LEWIS PASS HIGHWAY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 28 September 1934, Page 3

LEWIS PASS HIGHWAY

(To the Editor)

Sir, —We are informed by no less an authority than Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations that “flood roads . . by diminishing the cost of riagv, put the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with those in the neighbourhood of the town. They are upon that account the greatest of all improvements.” Half a century ago two Keefton pioneers, Andrew Searight and John Connington, led an expedition T>o miles into the back country to open up a six foot track from Maruia Hot Springs over the Lewis Pass into Canterbury. Six miles of track were formed and for 50 years the thousands of pounds then spent lay practically idle. A motor road is now completed from the West Coast to within a mile of the divide and the highway from the East Coast reaches to within 10 miles of the Pass, leaving a gap of only 17 miles still to close.

! Fifty years ago, sir, the Government of the day saw the necessity of linking Nelson and Canterbury provinces by this road and 50 years since the road is still uncompleted. Westland province has the railway and highway via Arthur’s Pass to the East Coast. Is not Nelson province entitled to have the Lewis Pass Highway made available ?

Close on five million pounds yearly is taken in unemployment taxation to be expended on jobs far less important than the linking of Canterbury and Nelson districts. Surely the quota of this taxation raised in these two districts could be used on the construction of this 17 mile of highway. The road over Arthur’s Pass to join Canterbury and Westland was built in six months by the Provincial Government of Canterbury. Does the Government of the Dominion want another lifty years to complete this connection between the two provinces of Nelson and Canterbury?—l am etc. CANTNEL. Keefton, 25th September.