two matters affecting the development of South Westland, certainly communicated a good deal of food for thought. The writer is a man of practical experience ef pioneering settlement and with a good 'deal of intimate knowledge of the south. His views are worthy consideration, and those who take an interest in the future of Westland might well weigh them earefulv. What the correspondent says of the restrictions under the forestry regulations, is palpably true, and fully realised by the people of the community. As the regulations stand, Westland is going to ho penalised and held up for years through the restrictive form of administration affecting the handling of our forest lands. We welcome our correspondent’s views, because they confirm our own line of thought, >to which expression has been given formally, hut we began to think we stood alone. No voice or pen confirmed those views till now, yet we affirm that to sit down quietly under the impost of the timber control now being organised by the Government of the day, is to submit to Westland becoming a. vast reservation, locking it up as effectually as wa.s this unfortunate country under the Midland Railway reservation. The progress of the district will he slopped, and luld up indefinitely. This notwithstanding that lor long years people have boon recognising as Lord Islington emphasised in one of his gubernatorial addresses hero in effect—“down with the trees; up with the grass.” Our correspondent voices the same sentiments now. They are expressed betimes, hut . unless the matter is taken up publicly ! and voiced in season and out of season j we shall gradually ,see Westland more I and more penalised and so drift into a i j vast state forest reservation to lie kept intact for the benefit of posterity. J No one who has travelled! the length of • Westland can do so without marvelling | on the manner in which the inland I roads were constructed. If wo begin at j the north, we know that commencing at j Greymmith, the first arterial road v.as ! made by way of Marsden and the Black j water, and thence by Kumara to Holdtika. Then the road to Ross was ear- j lied over hill and dale, motly Hills, to its destination. As the highway was ) ashed south we have the inland road maintained in the,, depths of the forest, traversing valleys, up stream for miles, mounting ranges as Mt Hercules, Oemoerua Hills, W aikukupa Saddle, and so on hv a deep incursion, inland to Paringa, and over the Maori Saddle to the Tfanst. This was all following a set policy “to open up the country,” j for which half a century ago there was i a strong demand. Tt was the main ' political plank of the day, and it ear- 1 ried sway. All the same, there will be agreement now with the remarks of the correspondent above referred to, as to 11h> effect of that policy. Tt has left (he district with a costly legacy in attempting to maintain the roads in the high country. We have seen the Mars- ! den inland route abandoned. The Ross j road is not used as it would be were it ; more level. The southern settlers are seeking for Bold Head road to avoid j the bills on the inland road. The correspondent from the smifli ventures an cr.p'i'vi i" r«- arr] in Waiknknnji mad p.-bich th: ffK’t? of the position prnetp

cally confirm. It is an expensive road and will be impossible to maintain economically for heavy traffic. It is blocked almost hopelessly at present for wheel traffic, and the point certainly rises whether l>efore making it safe for the traffic it should carry it could not be possible to secure a better graded road near the foot bills or more adjacent to the bench route south.