SPIRAL ROAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 17

SPIRAL ROAD.

AN IMPORTANT ACCOMPLISHMENT. COMPLETION OF WORK. (See Illustrations in This Issue.) TAUMARUNUI, May 24. At Raurimu this afternoon the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) officiated at the" opening of Spiral road The completion of this road marks one of the most important accomplishments in roading in the central part of the North island. After years of agitation by the Kaitieke County Council, backed up by other local bodies, the road has at last been completed by prison labour, with the result that there is now a through road south of Taumarunni. During the railway strike Taumarunui was almost isolated, but the completion of a road over the Spiral removes this possibility, should a railway strike ever occur again. Moreover, the road gives access from the.north to the important and fast-developing National Park, which in a very short time must become the Mecca of hundreds of motorists.

Those present at the ccrembiiy to-day included also the Hon. A. D. M’Loed (Minister of Lands), Mr R. W. Smith, M.P., Mr W. Crocker (chairman of the Kaitieke County Council), and Mr P. Keller (Public Works Engineer). Mr Coates said that the more or less isolated districts deserved notice. The road had been completed under difficulties. The Highways Act would prove a success, the Prime Minister added. It was quite likely that men would be set to work on another section of the road on the other side of Taumarunui.

Mrs Crocker cut the tape and Mr Coates declared the road open. The Minister and his party left Raurimu at 5 o’clock for Taumarunui, where they were entertained at dinner to-night by the Taumarunui County Council.