AUCKLAND’S LINK WITH WAIKAREMOANA

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 105, 25 July 1927, Page 8

AUCKLAND’S LINK WITH WAIKAREMOANA

COMPLETION URGED REPORT FROM MINISTER

The New Zealand Totritt League has for some time been urging the Government to com plete the road from Ruatahuna to Lake Waikaremoana. The beautiful inland | a |,. charms ail visitors, but relatively few Aucklanders are able to make the long trip via Napier or Git borne to Wairoa and thence to the lake. 'J'HE overland route from Rotorua, when completed, will take the traveller right past the last tract of native country, the Tuhoe country, or Urewera as the Europeans cal! it, and over historic ground to the most storied of all our lakes.

In reply to the league’s request for Information as to how the work is progressing, it has received the following communication from the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. S. Williams:—“The Waimana-Waikaremoana Road, officially known as the Waimana Valley Road, has been surveyed front the Bay of Plenty reading system at Waimana (which is on the road from IVhakatane to Opotiki) to the Wairoa system on the south side of the lake, a distance of 66 utiles. The road has been formed to dray width for about 16 miles from Waimana and to 6ft. for a further seven miles. Thi s road is not being formed as an access route from Auckland to Waikarentoana, and it is not intended to do extensions in the near future. WORK PROGRESSING

“The proposed access from Auckland Province to Lake Waikaremoana is through Rotorua and Ruatahuna, the distance from Ruatahuna to Whanganui inlet on Lake Waikaremoana being 20 miles. Work is proceeding steadily on this road, and it has been widened to full dray width for six miles from Ruatahuna toward the lake. There are at present 17 men employed, and it is proposed to push steadily on with the work.” There is another route into the Tuhoe from the Bay of Plenty reading system from Whakatane via the Whakatane River valley. The road now runs to Ruatoki, once the edge of the confiscated land. The Minister states that 30 relief workers are employed on the extending of this routs toward the south, where it will eventually junction with the RotoruaRuatahuna Road. At present only a very rough track exists. M S * ISI * * g S : * * «