BACKBLOCKS RAILWAYS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 385, 9 August 1911, Page 5

BACKBLOCKS RAILWAYS.

Some seven yearn ago, as a result of?) personal visit to !lir> Ohura and Upper Mokau districts, we urged the

opening of a trade route between New Plymouth and the Ohura by way of

the Mokau river and r road to in l constructed from a point at tlie head of (he navigahde waters oi the rj< r to the centre of the Ohura, a! or near Mangaroa. Largely at our inst iir:?(.ion the then Commissioner of < rown Lands, Mr Mackenzie, instructed Mr H. M. Skeot, who was at; the time engaged in survey work near Mangaroa, to report upon the practicability of the proposal. Ivoperiing m April,

11)015, to Mr Simpson, Mr Mackenzie's successor, Mr Skeet stated thai,, although (he country was rough and difficult-,he thought; a piacficablc route might be found up the Panirau creek", over a dividing range into the Vv aitcwhona valley, striking the latter some miles above Mangaroa. But lie though! that for the time being settlement might be better served by giving road access to the Main Trunk railway, and thus to Auckland. So the idea was shelved as premature. We. bad looked a little too far ahead. There was little or no settlement, then between the Ohura road and the Uppi r Mokau. Six years have passed, and in the Waitewhena valley there is thriving settlement. in fact, the whole country between the Ohura road ami the Moku-iti, across to the Main Trunk railway, is being rapidly peopled, with the exception of n narrow strip bordering on the Mokau river. The settlers along the Waitewhena find themselves greatly hampered by the distance to their port, which at present; is Auckland, and they are turning their eyes towards New Plymouth by what, i.'practically the route we advocated in I'd 04, a road to the Mokau river and thence to the breakwater. The time therefore seems opportune to again press the matter before the attention oi the Government. Seven years ago we had only a vague idea of a route, but with the fuller information now available a much stronger case may be made out. The position is this. The district; in Question, which is 'i sranaki country, must, have access to a deep-sea port. In a very short time New Plymouth will be such a port, and it. is only about eighty or ninety miles from the centre oi the Ohura as

against more than twice that distance to Auckland. To roach Auckland them is a journey of front thirty to forty miles by road and 360 miles by rail. To reach New Plymouth there is from ten to twenty miles to bo traversed to reach navigable water on the Mokau, whence the distance is less than seventy miles to the breakwater. The problem is to make the road connection. With small expenditure for snagging, the Mokau can be made navigable to the Panirau creel;, and from here to a dray road, already available for trallic, in the Waitewhena is about eleven miles, the proposed road striking the \V :>itewhona road about ten miles irom Mangaroa. In 1905 Mr Skeet estimated the cost of forming this eleven miles of road at .£070(1, but it is quite possible that further exploration will disclose an easier route or show that, his estimate was a very libera! one. At the W a itewhena end there is already a short road on the map —the Pura road - quite easy of formation, which extends to within six miles, as the crow tlies, of the mouth of the Panirau creek. What is required then is a closer survey to locate, a road line through the intervening six miles, which at present separate an extensive settled area from point whence there is easy water carriage to a deepsea port. If further warrant than the pressing needs of existing settlement, were needed for the Government to undertake the survey and construction of this road it is found in the fact that it would pass through a block of aboat, 8000 acres of Crown lands, which must before long be brought into the market. But the needs of the set tlers in the Waitewhena valley and the neighbourhood are so great as to demand an effort to give them so convenient an outlet. That their trade will eventually come out. to this const instead of going so much further overland to Auckland is beyond question. i here is only a small gap to be bridged? and if the settlers would send a combined request for a survey to locate a road we do not doubt that the. Government would undertake it during the coming summer if ;> surveyor is available.---''Taranaki Budget.''