THE EAST COAST ROAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19513, 17 December 1926, Page 10

THE EAST COAST ROAD.

Sir,-—This controversy -between the West Coast Development League and the parties supporting the East Coast route is merely a repetition of the foolish squabble which held up by the railway northward and the progress of the North for 25 years. It is not a question of east- versus west, but a question of obtaining reasonable roads for the people living on both sides of the dividing range which runs- right along the island. A road on the west side is not of use to the people on the east arid vice versa. The West Coast Development League is quite within its rights- in seeking ;to open up the west coast- area, bat ! it:should not be part of its programme to i hinder the development of the east coast : areas. The one curnmonsense solution of I the problem is for a road _ to run along I each side of the lange. The mails read j from Auckland to the North,' opened stt ' the early forties of last century, consisted of a road from Devon port along the lis®' I coast. So far back as 1855 a meeting yras i held at Devonport, attended by settlers i from the Wade (now Silverdalo) and the ; areas intervening between that arid Devon- ; port, to protest against a proposal of th# engineers and property owners to run a road from Stoke's Point (now Northcote) through to the Wainsri and on to- Waiwera, as it was contended that the read along the coast was the shortest,, the most easily constructed -and the natural route. During the 70 years that-have intervened < the problem has not altered and the road* have rot altered much either. The bulk of the population is along the cast coast and will inevitably always be so. In th® meantime the opening of the railway and traffic roads along the west coast of the island gave reasonable access to the country north of Helensville, while that on th# east coast, which has for 70 years had an equitable claim for a main road has rot been considered. It is a regrettable fact that the main highway from Auckland to Waiwera and north is for a portion of the year practically impassable. Within 15 miles of the biggest city one may experience all the,thrills, of a back-blocks road. This half-formed highway leads to Wri&ngarei and the North, The settlers within 20 miles of the premier city cannot getto market. 'Die land is quite capable of turning out good crops _if handled properly, and at the _pri.ee'it sells will jpva s man a better return than the Waikato land. It is surely not a part of the vvent Coast League's policy to keep .several hundreds of settlers along the east coast rout® permanently without roads. The Waitemata Chamber of Commerce has constantly stressed the progress of the whole north, west and east, and much regret lo see tne contention that is now raging. Sorae people think that a bridge across tW Waitemata will provide a solution to tats problem, but it is met with the fact that the bridge does not exist and cannot ne » workable proposition until the populati »i of the North Shore bears the sarns relation to the population of the North ooora m Sydney. Cr. A.-'?? Tb°was» Secretary, Waiteuiafta Chamber of Commerce.