CHARTERIS BAY-PURAU ROAD.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14916, 14 March 1914, Page 8

CHARTERIS BAY-PURAU ROAD.

TO THE EDITOR OV "TUX PRESS."

Sir,---Having had his dangerous presence betrayed by intrepid explorers of the Automobile Association, it is high time the old bull, local apathy, was either led away to- fresh- pastures or immediately destroyed. At the risk of being badly gored, 1 intend f to test his ferocity by tho somewhat foolhardy experiment of grasping him by the horns. "These hills wero simply terrible to look at, grades of less than one in four being met with, and in wet weather would not have been negotiable." Such is the highly complimentary tribute paid to the above-mentioned cattle track by a Christchurch daily in .reporting progress of the recent reliability trials. These impressions were gathered on a fine day by a disinterested, individual seated in a powerful motor-car, soaring liko a bird upon the wing over all obstacles in its path. Imagine, if you can, the lurid reading that reporter could supply if circumstances compelled him; burdened with necessaries of life, to ascend this precipitous pathway in the dead of winter! For over forty years the old bridle track from Charteris Bay to Purau has done yeoman service as a stock road. Men and beasts alike have scrambled along it with but. few fatalities recorded. But civilisation advancing clamour* for a new road, along which pedestrians might venture at night without a lantern. No attempt was evidently made in the first place to grade the old road. As our rare visitors have testified, it clambers over crag and crevice with fine disregard tor the value of life or limb. Starting from sea level at the Charteris Bay end, it ascends by grades baffling description to the top of Shell Bay hill, from where, unable to maintain its balance, it falls .forward headlong to the sea upon the other side. Strangers of ordinary intelligence aro usually deceived into supposing that tho road following the beach round the base of the hill is the main one, but aro hastily disillusioned upon discovery that it ends abruptly, half way round at a small wharf. When first seen at low tide, thjs structure gives one the impression of having been erected far inland, and driven to the shore, has baulked at sight.of the water a quarter of a mile away, and been permanently abandoned. However, the tide visits it twice a day across the mud flats, which saves it from dry rot; insects, and, incidentally allows boats of shallow draught to load up or discharge. The Harbour Board levies a toll upon all persons and goods crossing.this amphibious ornament. Everybody pays up without demur, and looks" wonderfully happy. While meditating upon their predicament, impertinent strangers have .even asked why the beach road is not extended for about thirty .chains to join the main road, which, having seemingly recovered from its fall, is charging up the nearest hill with terrible velocity. 1, too, "have asked that question, without avail. There is a story told that, many years aj?o a drowsy Road Board of the period, stung, by public reproach, rolled oyer in its bed to discuss this formidable undertaking, but a learned member hushed all and sundry back to swebt oblivion by murmuring that some gum saplings.upon tbe beach chain along his frontage could not be interfered with! Surely this is. but a legend, and should be handed to posterity with the benefit of doubt. Continuing up the hill, the main road studiously avoids the water as though afraid that a drowning iatality might be added to another spill. Church Bay, a quarter of a mile below, with a nice little wharf, and - fair dopth of water, is shunned liko a pestilence, but has extended to it from the main road a half-chain unformed rightr-of T way, suspended like a; plumb-line down a ono-in-three grade. Losing signt of the shore altogether, the main road; now hopelessly lost, wanders aimlessly inland towards Purau, over gullies and switchbacks, whore metal refuses to hold even after deep and solemn Durial in tno clay. Emerging, unexpectedly in 6ight of Purau Bay, and only a paltry few hundred feet above its objective sea level, it proceeds cautiously down the hillside until, apparently overcome by dizziness, it takes one long last header to the shore. The absurdity of the situation is aggravated by the fact that an excellent grade could be obtained for the whole trifling distance of five miles much nearer to the shore. This would give easy access to all the wharves, and vice versa. So keen is the desire for improvement in grade at the Purau end, that offers of free land and a cheque for £100 are offered as inducements to begin a new road. In justice to the donors, let mc hasten to add that th© road would not add materially to the value of their properties. About a year ago the sight of surveyors upon the Diamond Harbour estate (which tho road would have to traverse) extracted a yawn from somnolent members of the Mount Herbert County Council, which control* the cattle track. They, too. have evidently sunk back into that profound parochial slumber, whero thunder is but a lullaby and the tremors of a Messina earthquake like the passing of a dream.—Yours, etc.. OLIVER, HUNTER. Church Bay, March 13.