ROAD TO KHANDALLAH

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 1, 2 July 1923, Page 3

ROAD TO KHANDALLAH

:' ■■ 10 IHS BDITOE. Sir,—l' am afrajd that the people of Khandallah have got and will continue to get what they appear to. deserve. What they ought to demand with a united j voice is that they be given the shortest road from the city, compatible with an onsy grade. What they have received i» a road to open up new iand. or to achieve some other similar object. Now we hear of another, proposed road which we ara told is ,alsojroing to open up new land, but which is not the shortest and beßl possible roa<i to Khandallah. This new road, like the so-called road to Khandallah now under construction, is apparently going- to be located so as to commence at a point up the Kaiwarra Gorpte, which is not' the neareßt possible point to Wellington. This means that an unnecessary additional stretch of level road will have to be traversed before we get to it.-. In addition it will climb to an unnecessarily great height, so that all goods will have to be hauled near to the sky than we shall ever care to pay for. | | No road has yet been put forward that: , excels in all respects that surveyed by i Mr. Seaton. It commences right at Kaiwarra, the nearest possible point to Wellington ; it follows, but at a lower level, the bridle track, which everyone knows is the very _ shortest route; it is not the road of an amateur, but of an engineer; its grade is 1 in IS, and its length absolutely no greater than is requisite to secure that grade; it climbs no higher than is necessary, striking Khandallah at its lowest point; it provides for a, subsidiary branch, junctioning with the upper and best graded part of the present bridle track, and therefore specially serves all those people to whom the bridle track is a convenience; in short, it stands out as prima facie the best route to Khandallah, and to Johusonville as well. Those people who reside about the Khandallah Railway Station and further on, will find on looking into it that Seaton's road, striking Izard road as it does, keeps on towards them and towards Johnsonville almost level from the time it arrives at Khandallah. whereas any other possible shortest road must first have risen towards the sky. before falling towards the *Khandallah" Railway Station, and tha Valley. Now. unless the Khandallah people concentrate upon the one single objective—the shortest road compatible with an easy grade—they will find themselves again saddled . with a road conforming to some other description. Seaton's road seems clearly to be the best and most obvious routii. and the onus is on dissenters to prove that it is not. What reasons have been or can be eiven against it? If any there be, let them be brought out. so that the free wind ol discussion may blow ucon them. But above all, let the people narrowly regard the council, authors of the present road, and refuse to consider a'nv other thins- but the shortest and best route for all time.—l am, etc.. 2nd July. LN'