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Hokitika Guardian, 14 March 1929, Page 4

Thu scheme by Mr A. F. "Wright, of Christchurch, to raise £3,600,000 for a concrete main arterial road from Picton to the Bluff, or £2,700,000 for a bitumenised road, and to establish a separate Main Highways Board for the South Island, was much 1 tern si r* Christchurch (says the Lytleitj.n Tunes) particularly by motorists. Mr H. Chry.stail said that the sJmmc wou.d make South Island people realise the need for- an efficient transport system as the forerunner of industrial development. The North Island’s progress and its tendency to outstrip the S nth Island were endieated alarmingly kv fhe latest trade returns, and that progress was accounted for by a forward road construction policy. In other respects the scheme had nni.-ii io com mend it. The Alain Highways Board’s policy in regard to money ennt.r.hute! by both islands was: “Help i ur.-< it, never mind who contributed the money.” Funds like those supplied to be earmarked for the South Island were liable to.be forgotten. Tlicv mm.iit be safeguarded by regulations, but, as everybody knew, funds set aside often were forgotten, and then an Art was passed to use them for a •liffm-ent purpose. If the South Island could not get justice from conferences, like the recent Alunicipal Conference, the South Island should secede from the \o>Gi Island and take control of its own public works. “It is a mystery io me.” Mr Chrysal! said, “why response He South Island authorities allow ev-uv document, every request lor money, every sub-division plan, every engineer plan, to be checked and passed !v a huge, umvieldlv, over-centralised organisation in Wellington. R« venue from South Island motorists should be spent in the South Island. By til 2 • r ciganisation they are much better acquainted with South Island problems than is any central organisation m Wellington.” Referring to the material for the road from Picton to the Bluff, Air Chrystall said that its nature would depend on an investigation of the foundations. In the South Island generally they wore fairly good. In the long run. concrete would he more economical where the road foundations were unsatisfactory. As an illustration of how concrete roads help development, Air Chrystall mentioned Otaliulm, near Auckland city, which, he said, had developed during the past ten years, as a result of a concrete road from Auckland.