136 Transactions. 



gold fields developed itself so rapidly, that within a few weeks of tlie com- 

 meucement of the works it was decided to construct a coach road throughout. 

 From the date of this decision the works along the whole line of road, from 

 the plains to the sea beach, were put in hand as rapidly as possible, and 

 pushed forward with such energy that by the 20th of March, 1866, the road 

 was open for traffic from end to end, and has been regularly travelled, ever 

 since, by four-horse coaches running twice weekly each way ; the distance 

 of 150 miles betAveen Christchurch and Hokitika being completed in thirty- 

 six hours, including a night stoppage of twelve hours at the half-way station. 



It is very difficult, by a verbal description, to give any idea of the ob- 

 stacles that presented themselves to the construction of this road. Perhaps 

 the greatest of all arose from the inaccessible character of the country ; the 

 only way of getting tools and stores to the central portion of the work 

 being either by poling canoes up the Teremakau from the beach, or by pack- 

 horses travelling over the Hurunui saddle from the edge of the plains — a 

 journey of seventy miles ; and, moreover, this had to be done in a densely 

 timbered country, in the depth of the winter. 



No pen can describe the sufferings endured by both man and beast 

 during that terrible winter, exposed to sleet and snow and bitter frost, 

 hardly lodged and scantily fed, whilst the working parties were liable at any 

 moment to be cut off from communication with each other by the rising of 

 the rivers. By the end of July, however, a pack-horse track was opened 

 through the Otira Gorge, which enabled supplies to be taken into the Tere- 

 makau Valley with comparative ease, and the works in the latter valley 

 were greatly facilitated by the use of drays, which were carried in pieces 

 across Arthur's Pass and put together in. the Teremakau river-bed, which 

 was used as a temporary road whilst the bush clearings were being made. 

 As, with the opening of the tracks, greater facilities were given for the 

 conveyance of stores to the works, the number of men employed was 

 increased, until it amounted to upwards of a thousand. 



Since the opening of the road the work has gone steadily on, and may 

 now be said to be comjjleted, although, from the nature of the country 

 through which it passes, it will always require constant attention to keep it 

 in repair, especially in the valley of the Teremakau, which is periodically 

 visited by dangerous floods. 



The total distance from Christchurch to Hokitika by the Otira route is 

 150 miles, as above stated, of which about one hundred miles of road from 

 the eastern foot of the hills to the sea beach at the mouth of the Arahura, 

 have been made and metalled between 1st May, 1865, and 31st October, 

 1866, at a cost, in round numbers, of £145,000, or something under £1,500 

 per mile. 



