Melbourne To Milford?

Southland Times, Issue 23827, 26 May 1939, Page 6

Melbourne To Milford?

AT a meeting of the Bluff Harbour Board on Wednesday night Mr W. J. A. McGregor mentioned a rumour that Milford Sound was to replace Bluff as the southern port of call in the Mel-bourne-South Island steamer service. It had been suggested, said Mr McGregor, that a new liner would be built for the service and that all South Island ports ex-| cept Milford would be cut out. When the rumour was referred by telephone yesterday to the managing director of the Union Steam Ship Company, he would neither confirm it nor deny it. The probability is that such a service will come into existence eventually because of the much more substantial inducements it would offer to tourists. The voyage to Milford would take less time, and would be generally less arduous, than the voyage to Bluff; moreover, tourists could reach the main scenic attractions of the South with the least delay, and ■ they would have the choice of I two excellent routes for the journey up the island. But it would be foolish to regard such an alteration of the service as imminent. It would depend, for one thing, on the completion of the Milford Sound and other roads, and no doubt it has been in the mind of the Union Company merely as a possibility for the future. It would, after all, be no more than a reasonable and logical development of the present service, offering the maximum tourist advantages at the minimum cost. Constant Effort Needed

. But there is no reason why the omission of Bluff from the itinerary need be regarded as inevitable—provided always that within the next few years the service receives an increasing volume of traffic through that port. The best way to ensure that Bluff will be retained as a port of call is for the people of" Otago and Southland to- give the present service their full and enthusiastic support. No amount of political or local agitation can retain a service that is consistently unprofitable.- Another step that must be taken is the provision of good tarsealed roads, so that visitors to the lakes will be tempted to travel on to Invercargill instead of turning directly north. The completion of the Blackmount-Mana-pouri road assumes a much greater importance when the probability of tourists landing at Milford is considered; and members of the Harbour Board were quick to point out the value of this alternative route through the Waiau valley. Rumours of the kind mentioned by Mr McGregor will do no harm if they keep before the people and public bodies the need for constant effort to ensure that the scenic beauties which already bring thousands of visitors to Southland —and should bring thousands more—are turned to the greatest commercial advantage of the province as a whole.