The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 78, 1 April 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1874.

The Btatement that the General Government had agreed to advance a sum of £20,000 for the purpose of opening up inland communication in this Province, will have caused considerable satisfaction to the public, but it is a matter of equal interest to them to learn how that money is to be expended. It may be so laid out as to confer great benefits upon the Province, while, on the other hand, it is quite possible to fritter it away in such a manner that the results will be scarcely so advantageous as we have a right to expect. Our attention has been called by a correspondent to the fact— -or we would rather call it the rumour — that the Government propose constructing two lines of road into the Buller Valley. This we have reason to believe would be highly injudicious, seeing that it would involve a large and unnecessary outlay of the public money, while the probable benefits arising from such an expenditure are, to say the least of them, exceedingly doubtful. Why we make such an assertion we will proceed to show. The two roads alluded to are those kuown as the *' Grip," and the "Hope" routes. Calculating the respective distances from the point of divergence, namely the Bell Grove Inn near Foxhill, to the junction of the Hope river with the Buller, where they again converge, we find that the road via the Hope is a trifle over 34 miles, while that by the Grip is 47 miles. The mere fact of one route being thirteen miles longer than the other would not prove an insuperable objection to it if the greater distance afforded proportionately greater facilities for traffic, but as the very opposite is the case, the steepest gradients by way of the Hope being one in twelve against, in some places one in three by the other, we cannot conceive in what respect the latter is worthy of even a moment's consideration. There is also another matter which we cannot afford to lose sight of. By way of the Grip the highest elevation to which the road is carried is 300 feet in excess of that to be surmounted on the Hope route. Now anyone that has been in the habit of travelling in that high country must know that a difference of 300 feet in the altitude frequently means in the winter time a difference of between a foot and two or three inches of snow. Should any doubt 1 exist in the minds of those whose experience in travelling ib limited to the perambulation of town streets and suL urban roads, as to the effect an additional eight or nine inches of snow would have upon the progress of a loaded dray, we would recommend them to accompany the team drivers for a few miles, and listen to the expressive utterances that flow from their lips. We have in our time heard the prayerful ejaculations of bullock drivers when taking their drays over injudiciously laid out roads, and can assure the members of the Executive that if they would walk in solemn procession by the side of a dray-load, say of flour, over the steep pitches in the Big Bush and the snow-embedded roads at the Boundell, they would return to their snugly carpeted rooms in the Government Buildings, fully convinced that they did not poesess the unmixed goodwill of the knights of the whip, who after all are the best and most unbiassed judges of the practicability of a road. But, it may be said, the route to the Buller is not to be confined to one road only, as it is intended that there shall be two lines. In reply to this, we would ask, why ? What advantage is to be gained by following the Buller river through the Grip ? So far as we can learn, there is positively none, as no fresh country of any value will be thrown open by bo doing. It is true that at present there exists a road from Nelson to the Grip, and that only five miles remain to be made to connect it with that portion of the Valley which will be tapped by the Hope road, but those five miles will necessitate that extent of sidings cut out of the solid rock, the most expensive kind of roadmaking conceivable. And even when made it would be of no use whatever except to residents in the Marlborough province who, no doubt, would chuckle over the simplicity of our authorities in expending a large sum of money merely for the purpose of opening up communication between Blenheim and the West Coast of this province. At present, and even when completed according to the existing arrangements, the Hope track will not be a really good dray road, since the money available for the purpose is not sufficient to make it such, but supposing that the funds which it is said are to be pitched into the " Devil's Grip " were laid out upon it, a thoroughly practicable road, open at all seasons of the year, might, be constructed. The question resolves itself into this— whether id is better to have one good and reliable line of communication between Nelson and the interior, or two wretchedly bad ones, one of which is altogether unnecessary except for the convenience of Marlborough ? We will follow this up by another query — Should any doubt exist upon the matter ?