LEWIS PASS ROAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21247, 29 July 1932, Page 10

LEWIS PASS ROAD

WORK OF CONSTRUCTION OPERATIONS TO BE RESUMED [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON, Thursday Questioned after a meeting of tho Unemployment Board to-day, the actingMinister of Employment, Hon. A. Hamilton, said arrangements had been made for the continuation of construction work on the Lewis Pass Road in the South Island, where operations were 6uspdnded some time ngo. The Minister said the board had gone carefully into the position affecting construction work and into questions which made it appear that the work would require to be held up, but it had been decided that construction work should continue. Tho projected Lewis Pass Road runs from Waiau, Hanmer, over Lewis Pass on the lowest altitude of the Southern Alps, cqming out at tho Reefton Road. It will bring the West Coast into much closer touch with Canterbury. Work had heen carried out on tho road at intervals over a number of years and construction has already been completed to Glenn Wye on the Canterbury side and to Mai uia Springs on tho West Coast side. Unemployed labour is being used on the road at present.

RAILWAY BOARD'S ATTITUDE DENIAL OF INTERVENTION - [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] WELLINGTON. Thursday iAn emphatic denial that the work on the Lewis Pass Road had been stopped as the result of intervention by the Railway Board was given by the chairman of the board, Mr. H. H. Sterling, when a statement to this effect from Christchurch was referred to him. Mr. Sterling said the board had had nothing to do with the cessation of the work on the road and it was incorrect to say that its construction had been halted because the board feared competition. Mr. Sterling added that the board might be reporting on the road at a future date, but that up to the present it had nothing whatever to do with it.