Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/277

Rh spur; in this way several points on the Shotover and Arrow are reached by packhorses. Stores are congregated at these points, from whence supplies are distributed to the population along the river. The Wakatipu district has three routes of communication with country beyond its own boundaries; the principal is from Kingstown, at the south end of the lake, and this is the only part of the lake which drays can approach; the other two are bridle-tracks—one, from the west side of the lake, takes up the valley of the Von and continues on to the Te Anau Downs—the other leads over the ranges to the Cardrona and Upper Clutha Valleys. The position of Kingstown being at the end of the lake nearest the producing districts of the Colony, and the ports of the east coast, gives to it the command of the import trade of the lake. The magnitude of this trade has made the consideration of the means of communication with the Wakatipu districts a matter of primary importance. The impracticable nature of the Kawarau Valley as it now is, the nearness of the ports of Southland, and the lie of the country between them and the Wakatipu plainly point to them as the possessors of the greatest natural facilities for communication between the east coast and Kingstown. A dray-road by the Kawarau would, under present circumstances, be more than a rival to the route by Kingstown; but before a road could be formed and made, it is not unlikely that Southland will have so much improved the means of communication towards Kingstown, that goods will then be delivered as cheaply there as they ever can be at the Kawarau Junction; in this case, then, the proposed route would only be a rival to the one now in use. The difficulties to be overcome in the formation of a road along the Kawarau Valley are of no mean order; the river runs through a most precipitous gorge for 18 miles; opposite the confluence of the Nevis a mile or two would be saved on the length of road-line, but generally it would have to keep close on the river. An amount of side-cutting, bridging, &c., will have to be done before a substantial road is made, that, plainly, will make the cost per mile something great.

The known resources of the Wakatipu districts are forest, pastoral and agricultural lands, and auriferous deposits. The first three resources are so limited in quantity as to create little or no traffic to and from the district; it would, therefore, devolve almost entirely on the mineral resources of the district to support the road. Gold had been found up to the date of the survey over 600 square miles of country; the extent of country found to be payable, and from which the escort returns have come, extends over 360 square miles. The boundary line of this country describes a parallelogram; the north boundary is a line drawn from the head of the Wakatipu Lake, east, to the source of the Arrow on Mount Hyde;