TREELESS BEACHES.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 10

TREELESS BEACHES.

FLANKED BY BACKYARDS. MISTAKES OF THE FAST. PUBLIC CROWDED OUT. (By DRIFTWOOD.) One of the very few beaches where there has been any attempt to' preserve the democratic character of the waterfront ls St. Helier's. Instead of a long row of backyards and fences pushing right down to high-water mai-K, there is a fine stretch of promenade Trom one end ot the bay to"" the other, with no obstructions between roadway and the sand. But, most sensible of all, trees have been planted right along the waterfront, which in a few years will be one of the shadiest and pleasantest anywhere round about Jthe harbour.. In the case of practically every other beach, the waterfront has been "swamped" by private dwellings, and, as far as the public is concerned, there is nothing left but the bare sand aud water. Of course, it is very nice to have a cottage or a more ambitious place of residence backing or fronting right on the beach, but as the town gets bigger we must consider the good of tbe. people at large. ■-. These beaches are too precious to be parcelled out among a handful of private people. St. Helier's Bay saw the danger in time, and the waterfront is to-day free to all —not only the beach, but a good wide stretch between sand and the roadway, partly grassed, with seats, and the prospect of welcome, shade from the trees which have/been so wisely planted. It is too late, to think of a whole series of beaches .with a nice._ wide stretch of grass and shade, free to all, because the cost-Of resuming the land would be too much for any local body— these riparian low being quite as valuable jn some cases as town sections —but something might be done to encourage people to plant trees. The public has to lie about in the blazing sun, the women getting what relief they can from a sunshade. There used to De a few trees at one end of Cheltenham Beach, but these have gone the way of most growing things when room ls required for buildings. Takapuna has a few trees, grand old pohutukawas, at the northern end, but they are on private property, and purely accidental. Milford ls singularly devoid of trees. Settlement on this beach went on hig-gledy-piggledy, and no general plan was laid down for preserving the waterfront bank: Some ;people put up the ;tisual board fence, "some put in a stone .Wall, and. some merely left the bank in its natural state. When the big north, east storms got to work on this irregular conglomeration it played havoc, eating yards of soil away here and there, wherever there was a gap, and in time washing away the land right behind the sporadic stone walls, which in many cases are today left stranded well out on the sand,

without the slightest connection between them and the sections of land they one. contained. There is only one thing to do with a place like Milford, and that is to put in a proper waterfront embankment in permanent material from one end to the other. There was some talk awhile back of combining the drain outfall and an embankment, which seemed a sensible and'economical way of killing two birds with one stone, but the idea has apparently been dropped. Takapuna does not stand so much in need of a j wall, as it is less exposed to the northeasters, but a tree-planting campaign could well-be inaugurated on that long, shelterless stretch.