Angaia May Lose Its

Famous Coral Stairway

From Our Own Correspondent MANGAIA, Cook Is.

IHE great stone escalade leading from the beach to the village of Makatea upon the clifftop at Mangaia Island (it one of the “sights” of the island) may m become a graded highway for motor iffic, if plans for a new road, to begin the top of the steps and emerge behind e LMS mission, come to fruition, rhe working plan apparently contem ites the filling-up of the stairway hich is of great blocks of coral lime >ne, a foot high) with rocks, to ease its ff gradient; this filling will be covered th finer material, and lastly with earth, i secure an outlet for the road thus ide, it will be necessary to breach the ill of the mission-compound, and run e road through by the side of the urch—a matter on which the London issionary Society (in England) must •st be consulted, and permission ob ined.

As things stand, the only traffic road and runs from Tua-ati, at the extremity Kaumata Village, up into the cliff lage by a very long detour. This road elf did not exist until it was made by e NZ Public Works Department in 1930 a laborious task, involving the expendi re of much dynamite and arduous iman effort.

The Morikau road, if it does emerge )m the blueprint stage, will not present ch formidable problems; the destruc >n, however, of the ancient escalade, eated in heathen days by incalculable fort, without the aid of any labour-saving vices whatever, is deplorable from an chaeological point of view. These are ys, though, when such matters are not Id as important as the necessity for a :ick way to get orange-cargoes down the beach. The Morikau would cer inly bear any tonnage carted over ,it; e cement wall at its outer edge, how er, is not strong, for it actually stands, ring to the subsidence of supporting rth and stones, on nothing, and has en in that state for many years.

The new 5,600 ton motor ship, Braeside, lilt for Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., for ie Australia-Singapore service, is due in ydney on her maiden voyage early in ovember.