FAR SOUTH ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 6

FAR SOUTH ROADS.

NECESSARY, AND UNNECESSARY

(By J.C.)

A centennial celebration project in tlie South Island is the construction of a highway from South Weetland to the motor road now being made from Lake Te Aiiau to Milford Sound. This is to be urged on the Government ns a work of national importance. The southern public men and newspaper writers who advocate such a road obviously do not know the churafter of the country between the end of the promt inhabited part of South Westland and the alpine precipices that block the approach to Milford Sound. If they did, they would probably be disposed to increase "the guesswork estimate of cost from the published amount of £700,000 to something approaching £2.000.000. Or it may be £3,000.000. Who knows?

The intractably wild region of alps and gorges and precipices between Jackson's Bay and .tlie vicinity of Milford have not been explored thoroughly, or surveyed except skeitehily. Parts of it are known; and the makers of its new scenic road between the north side of Lake Te AuA.ii and Milford are discovering how slow and costly it is to tunnel a way throinh a mass of terrific granite mountain#. What that rodd will cost before it is I'nished no one in authority ventures to say. The work has been going on for two years or more;-it may take a year or two or more before it touches the shore, of MHfprd; and it is liable to be blocked bv snow in winter. It cannot be classed as anything but a luxury road. Certainly it will enable tourists v-lio do not care to attack the easy walk irom Te Anau by the present route to visit Milford Without using their le"s; but the Fiordland <-hores are best seen from the water, and the largest liners can use ail avenue of approach that is never closed.

Over the Haast Pass. The suggested hero!" cut through Granite Land from' South Westlaml to the way now being tunnelled through the Homer Saddle is worse than unnecessary. It would be a huge Waste of money to attempt it. What South Weft la lid doe« need is a good road over the Haaet Pass into' Otago. This would enable travellers to drive rhht through from the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers region to 'Like Wannka in Ota r <o, where there are good roads already. Wanaka m linked with Wakfttipu and Te Anau mid the rest of the lakes country by excellent roads. There is only the, South Westland—Haast Pass gap to be filled. This is liot a formidable mountain country. There would not be a tunnel on the vhole of the 150 miles from the Fox glacier Hats, already reached by motor from the north, to the shore of Lake Walifika.

Bridging the Rivers. The rivers are the only difficulty. The Haast would require 'a*long bridge a few miles above its and another further up, and , ome. Of its My ft tributaries would have to be bridged. But there are 110 other engineering obstacles;, ine way is straightforward over the Pass, which ia not. quite 1800 feet above sea level, the lowest saddle in the whole of the Southern Alps range. Except for the frequently flooded rivers, it is an easy horseback Voute at present; it can be made into a good motor road for probably a tenth part of the amount of motley already spent 011 the luxury road to Miiford; niul it would be infinitely more useful. It would give the settlers of the remoter parts of Westland the highway for wheels that they need, and actfss to the Otago markets for their stock. As for grand scenery, there is no need to go farther 'than this, Haast Pass track. The tourist of the future will make it fts famous a« Milford. Thi-s. is centennial gift that Wetstland [re?'' 7 Requires.