introduction of motor vehicles to New Zealand highlighted the need for a better road connection. Two alternatives, a road tunnel or canal, became the subject of considerable argument. In 1919 the Australian firm of Smith, Timms and Kidman offered to construct a road tunnel in three years for £700,000 or about £624,000 if the proposed tramline was eliminated, but the scheme lapsed. By 1920 the Christchurch-Lyttelton Tunnel Road League (which by 1922 had become the Port and City League) had been established to push for the building of a tunnel. There was also a Port Christchurch League which advocated for a port at the estuary of the Heathcote and Avon rivers. Sir Joseph Ward, Prime Minister and Minister of Railways in 1929, arranged a Government grant of £1,000 to the Port and City League, to set up a commission to investigate the matter provided; a similar sum was raised by the League. This was regarded by the League as a significant gesture of official backing. The resulting "Direct Access to the Sea Commission" concluded in July 1930 that they could not recommend the adoption of the proposals for either a road tunnel or a port at Christchurch as this would cause "serious hardship to traders and the farming community". The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce campaigned through the 1930s and 1940s for a road tunnel but without success until 1944, when Bill MacGibbon (deputy chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board and prominent in the movement to build a tunnel) was able to convince the New Zealand government to allow the Ministry of Works to prepare plans. In April 1937, a conference convened by Canterbury Chamber of Commerce with the support of the Prime Minister Michael Savage, which had 28 public bodies in attendance, made a recommendation for the construction of a road tunnel. The advent of the Second World War, however, put a stop to all but essential construction projects. In 1943, a conference attended by 19 public bodies resulted in the establishment of a Tunnel Road Promotion Committee. In 1944 the Minister of Works, Bob Semple, met deputations from both the Tunnel Road Promotion Committee and the Canal League. He considered that the canal scheme, then estimated to cost £5,000,000, had no hope of success, whereas he was very favourably impressed with the road tunnel scheme, then estimated to cost £750,000. Progress was still slow though in June 1949 a