BY COLONEL W. V. LEGGE, E.A., E.G.S. 127 



In conclusion, it may not "be out of place to speak of tlie 

 advisability of an annual improvement to the West Coast 

 track, so that some day in the future it may become the 

 trunk road to the other side of the island. This is unques- 

 tionably the route which a road should take from the 

 metropolis to the West Coast, and following the system 

 adopted by the Eomans, who were the greatest colonisers of 

 past ages, there should be a road from the centre of govern- 

 ment to the confines of its jurisdiction on the West Coast. 

 By making a main road from Hobart to the West Coast an 

 artery is formed along which the life-blood of civilisation and 

 commerce will eventually flow to the numerous roads, tracks, 

 and settlements, mining or otherwise, which must be the 

 outcome in future years of the construction of that road. It 

 is all very well to talk of Macquarie Harbour being the 

 shipping port of the West Coast mines, and that all that is 

 required is a good road thence to the mineral country ; this is 

 looking at the subject from only one point of view, and it 

 is not opening up the country, which I take to mean 

 connecting the important parts thereof with the centre of 

 importance and power : the metropolis. By the latter alter- 

 native, means are afforded for a special postal communication 

 and for carrying on mineral, topographical and. scientific 

 exploration to the north and south of the main road, and thus 

 thoroughly opening up the country; whereas by resting content 

 with an occasional sea voyage of hundreds of miles, as the 

 only means of communication with the coast, the inhabitants 

 thereof are practically isolated from the world. 



The route via Marlborough and Arrowsmith offers no 

 difl&culties as a winter postal route : I think I can correctly 

 assert that the post boys of Connemara and the north of 

 Scotland have more hardships from the weather to encounter 

 than any who will have to ride over Mount Arrowsmith while 

 that track remains the only route to the King Eiver, Depots, 

 or '^ Eest Houses," as they are calied in India, should be 

 established at the Derwent and Collingwood Bridges, which 

 places form a convenient division of the distance between Marl- 

 borough and the King Eiver. A few hundred pounds spent 

 upon the road from Marlborough to King William would 

 make it a fair cart track, driveable for the tourist in the 

 summer, and an assistance to the miner throughout the year, 

 who is able now to walk from the Dee Bridge to the King 

 Eiver in three days. The track over Arrowsmith requires to 

 be properly cut out over the button-rush portions and staked 

 for winter travelling when the Mount is covered with snow. 

 Once over Arrowsmith no one could wish for a better bridle 

 track than now exists thence to the King Eiver. 



