ROAD AROUND SOUNDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21982, 17 June 1933, Page 12

ROAD AROUND SOUNDS

AN IMPRACTICABLE PROJECT

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES. (Per United Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, June 16. “It is as impracticable as it is glorious,” was the comment of Mr Leslie Murrell, of Manapouri, who knows the Sounds intimately, on the suggestion by Mr R. A. Anderson to construct a road round the Sounds. As Mr Anderson visualised the scheme, said Mr Murrell, one-quarter of the road would have to be hewn out of solid rock. He (the speaker) did not think that an engineer would seriously survey it. It was inconceivable that anyone who knew the character of the country and the floods that swept down the valleys, transforming them into lakes, could propose such a road. The road suggested by Mr Auderson would give a complete circle of the South Island, and if carried pp some 500 feet to 700 feet above sea level would provide one of the finest roadways in the world. In his letter to the Southland League Mr Anderson stated that the road would provide a large number of men with work for a good many years, and if the Unemployment Board would subscribe so much and the Government and the Main Highways Board each made a subsidy, then the men could be employed at full time. It was estimated by the president of the league that the road would be 250 miles long, but Mr Murrell contends that if the level of 500 feet to 700 feet were maintained it would be 1000 miles. He could see as much as £IOO,OOO a mile being spent on some parts.