ROADING DEVELOPMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1933, Page 9

ROADING DEVELOPMENT

EASTERN TARANAKI’S NEEDS

WORK IN TANGARAKAU GORGE.

WONDERFUL SCENIC ROUND TRIP.

RELIEF OF* OHURA UNEMPLOYED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) t Ohura, Last Night.

The Highways Board has commenced operations on the Ohura end of the Tangarakau Gorge Road, where a survey party is preparing to widen and metal about 2i miles as far as the turn to the Paparata coal mine. It is hoped that when this has been put through the metalling will be continued through the gorge, and thus advance the route to New Plymouth. Wonderful scenery which this route traverses is such a national asset that the settlers urge that no opportunity should be lost in making the road available for traffic.

The unemployment problem is now very acute at Ohura, there being about 100 registered for relief work. The Government is doing its best to relieve the situation. Twelve married men from this district are being despatched to a camp near Aria, where the MokauitiAria Road is, to be taken in hand, and about ten married men with farming experience will leave shortly to settle on Government sections near Te Kuiti. It is further understood that river clearance at Toitoi is to be commenced within a week or two. This will absorb another 20 men, while as soon as the weather becomes sufficiently settled to allow carting to be carried on seven miles of clay road to Waitaanga is to be graded and metalled, and about 20 men will be required for the . work. When this camp is established every effort will be made to hold it and keep the staff to 'clear the big slip just beyond where, the. new metal will end. The slip is a dangerous one, although only about a quarter of a mile long, and when this part has been made safe the completion of metalling to the New Plymouth end of the grade will be a comparatively cheap job. A round motor trip from New Plymouth over Mt. Messenger and through Ahititi, up through Waitatanga (3000 feet), then on to Ohura and back via the Tangarakau Gorge to Stratford and New Plymouth, will' be one of the finest scenic routes in the Dominion.