LEWIS PASS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20612, 30 July 1932, Page 16

LEWIS PASS.

COMPLETION OF ROAD. MUCH SATISFACTION EXPRESSED Following upon the decision of the Unemployment Board to go on with the construction of the unformed portion of the Lewis Pass road, there have been expressions of .gratification by Christchurch motorists and others interested in the work being completed. As previously reported, the sites or the camps for tho single men 'who are unemployed and who are to do t e work, were selected some weeks and but for the temporary hold-up 01 work the camps would have been occupied before now and the work would have been well in hand. Working Porce of 200. By the end of next week it is hoped to have ill tho main camp at Glynn Wye the first contingent, numbering about 70 men, out of the total working force of about 200 men. It is intended to establish a camn near the locality where the road will cross the river. The existing road is constructed to The Poplars station, about four miles rom Glynn Wye, and from that point the route follows various tributaries of the Waiau .river—the Hope, the Boyle, and the Lewis: to the Lewis Pass, or saddle. The ascent over a distance of about 18 miles to the pass is less than 1400 ft, and the construction is-said to be easy. From the pass westward to the Maruia Springs much formation work already has been done. From the pass to the springs is about five miles. Already the springs are connected by road with Reef ton and Murchison. Regarding tho bridges on the portion of the road to be formed on the Canterbury side, Mr F. W. Freeman, who has been over the route many times, %nd who has been a keen advocate of its completion, says that they constitute an inconsiderable portion of the work, and their total cost would be only a few thousand pounds. The road, when completed, will shorten the distance by road between Christchurch and Nelson, Murchison, Reef ton, and Westport and will open up much country to settlement. Completion Desired. Mr W. R. Carey, president of the Canterbury Automobile Association, expressed the hope yesterday that now that it had been decided to go on with the work the jnen would riot bo taken off until the job was'finished.^ Mr F. W. Freeman,'who is a past president of the Association, said that possibly there was no more suitable work in the South Island for unemployed men than the Lewis .Pass road because of its economic value. He hoped that, now that the work was to be resumed it would be gone on with till it was finitlied. Relatively the road was more important to the West Coast districts than to Canterbury. He thought that business interests on the West Coast and in Canterbury must inevitably benefit from the completion of the road because at present and in the past most of the trade of Westport passed through Wellington. The Lewis Pass route brought Westport fifty miles nearer to Christchurch.