HAAST PASS ROAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23135, 6 September 1938, Page 17

HAAST PASS ROAD

GOOD PROGRESS REPORTED LINK WITH SOUTH WESTLAND ACCESS TO ISOLATED FARMS [bt telegraph—OWN correspondent] IN VERCAH GILL, Monday Contact with South Westland through the Haast Pass will be made from the Otago side first at tho present rate of progress, according to Mr. D. J. Evans, clerk of tho Westland County Council, who visited the scene of operations recently in company with Mr. W. F. Sutton, late touring manager of the Automobile Association (Otago), and representatives of the Vincent and Lake counties.

"The road will be through from the Otago side much more quickly than from Westland," Mr. Evans said. "Otago will benefit immediately. It also looks as if contact will be made with Jackson's Bay from here some time before tho West Coast routes are connected up. Mr. Evans described the progress that was being made from the Westland side. About 300 men were employed at different points along the route, compared with the 200 in Otago. The Weheka-Matainui link was completed except for one bridge, which would be built within I'2 months, and great progress was being made on tho 20-mile stretch to the Blue River, whence an entirely new route was being taken to the pass, the road keeping to the plain instead of following the old track up the mountainside. Motor-cars, of which he had seen many at Pembroke, would soon be able to get through to Landsborough, where there was a landing ground, Mr. Evans stated, and the placo might well become popular with week-end motorists and alpinists. The road would also provide access for settlers, who had been without contact by land with the rest of New Zealand for the 50 or 60 years they

had been farming in South Westland, said Mr. Evans, and ho expected that the populated area in the district would be at least doubled as a direct result of the road being put through. "Every known mineral is to be found in South Westland," Mr. Evans concluded, "and there is no knowing what the opening up of this country will lead to."