LEWIS PASS ROAD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 12 June 1929, Page 6

LEWIS PASS ROAD

SUBSTITUTE FOR RAILWAY A CHRISTOHURCH SUGGESTION (By Tolosraph-flpeoial to "The Mail") OimrSTOBOaCH, This Day. "Tho Press," in an editorial, says: "It would have been wiser if the Canterbury Automobile Association on Monday night had made its support of the Lewis Pass road a little less absolute. The strongest argument for the road is the fact that no other highway from east to west will ever Be satisfactory to the motorist. It does not, however, follow that such a road should be constructed at once, and it is extremely unlikely that it will ever he constructed for £IOO,OOO . . . actually £120,000, or even £150,000 would not be a prohibitive price for 50 miles of trunk highway, if the necessity for such a road, apart from the price, were clearly established. The necessity' for all roads" is, however, relative to time and circumstances, and to be satisfied that this road is a necessity now, we should have to know that its construction would enhance the prosper, tty of the two provinces, and not merely give pleasure to tourists. It cannot be doubted that the road will have to be constructed some day, and that the number of cars east and west of the Alps now is great enough to justify the Automobile Association in taking up the proposal seriously, but it must be remembered that the Nelson and the West Coast are demanding simultaneously that a railway line should be carried- ail the way through the -Buller Gorge, in spito of the fact that this is a motor car age,-and that the completion of one of these works would interfere very seriously with the necessity for the other. The Automobile Association would be on safer ground if it began agitating for the Lewis Fass road as a substitute for the railvay line between- Mnrchison arid InangahuJv'"'' ,'•