SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1922, Page 4

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

(Uteri EKtiMi West.

SIGNIFICANCE OF OTIRA TUNNEL. (By R. A. Kenner.) ■ i ! Written for the “Lyttelton'Tiiiies.” , Those who have bbbn : westward in recent times know how keenly every-, one is looking forward to the opening of the Otira Ttmiiel. Biy next summer, : it is believed", the tf£in journey from Christchurch will be one of six or seven hours. Visitors are assured of a hearty welcome, and they are expected in numbers which in time will equal the traffic to any of the tourist resorts in I New Zealand. This expectation is based on the assurance that nowhere are the grandeur and charm of Westland scenery excelled. West Coast people mean all they say about welcom- j ing visitors. When they look you in J the eye, give you a hearty handshake, and say they are glad you have come, you know you are not trespassing. They have warm hearts, and to extend hospitality iB their delight. The goodwill which exists towards Canterbury in particular has a very real cause. It is traced hack to the adventurous days of the gold rush, when Westland was part of the province of Canterbury. In the early sixties there was need for a standard of law and order. It was provided by the officials of the Provincial Government who crossed the intervening mountains and set up a form of local government which centred in Hokitika. They took with them something of the atmosphere of Old England and laid out the town on the square. Their memories have been fittingly preserved in the naming of the streets —Revell, Bfittan, Sale, Rolloston, Hall, Tancred, Be a ley, and many more. These dauntless pioneers have left as a legacy a loyal community spirit and high ideals which have been caught up by the succeeding generation, many of whom are approaching the veteran age. One other lesson they have learnt is to pull together in matters relating to the welfare of their people and the progress of their district. This they have done without being insular, and it is a tribute to their breadth of nature that while they have lieen isolated by distances and mountains they have preserved their spirit of goodwill towards the descendants of their early benefactors.

So much for what the tunnel will do in providing a better inlet and outlet for dwellers on both sides of the central range. It will mean, perhaps, even more as a substitute for the devious means which have had to be adopted for years in sending out the natural products of the West Coast. Li future coal and timber will he placed on railway trucks wherever the twin rails go and they a ill eventually find their way through to Christchurch or Lyttelton. Think of what this will save in flic matter of handling—from railway station to shipping centre, from truck to vessel and so on! There will always he direct shipping from West Coast ports to places outside the South Island but this does not affect the natural interdependence of Westland and Canterbury.

Another important industry which is bound to receive a new impetus is dairying. At present more choose is made than butter because the former carries better. There will no longer he the same handicap. The bushlands of Westland are rapidly giving place to grazing lands and the stock-carrying capacity is good. Grass grows well and there is an abundance of rain. South Westland has of late years been establishing a reputation for its fat cal tie They have been driven for scores of miles to the furthest south railway station, Ross, entrained for Otira, driven over Arthur’s Pass, entrained for Christchurch, and have then topped the markets at the Addington saleyards. They will have a still better chance in future.

There are other industries which will benefit, as for instance flax. Then, too, an optimistic feeling is shared with oldtimers that a revival in the mining industry is likely to take place at any time. Although the best-known mining centres are honeycombed with old workings the belief is held that the Coast is by no means worked out. This belief is to some extent borne out by the results obtained hv the great Rin.n dredge established by the enterprising Americans who are drawing electric power from water taken iroin Lake Kanicri. A visit L> tlm dredge is one of t!-c* sights uf Hokitika. About i ’u' miles from the township, on the soutli0* ii sid.’, von come to a great waste of gravel and there in a lagoon is the monster dredge hacking into the rear banks and scooping up the gravel by means of its endless chain ol steel buckets. The buckets carry the gravel and earth away up on to the top deck, so to speak, and the contents are placed under the influence of rushing waters which cause the finer particles containing gold to drop into trays below and then sends the gravel forward lo be tipped on to the bank in 1 ront of the dredge. In its working it seems finest human. The great point about it is that once a fortnight when the trays are washed up there is sufficient gold to justify the cost of working and leave something for the capitalists.who have made this new method of working possible. If more dredges of the kind are set going tip and down the mining areas—and there are rumours that such may result there'is no telling what revival may take, place. Other posibilities are opened up by the assurance of effective railway communication. In so many ways the one province is the complement of the other Even in the matter of touring the West Coast is bound to become a highly favoured resort. The attractions there are the antithesis of what we have on the plains of Canterbury, and as for the wealth of scenery it is such as to lure back time and again, then, with better facilities for transport, Canterbury is the most natural market for the products of Westland. Tn the reverse w'n*’ we should be in the best, position to provide Westlanders with a good share of the commodities of life. It, is well that a spirit of goodwill exists between the two peoples and this may be taken as a happy augury of all that the estab-1 lishing ef tKeThrough train service will | mean to Both provinces.