A CENTENNIAL HIGHWAY

Southland Times, Issue 22915, 13 June 1936, Page 3

A CENTENNIAL HIGHWAY

ATTRACTING TOURISTS SCHEME FOR SOUTH WESTLAND “A great roading scheme to open up a motor touring route (in South Westland) which for variety and charm would be the envy of the world,” was the essense of a proposal made to members of Parliament in a circular letter last March from Mr D. J. Evans of Hokitika. The suggestion was so enthusiastically received by the Press of the Dominion that Mr Evans has issued another circular letter, couched in still more glowing terms than the first, stressing the advantages of the proposed highway. That the road, which will link Westland, Otago and Southland, should be opened in 1940 at the time of the centenary of New Zealand is one of the main points of Mr Evans s scheme. The road would thus become a centennial highway, a national commemoration of a great event in the history of the Dominion. Tourist Traffic. “New Zealand of late is coming more and more into the limelight of the world as a tourist resort,” the circular proceeds. “The Government is spreading out the system of representatives to various quarters of the globe with the object of advertising the attractions of the Dominion for holiday tours. Representatives are established in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and the East. They are all locations notable for scenic wares of their own which are advertised on a lavish publicity scale, and each in turn receives valued attention, the return to each country from tourist traffic running into large sums. “New Zealand; to compete with such rivals and maintain over the years a stream of tourist traffic which in the main must cover long distances to reach the Antipodes, requires to have something different to catch the interest of the world traveller. The Dominion has certain unique attractions which are outstanding to draw people from long distances, but to increase the number of tourists now that shipping and aerial travel comfort are being enhanced and travel shortened, it would be wise where facilities offer, to increase those outstanding attractions where they are likely to become worldfamous. Such is the asset in South Westland. It is a natural wonderland created with unending scenes of charm, and varied in variety from mountain to bushland, lake to river, table land to fiordland, in such profusion that there are grouped the greatest number fo natural wonders of nature’s handiwork in a stretch of territory which lends itself to road construction, requiring only the applied genius of the engineers to mark out the route through country which remains in the main, after nearly 100 years, still Crown lands and the people’s valued heritage.” Engineers had carried out important investigations and had found the scheme to be practicable. That the cost of the road would be more than counterbalanced by its ultimate worth appeared to the writer a foregone conclusion. There was at present an abundance of labour available for the enterprise. It remained for money to be provided. The members of Cabinet and the Legislature were the keepers of the public purse; it was to be hoped the scheme would receive early and favourable consideration.