WEST COAST ROAD.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1933, Page 6

WEST COAST ROAD.

AN HISTORIC HIGHWAY

REOUOR Ail'lON OF GORGESECTION.

If tile Main Highways Board decides to postpone indefinitely the repairs to tile. Arinur Passed lira Gorge teetioii q|'..tlie Main highway ’ 'between; Canterbury ai-d or .decides not to restore it for vehicular traffic, there Will be niany who will regret that a scenic road that has been highly praisel by . visitors from, many ,countries will, be. no;,. longer available except; psenapa, ,>o enu'ineeiigg difficulties had to be overequip, in cpiistrticting the . road, ally. the. portion in the rugged aaid almost proeivitoiis Otira. Gorge, hut the big earthquake of four years ago, which shook, the Arthur Pass region . severely,: hak made the coiintry more liable to wrish-outs and landslide-* when heavy rain is experienced,, . and, the damage done to the road .'between the pass and . the gorge by the big storm of, February It this year will require, .it is estimated, an expenditure of between £4OOO and £SOOO to. repair. Maintenance lias always been a heavy item, and the-indications point to its becoming Iw.y'vi.er. The' post of a traffic bridge over the Waimakariri rivor, which will be necessary, before the road will. provide for . through traffic, may be a deterihining, factor in tb© decision arrived .at by the Mam Highways Board 1 . . . • The history of the construction of the road to link Canterbury and Westland is one oh the most interesting pages in the record of the early development of the. two provinces. The rush to the goldfields- on the West Coast Was the factor that led the Canterbury Provincial Council in 1864' to decide oil the ' construction of the road. At that time M estlahd formed part of Canterbury, / After careful consideration of all the practicable routes it was decided to adopt the one over Porter’s Pasts, through the upper Waimakariri' country' to the Qass; from there by the right bank' of the Waimakariri to opposite the junction of the. Bealey river, from there over Arthur Pass into the Otira Gorge, arid from, there through the bix'dl to the Ahah'urii river and along: the. beach .to Hokitika. It was imperative that the road should he opened without delay, .arid, the' provincial engineer, Mr Edward Dobson (father, of Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson), 'and Sir John. Hal-'i, /the then heiid of the provincial executive, laid out the road through the Otira Gorge. A pack track existed to the CfoS a, and it was made into ha coach road at no great expense From the junction of the Bealey with the Waimakariri the route was through bush or riverbed. Tlie work was put in liand under Mr Edward Dobson; "Who had for : his assistants His eldest son, 'Mr, George Dobson, and Messrs CL Y. O’Connor, Thornton, Malety, and, Edwin- BLake, Thp . WQ.rk ' was ■unshed ‘on with .'s'ucli expedition thjyt the road.; was; opened; for qoach traffic.gn I 860; Many, residents of 1 Canterbury and of the West Coast and of other parts .of the. Dominion re tain vivid .memories of the coach journey which days, provided , the Waimakariri as net in. flood; if it '.were, it meant a day or two, sometimes longer, at the Bealey till the. flood subsided. ~ • _•