Molesworth Route Inspected

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 1

Molesworth Route Inspected

Amuri county councillors drove over part of the historic stock route from Nelson to Canterbury yesterday, using the new State Electricity Department road made for., the pylon route taking power to the North Island.

Public use of the road is barred by a locked chain barrier at the Clarence bridge, but the council is fighting to have the route opened.

The road would give a shorter route to Picton for Hanmer Springs and Culverden residents, and would give public access to what is considered some of the finest fishing in the South Island.

The departmental route leads from Hanmer . Springs over Jacks Pass to Molesworth, where it joins the Awatere Valley road in the Awatere county, which connects with the Main North road at Dashwood, near Seddon. The inspection involved a round trip of about 300 miles.

Transfer Scheme

Associated with Amuri’s efforts to have the new road opened to the public is an appeal by the council against a provisional scheme by the Local Government Commission to transfer about 250,000 acres, mainly Molesworth country, to the Awatere county. The appeal will be heard on April 4. One of Amuri’s main reasons for opposing the provisional transfer proposals is that it wishes to have the route opened to through traffic.

At the Local Government Commission hearing last August the chairman of the county (Mr A. A. Macfarlane) said that if the proposals had anything to do with the stopping of the building of a highway through the area in the future it would be a great pity. The route has apparently been closed because the formed road deviates from the “paper” road line. An area of 251,800 acres was included in the proposed transfer to Awatere, said Mr Macfarlane. The main purpose in Amuri’s opposing the transfer was to have the road opened for the public. If the road was opened there would be no profit in the rates collected, as there would be considerable expenditure on maintenance and improvements.

The cheapest thing would be to let Awatere have the

area and then for Amuri to continue to work to have the road opened. “We are gentlemen, however, and we are doing it the honest way,” Mr Macfarlane said.

Old Pack Route

The council has always maintained a road as far as the old Clarence accommodation house, according to comments during the inspection. Until the Electricity Department pushed its route through, however, the going from Clarence to Molesworth homestead was little more than a pack track. Molesworth station started to develop a road for its utility vehicles but after about a year the department moved in, about four years ago, to bring the road to the present standard. The 53-mile section from Hanmer Springs to Molesworth gives at least a good one-way carriageway for cars. The 64-mile section from Molesworth to Dashwood has many miles of tortuous bends. The final 15 miles to Dashwood is. mostly sealed, and sections of the route, which

requires several bridges, are being improved. After driving over the outlet to Dashwood, councillors expressed surprise that the manager of Molesworth (Mr N. M. Chisholm) had expressed a preference for the Dashwood section as the main access for the station, with only limited use being made of the Hanmer Springs section, mainly as an outlet for stock. Snow Problem

Snow could be a problem on the Hanmer-Molesworth section, according to Mr Chisholm, who has seen 30 feet of snow on Wards Pass (3850 ft the highest point on the route. An already legalised section known as the Saxton loop avoids this pass, however, and is generally regarded as the more likely route for a public road. On the Saxton Mr Chisholm has seen up to 16ft of snow. The other major pass on the southern sector, Jacks (2930 ft about four miles from Hanmer Springs, is already in regular winter use by members of the Amuri Ski Club.

The snow problem was largely discounted by councillors. They considered the problem no more difficult than other South Island alpine routes. Drifts of the depth mentioned by Mr Chisholm were the accumulation of many falls, which would be graded off before reaching such proportions if the road was in regular use by the public. The department has told the Amuri council that it intends to keep the route open to its four-wheel drive vehicles for line maintenance. With this in mind the department has bought a special machine to remove the snow from the road.

While opposed to the Clar-ence-Molesworth section being opened up for public use now, Mr Chisholm conceded yesterday that a “public road is certain to come in the future.” Closing the road with a locked chain was a step any prudent farmer would take, said Mr Chisholm. Irresponsible shooters had been a considerable nuisance.