FOUR DAYS' TOUR: HIGHWAY BODY REVIEWS ISSUES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23201, 13 March 1950, Page 4

FOUR DAYS' TOUR: HIGHWAY BODY REVIEWS ISSUES

When the president of the New Zealand Counties’ Association. Mr. W. G. Bctton visited Gisborne lest week lie remarked upon the desirability of county representatives knowing more of what lay bevond their own boundaries. Some members of the No. 4 District Highways Council recalled comment todav, when they set out on a four days’ itinerary which is to embrace visits to every impor- • tent route from the northern to the southern boundaries of the highways district. The council comprises the district Works Ministry engineer, Mr. D. O. Haskell, the resident engineer Mr. D.'B. Dallas and representatives of the five counties comprising the highways district—Cook. Waikohu. Uawa, Waiapa and Matakaoa. Tour Frankly Educative On the tour which commenced today, the county representatives were to be accompanied bv their respective executive officers, while the chairman of the No. 4 District Highways Council was to have the executive assistance of the chief clerk at Gisborne. Mr. K. E. McLennan, and the road engineer of the Gisborne office, Mr. E. E. Jenkinson The tour was frankly educative, and arose from a desire on the part of countv representatives to know more of the detail of each county’s highways requirements. It has been said that each county in the past has concentrated upon its own problems to an extent that left the draughting of priorities almost entirely in the hands of departmental officers with an over-all knowleddge of the district. Council members are now disposed to take a closer interest in relative priorities of highways work, with emphasis upon adequate provision for district traffic in produce and in the requirements of business and family life. Improvements in access to producing areas is the dominant theme in highways development for the time being, insofar as the No. 4 council area is concerned. , •

An indication of the widening sphere of members’ interests was given by the itinerary prepared for the tour. Visit to Coast Today

Assembling in Gisborne this morning, Ministry officers and representatives of Cook, Waikohu and Matakaoa Counties travelled to Tolaga Bay to pick up the Uawa and Waiapu representatives. The day’s programme ' included visits to the Tauwhareparae area to inspect the access road and part of the Arikihi main highway; lunch at Tokomaru Bay; and an inland excursion via the Tokomaru-Mata highwav, the Tunkau section of the Waiapu Inland Road, and back to the main Fast Coast traffic route by way of the Ihungia highway. An inspection of five miles of the Waoi-matatini highwav was also to be undertaken today. Tonight is to be spent in Ruatoria, and tomorrow the party will proceed bv the main East Coast route to the crossing at the Oweka Stream in the Matakaoa County. Lunch will be taken at Te Araroa, and during the afternoon an inspection of the Taurangakautuku highwav will be followed bv a traverse of the Kopuaroa road to Waipiro Bay, thence to Te Puia, and home to Gisborne.

Wairoa and Opoiikl Routes

On Wednesday the Mangapoike high; wav will be inspected as far as possible, and the party later will make a circuit of the Morere-Wairoa route and the Wairoa - Gisborne inland highway through the Hnngaroa. The fourth day of the tour will be devoted to the area lying north-west of Gisborne and served mainly by the Gisborne-Opotiki, via Matawai, route. The party will see portions of tne Kanakanaia highway, the Poututu section of the Motu Front Highway, and the Oootiki-Matawni highway via Motu, later returning to through the Te Wera highway and the whare-kopae-Rere road to the Patutahi Rere highway. On completition of this itinerary, members of the council should be welt equipped to discuss roading issues with the Main Highways Board, which is to visit Gisborne next week in the couise of a North Island tour.