THE COASTAL ROAD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 43, 31 July 1939, Page 3

THE COASTAL ROAD

OPOTIKI PAPER ANNOYED EXPOSES SCHEMING WHAKATANE Artei- reprinting the report of the public meeting in Whakatanc to consider the proposed coastal highway the "Opotiki News" ran a two-col* umn cfl'iision on the subject in its leader columns. Why the ''News' should object ! to Whakatanc having better access and being connected to Opotiki by a mor'e direct route is o mystery. The ''News" may fear that Whakatanc Mould take business away from Opotiki, but this attitude shows little I'aith in its own town. It is impossible to pnint the full two columns of abuse, but fair cx-s traels from fa read as follows: — "The report of the meeting . . . makes rather astounding reading in parts . . . The suggestion that the Whakatanc borough and county is

badly off as far as highway communis cation is concerned is so utterly ridiculous as to be unworthy of comment. Whakatanc borough is adequately served by highways, as at present the Tauranga, Rotorun. and Opotiki highways all converge ori the town of Whakatanc . . . Forcing' Trade to Whakatane. "An analysis of the agitation from Whakatane for a shorter highwaj' between Opotiki and Whakatanc, as tshown by the files of the Bay of Plenty Press, shows clearly that the idea of the highway was to try force trade into Whakatane borough. The suggested road via Wainui was briefly discussed on one or two occasions by the Whaka'bane County Coun e : l, but that body never at any time advocated such a road, and the whole of the support for the idea came from the borough of Whakatane, the Chamber of Commerce there being the leader of the agitation, strongly supported by the Bay of Plenty Press, which at that time had a very good reason for a shorter read to Opoliki. First of all the plan was to secure a l'oad to enable Wainui set- j tiers to .shop in Whakatane and di:;- ! courage them from going to Opotiki. The. business people, of "Whakatane made no secret of what they wer;cj after . . . Quite a number of Cabinet Ministers .saw the beauties of tlie scenery in the vicinity of Ohopc and wc.'e then led back to Whaka., lane wilhout seeing anything of the rest of the road. After being told of the dangerous Waimana Gorge route tlie Ministers were brought to Opotiki during the hours of darkness, when they could not possibly get any idea of the prcsen't highway, except tli,at in the dark it appeared to be narrow, long and twisty. Next someone discovered that the distance from Auckland to Opotiki could be shoitened, provided of course people went to Tauranga through the Whakatane borough. That travellers could »!- save many miles . . . via the White Pine Bush was purposely overlooked . Harbour Route Impracticable.

"Then the, Minister of Public Works condemned the Wainui route . . . Probably being told that it was only a "stone's throw" across the mouth of the Ohiwa harbour Mr Semple promptly put forward the idea that a bridge should be built across the mouth of the harbour. Mr Semple did not see the harbour mouth and had a report made on this route. That it was not feasible was known by most people. A plan was publish, ed some time ago in the Auckland Star, accompanied by a lengthy article by a "retired public works en-, mincer.' We have had it on good authority from another engineer that the wDiler has not been near the Ohiwa harbour for at least ,'?() yea is. A a nous points were challenged later . . . and the "retired engineer" apparently "took the count.'* ' Seeino that the suggested road concerned Opoliki more than it did Whakatane, it is a rather remarkable tiling that Whakatane never ap. pioached Opotiki local bodies whihr with the Opotiki paper under the direct control of Whakatane thenj could be no possible chance of oppo. sition to the suggested road. S : ncc the "Opotiki News" commenced publication this journal has endeavoured to keep the public informed of the position . . . "Shocking Waste of Money'' ''The construction of the proposed coastal highway would be a shocking wante of public money as the direct trafT : c between Opotiki and Whakatane ... is exceedingly light, while in ordinary times the through trarir i'(Jlsborne to Opotiki is *ear_ -cly 'j.') vehicle a day . . .

do not necessarily wish to use the shortest road in their travels and the present highway is one of Hie best from a scenic point of view, and tia. vellers from Rotorua can also go via the White Pine Bush where there is also very attractive country, at one time praised to the skies by the Whakatane people, but now forgotten by Whakataue . . . "Nice New Bridge" . . . In the event of a coastal highway being constructed the bulk of the traffic will still continue lo use the present highway and this has never been contradicted. From a tourist point of view there is nothing against the existing highway and a lot to be said in support of it . . . The question of cost does not appear to worry Whakatane in the as it is suggested that £30,000 more should be spent in taking the road via Ohope, instead of the Maraetotara Gorge, with a nice new bridgo thrown in near the Whakatane paper mills for good measure. ''From a military point of view a coastal road is too vulnerable to sea attack. It has been suggested thgt warships could not approach the New Zealand coast for fear of aerial at. tack and that only planes would attack the country. In the event of planes having upper hand it can be stated that therfe would be no planes as unless there are warships to escort them planes would not be able to raid the courftry." (What Is the "News'* trying to say? Ed. BEACON.) Whakatane no Cindarella. . . . "The idea that Whakatane is a sort of Cindanella is ludicrous when it is considered it has a three-way highway connection, not forgetting an expenditure of something like £1 000,000 on, the drainage of the Whakatane plains, and for which the rest of the country is helping to foot the bill. "The statement . . . that the suggested road would reduce the distance between and Opo_ tiki hy 20 miles is ridiculous . . . The distance to Whakatane by the suggested route would be approximately 28 miles—not 18-. . . The distance between Gisborne and Auckland via the White Pine Bush and Rotorua would be actually shorter than by the suggested highway, taking the Rotorua route to Auckland