1903: Dusky Sound to Lake Manapouri Road

January 4, 2023

By AHNZ

In early 1903 the Liberal Government initiated a surreptitious roading project to link the west coast at Dusky Sound with Lake Manapouri. Facts are sketchy as to whose idea this was or what goal was in mind but despite a good start the job was called off and abandoned. According to Lloyd Esler in the Southland Times (2021) 50 men were sent to do the job on a budget of  £1649. It is unclear quite how far they managed to build before calling the whole thing off.

In 1912 a visiting mining party were surprised to stumble onto the scene. They found a well formed road with culverts and bridges. Starting from Supper Cove there was a good strong hut and an abandoned boat with pealing paint and the start of the road. This party also found sign of the Fijordland moose the Liberal Government had liberated (ex-Canada) on April 6, 1910 at the Cove.

Nearer the time, in February 1903, some excursionists from (I think) Dunedin sailed into Dusky Sound to discover they had the company of these road builders. Apparently Premier Richard Seddon, or someone in his Ministry, had used an unauthorised £1649 of our ancestors’ tax money to set up the dubious project in west Otago using workers from Kumara. Seemingly, without public consent or consultation.

Seddon’s power base was at Kumara where the politician had become a pub owner and then the first mayor and first Member of Parliament. He was notorious for giving out jobs in the public sector to his constituents. Likewise, he visited their children and treated them with lollies. So, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if part of this road-making venture was a Seddon scheme to make work for 40 or 50 sons of his electorate.

While we have our suspicious hats on we might also imagine Thomas Mackenzie was involved in this. Before becoming an Otago MP he had explored this part of New Zealand and perhaps he wanted it opened up with a road. He was not a Liberal yet but would eventually become leader of that part and Premier of New Zealand. But perhaps for now he was helping Seddon and getting something he thought good for New Zealand or himself in return?

I can imagine the Liberal Ministry gazing over maps of New Zealand during the Christmas holidays laying schemes about where new roads and other schemes and scams ought to play out. On paper it seems like a pretty good idea to connect Otago to her western coast. That New Year, it seems, the Liberals were very excited to empower themselves under the cover of service to health and tourism and ‘scenery preservation’. They passed laws in 1903 accordingly so the Nowhere Road appears to be part of that political suite. New Zealanders were ready to eat that up during this time period. It was a time of Physical Culture and of the Moral Culture era AHNZ identifies as Boer War Honour Culture (c.1899-1904.)

“A track finds the coast at Supper Cove, What it was ever made for the party were at a loss to imagine. They supposed that it was an overland route from Manapouri. The tra-ck is well made, with culverts and bridges where required. Near the shore is a well-con-structed hut of galvanised iron, which does not seem to have been put to any use, and on the beach a large serviceable boat lies bottom up, the paint peeling off in the sun. What_ purposes all these conveniences were intended to serve is not clear, but members of the party who explored the track for a mile, or two were charmed…” – Evening Star (1912,) Papers Past

“I could not make out where tho party came from, or what fund they wereo being paid out of. I have been making inquiries, and I think the trade and labour of Dunedin will be interested in knowing tho result there of. The party consists of a gang of 40. They are all residents of Kumara— at all events, the West Coast. In order that this act of benevolence might not attract too much notice the Government steamer was commissioned to look in at Hokitika, pick them up, and transport them thither. They are supposed to be paid at tho rate of 10s per day—the money provided out of unauthorised expenditure. What I would point out to you is that this track is located well inside tho provincial district of Otago. Otago has sufficient labour within itself to do its own work without importing it from a distance. You will, I think, recognise that, as a question of both principle and administration, it is open to challenge.” – ODT (1903,) Papers Past

“Perhaps the least probable of the roads in Fiordland was commenced at Supper Cove in 1903,…That a road should have ever been started in this remote place seems extraordinary, but £1649 was allotted by the government in 1903 and 50 men commenced work, forming a six foot wide track for some miles.” – A weighty reminder of a road never realised, Southland Times (2021)

“Instances of open favoritism, especially in terms of finding jobs in the burgeoning government bureaucracy for the sons and daughters of supporters and old West Coast associates, seemed to be increasing…Seddon’s counter that the ‘spoils’ had always gone to the ‘victors’ in New Zealand..undermined the Government’s credibility with the press and those voters who did not gain personally from acts of benevolent despotism.” – Richard Seddon: King of God’s Own: King of God’s Own, Tom Brooking (2014)

Without the government who would fail at building unwanted roads?

The Liberal Government had established the Department of Tourism and Health not long before. They had decided that The State should be in control of recreational and medical tourism industry. In the same year, 1903, the Scenery Preservation Act became law. This document allowed even more State control over tourist attractions. For example, the nationalisation of the Waitomo Caves. Only a few years before the Liberals had even gotten into the hotel business! Apparently free people didn’t know how to run a hotel! Ref. 1895: Mount Cook Hermitage Nationalised, AHNZ

This nowhere road was part of an idiotic Statist burst of energy to take over the country rather than be content with governing it.

—
Image ref. Harry du Mez, Southland Times (2021)

Ref. also 1877: The Greymouth and Kumara Tramway, AHNZ

Ref. also 1877: Dusky Sound Docherty, AHNZ

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