Lewis Pass.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19643, 12 June 1929, Page 10

Lewis Pass.

It would have been wiser if the Canterbury Automobile Association on Monday night had made its support of the Lewis Pass road a little less absolute. The strongest argument for the road is the fact that no other highway from East to West will ever be satisfactory to motorists. It does not,

however, follow that such a road should be constructed at once, and it is extremely unlikely that it will ever be constructed for J£ 100,000. The estimate of the Public Works engineers who recen.iy examined the route was " more, and perhaps a good deal more, "than M. 100,000," and although that was only a rough calculation which a more detailed survey might modify, it is unwise to begin dropping off a few thousands of pounds in advance. Actually ,€120,000, or even .€150,000. would not be a prohibitive price for fifty miles of trunk highway if the necessity for such a road apart from price were clearly established. The necessity for all roads is, however, relative to time and circumstances, and to be satisfied that this road is a necessity now we should have to know that its construction would enhance the prosperity of the two provinces and not merely give pleasure to tourists. It cannot be doubted that the road will have to be constructed some day, and that the number of cars east and west of the Alps now is great enough to justify the Automobile Association in taking up the proposal seriously. But it must be remembered that Nelson and the West Coast are demanding simultaneously that the railway line should be carried all the way through the Buller Gorge, in spite of "the fact that this is the motor-car age, and that the completion of one of these works would interfere very seriously with the necessity for the other. The Automobile Association would be on safer ground if it began agitating for the Lewis Pass roai as a substitute for a railway line between Murchison and Inangahua.