A Practicable Route.

The surveyor realised that he had discovered a practicable pass. The altitude of the flat, which formed a watershed between east and west, was 3,000ft. above sea level, by barometrical reading. This was the same as the Hurunui Pass, which Dobson had crossed from west to east after his survey work on the Coast. “I saw,” he said, “that it would make a very useful pass. It was clearly quite impassable for horses where we looked down into the Otira, but when money was available to make it, it would be a highway to the Coast. It would require several miles of very extensive work to be done before it was made fit for horse traffic down the Otira, but a road could be carried through the mountains at a much lower cost than by way of the Hurunui Pass.