Will Haast Township Be Shifted?

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30900, 5 November 1965, Page 27

Will Haast Township Be Shifted?

Will Haast township shift to a new site at Greenstone creek, a tributary of the Haast river, seven miles upstream, on the road to the Haast Pass? Or might there one day be a new township at the Arawata?

These questions may loom large for the 130 residents of Haast, once the new Paringa-Haast link is open.

There has already been official examination of the greenstone site, considered the best of several investigated, and the matter is still “in the air.”

Haast township is two miles away from the new link road, and on a site not fully suitable for expansion. It is perched on a 200-yard strip of gravel dunes, within sound arid sight of the sea, and backed by swamp country. There are problems of water supply, sewerage, and land tenure. Some folk there are “squatters” on Crown land. The idea of a new township on the Paringa-Haast Pass road (State Highway 6) has accordingly been put forward by the Westland County Council. A site just south of the Haast bridge, where there is already an airfield and a ser-

vice station, appears on first thought the obvious one. But this is low-lying country, and 3ft of floodwater has been known to cover the Haast aerodrome. The stop-banking, or building up, of the area has been considered —there is unlimited gravel at the Haast mouth—but it is not thought practicable.

The Greenstone creek site is on State highway 6, running up to the Haast Pass, and seven miles inland. It is a bushed area, which would have to be cleared, but is relatively flat. There would probably be no trouble about water supply and sewage disposal. It may well be a very good site for a motel. But as a township site it could be “out of the swim.” Life and movement in the Haast area are up and down

the coast—north to Paringa, and south to Okuru and Jackson Bay. Tourists seem to have an irresistible desire to push on to the end of the road. Having perhaps driven all the way down the West Coast, it is hard to see them turning tamely inland to Greenstone, and leaving the road to Okuru and Jackson Bay unexplored. And for those reaching the Haast area from Otago, over the Haast Pass, the sea coast is a big attraction, and the natural end of their journey. For these reasons, a new township at the Arawata, on Jackson Bay, may be a better proposition—especially if State highway 6, is in the future, branched the 65 miles south through the Cascade and Pyke valleys to join the

Hollyford road, and so link with the road to Milford Sound (State highway 94)

The Ministry of Works has already carried out a reconnaissance survey for this work. Such reading would be no more difficult than that already done on certain sections between Paringa and Haast, according to Mr D. B Dallas, the Commissioner of Works for the CanterburyWestland dist.nct.

The recent growth of Carters, a small, modern •‘timber township," two miles south of Okuru, may also indicate development lies in this direction, with a good harbour and wharf at Jackson Bay. Vessels up to 2000 tons can come in here.

At any rate, no-one at Haast seems at all keen to move to Greenstone creek. The vote of local people seems to be to stay on the sea coast.