A TRUNK ROAD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 181, 26 June 1862, Page 5

A TRUNK ROAD.

To the Editor of the 'Daii.v Trains,

Sir, -1 am glad to sej that you are directing attention to the importance of improving the internal communication of this island, aud particularly to the necessity of forming a trunk-line of road from Ncboa io Southland. As few probably of your readers are acquainted .with the country at the northern end >f the island, aud having reason to belieA-e that the difficultiej of making a coach road between Nelson and Canterbury have been over-rated, I Avill give you a slight sketch of the country the road Avould have to pass through, aud I shall be able to show, I think,. that no serious impediments stand in the way of executing so important a wurk.

Starting from Nelson, a dray road is already made on the direct route to Canterbury for forty-two mile?, over which Cobb's coaches could now be driven. This brings us to a wooded p.n=s which separates the Blind Bay district from that ol Wairau, or Marlborough, but through this nine miles of wood there is already au excellent bridle road, and the Neison Government has j usfc voted the necessary money to clear away the stumps of trees which partially block up the track, and thus open it for vehicles. From the Wairau cud of this pass, known as the Top House, the road would follow the present bridle track up the western side of tho Wairau river, and for from fifteen to twenty miles tlie dray road could be continued nt very little expense. Bub then the great difficulty of the whole route would have to be encountered. "For tho next six or eight miles the A-alley is a mere gorge., and the road would have to be cut out of the rock. This has been already done for a bridle path, but if a dray road was intended to be male it would have to ba carried at a lower level, as the bridle road rises nearly live hundred feet above the river. Emerging from this gorge, you reach the open couutry of TarinUie, the greatest elevation attained on the road, probably 3000 feet abovo the ievel of the sea; and the road would then follow the present bridle track down the Achurti Valley, up the Clarence to the foot of Joilie's Pass, and thence over the Pass to the Shimmer Plain. From Tarmlnle to Joilie's Pass, about thirty miles, tho difficulties to be encountered are trifling, and consist only of occasional side cuttings, but the descant from the Pass into the. Shanmer Plain is a somewhat se-ious business. This descent i 3 ahout 1,200 feet, (the rise from the Ciaveaeo is quite inconsiderable), and is at present, effected by following down a long spur, but there is uo reason i'or believing tbat a much better line for a road does not exist, for as the slopes of all the other hills are wooded, travellers naturally selected for their descent the one destitute of such an incumbrance. ArriA-ed al the Shaniner Plain, the road is pracriealiy leA-el through the'regaining portion of the Nelson Province, and the whole length of that of Canterbury, and the rivers offer the oaiy impediment to a coaeb and four running the whole dis'ance at this moment. To facilitate tlie crossing of these rivers, the Governments both of Nelson and Canterbury are exerting themselves, tho Waiau-ua, the most formidable of the Nelson rivers, is forthwith to be bridged, and the Governments of Nelson and Canterbury are negotiating to bridge the Huranui, tlie boundary river of the two Provinces, at their joint cost. The other two rivers Avhich the road wo.dd cross in the Nelson Province aro of inconsiderable size, except when heavily flooded, but bridges could be thrown over the whole of them afc no great, expense. ■ The real difficulty iii making this trunk road lies in the fact, that if undertaken by the ' Provincial Governments and paid for out of provincial funds, the cost to the large and wealthy Proviuce of Canterbury would be trifling, while itis chief burden Avould fall upon Nelson. If such ft work is to he achieved at ali, it must be undertaken by. the General Government, and the cost of the Avhole work .equalised among all the Provinces of the island. - I am, <see., Locomotive.