TE ANAU ROAD

Southland Times, Issue 21431, 27 June 1931, Page 5

TE ANAU ROAD

RECENT CRITICISM REPLY BY PUBLIC WORKS ENGINEER OVER 200 MEN OCCUPIED The statements contained in a lettef which appeared in the correspondence columns of Thursday's issue of the Southland Times in which the writer, under the nom-de-plume of “Observer,” criticized the construction of Te Anau Road were referred to yesterday by the Public Works Department engineer (Mr W. G. Pearce), who has just returned to Invercargill after a visit to Te Anau. “I notice that ‘Observer’ emphasizes his belief that the 33 miles traversed from the Te Anau hotel until the road reaches the Eglington Valley are utterly useless and that if it were offered in thousand-acre blocks free to the relief works, not one bona fide settler would apply for a holding,” commented Mr Pearce. “ ‘Observer’ appears to labour under the delusion that the sole purpose underlying the construction of the road was to open up the surrounding country for settlement. That opinion is quite erroneous.” Continuing, Mr Peace said that, first and foremost, the road construction was, in its very essence, a relief work and the question of opening up the land at all was but a minor factor. The virtue of the project lay in the fact that oyer 200 men, who would otherwise be wandering about the country, were now being kept occupied. While again reiterating that the Government was not primarily concerned with the surrounding land at all, Mr Pearce stated that the road would possess added merit in that it would open up the country by providing better access and, as a result, the production of the large blocks of Crown land would ultimately become profitably increased. “It has never been suggested by the department that the country should be cut up into 1000-acre blocks to be available to the unemployed for farming,” said Mr Pearce. “Nevertheless in time the land should be worked into a much better state of productivity, especially when it has been thoroughly drained and treated with fertilizers carried over the road. Increased production must, as a natural course, follow the road construction.

“I also observe that ‘Observer’ considers it scandalous that American motor lorries should be used on the road and suggests that if the work were done in the proper season of the year, horse teams could quite satisfactorily cope with the job,” continued Mr Pearce. “It is true that Yankee trucks are used in preference to horses, but the vehicles are hired, not owned by the department. We must have transport to keep the work going and, if we had to wait for the proper season for horses, we would have to close down construction within a month. Then what about the relief workers?” Mr Pearce, in conclusion, again emphasized that the land was undoubtedly much better than it appeared to be at first glance; that it, was capable of increased production; that the road would open up to tourists some of the finest country in the Dominion; and lastly, that it was the means of providing many men with employment, For those reasons alone, he contended, the work could not be dismissed as either useless or scandalous.