PICTON-WESTPORT ROAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 950, 17 April 1930, Page 13

PICTON-WESTPORT ROAD

MOTOR SERVICE BEGUN Press Association BLENHEIM, Wednesday. In view of the virtual completion <>: the new highway to the West Coast, the first motor service from Bicton to Westport, via Blenheim. Wairau Valley, Tophouse and Murchison, was inaugurated today. For the present the service is only a tri-weekly one. but as the. route becomes popular for use by tourists and West Coast business men the cars will run each day both ways. It is anticipated that by the anniversary of the great earthquake. June 17, the Buller Gorge Road will be reopened. and that it will be a safer road and a finer scenic route than before. When the Buller Gorge is reopened for traffic it will be possible to breakfast in Westport and dine in Wellington, provided the Cook Strait ferry runs in conjunction. To mark the launching of the new service and the opening of the route Messrs. Newman Brothers, whose cars are providing the service, entertained 55 representatives of local and public bodies at Marlborough, Nelson and the West Coast at luncheon at Murchison. A large number of'public men of Marlborough were conveyed over the pew road and said they were impre-ssed with its excellence. Coloured ribbons representing the three districts were stretched across the highway and were severed by Mr. E. F. Healy, M.P. for Wairau; Mr. W. J. Moffatt, Mayor of Nelson, and Mr. J. H. Harkness, Mayor of Westport.