The Northern Advocate Daily WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5. 1938. ACCESS TO NORTHLAND BEACHES

Northern Advocate, 5 January 1938, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5. 1938. ACCESS TO NORTHLAND BEACHES

First." Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

North land lias a wonderful heritage in its multitude of ocean and harbour beaches, each having a distinction and charm cnrircly of its own. One has only to travel through the rest of the Dominion to realise how wonderfully the province is endowed in this respect. Napier’s West-shore, Wellington’s Packakariki, the stony Taranaki beaches, none of them approach, either in beauty or as swimming places ary one of a hundred sanded resorts in the Northern peninsula. Auck-

land city is famed for its marine attractions, but again the best and most popular of these arc confined to the north side of the Waitcmata. Admittedly, glorious beaches are to lie found not far off the beaten track in the Tauranga and Bay of Plenty districts, but to the motorist and camper in search of endless variety and magnificent scenery, Northland issues a unique and irresistible call t<> the seaside.

Reading- Problems. So popular have our watering places become with visitors from outside districts that in recent years they have constituted a problem to local bodies responsible for providing access, without which their beauties would remain, as many of them did until comparatively recently, quite unknown to the public. Since | about 1928 a progressive policy of reading construction lias been adopted so that, with few exceptions, our beaches have been opened up to the motorist and pleasure-seeker. Tn many instances, it must be remembered, the immediate hinterland of the Northern coast comprises steeply rising country, sparsely populated, and in some areas, largely undeveloped as yet. It is this terrain that has been traversed by ribbons of metal giving entry to the coast resorts and pleasure to many thousands of visitors annually. The. very remoteness of such places, tucked away amid the hills, far from the bustle of everyday life, and very close to Nature, adds to their appeal.

Highways In All But Name. During the summer months roads leading to Northland's tourist beaches am main highways in all but name, and their maintenance is taxing severely the financial capabilities of the ridings concerned. More particularly is this so because in. several instances —notably the Kiripaka and Otonga ridings of the Whangarei County Council —considerable flood damage has also been sustained since 1934. A certain amount of revenue from other parts of the county lias been diverted to assist in keeping these ridings afloat, and the Government has assisted by contributions on a fairly liberal basis, but the fnndfe available have only been sufficient to maintain tourist routes at a minimum standard. At recent meetings of the Whangarei County Council the chairman and members for the ridings most concerned have pointed out the impossibility of financing these essentially tourist roads out of ratepayers’ moneys. That their words were not idle ones has been proved to many holidaymakers this season. East Coast Route.

This particularly applies to the East Coast route, via Kiripaka, Ngun guru and Mataponri, where many thousands of pounds of public money has been spent in constructing, aligning and metalling a road in conformity with tourist requirements.

Unless the riding and the council receive assistance from outside sources there is a distinct possibility that a great deal of the money expended in major improvemental works will lie lost. Over the holiday period the road, more particularly the section between Ngungnru and Matapouri, has been in a deplorable state . Evidences of a restricted purse are everywhere at hand—in the pot-holed surface, in slips which have been cleared sufficiently to provide the barest of passage ways, and in the particularly rough portion where the metal has not been blinded. Motoring along this part of the coastline, unrivalled in its grandour elsewhere in the Dominion, is anything but a pleasure: in fact, not a few visitors, possessing local knowledge, have preferred to approach Matapouri from the Hikurangi side returning the same way, hut in this manner losing the variety and interest of a. completed round trip. To a lesser extent, perhaps, the same conditions appertain on the AVhangarci Heads Road, becoming recognised as a marine drive second to none in the Dominion. To improve this route a considerable sum has been voted on the Supplementary Estimates,

Provision For Upkeep, However, as exemplified in the Enssell and Matapouri roads, Hie expenditure of large sums of Governmental grants in improving the constructional standard, without provision for future annual maintenance has been regarded as a’ rather mixed blessing. Tlje difficulty lies in the fact that during the winter, beach approaches are used by few except the settlors themselves, and that consequently claims for inclusion in. the highways system arc not considered sympathetically. However, the fact remains that it is neither practical nor equitable to thrust the whole responsibility for maintenance during the holiday season, when district traffic forms a very small percentage of the whole, upon local. bodies, whose principal endeavour must always ho to guard the interest of producers’ roads.