HEAVY SEAS AT SUMNER.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19665, 8 July 1929, Page 11

HEAVY SEAS AT SUMNER.

FURTHER BEACH EROSION.

The strong easterly gale which sprang up on Saturday brought in its wake tremendous seas. Yesterday morning, viewed from ?ae hills, the promise of a very high tide was clearly defined. Tha white-tipped breakers could be seen curling shorewards from as far out as Whitewash Heads. The fulfilment of the morning's indications occurred shortly after 4 o'clock I in the afternoon, and was witnessed by hundreds of interested spectators. An impressive sight wad provided at the Scarborough boat harbour, where the already much-battered protective wall was again subjected to a fierce attack. Wave after wave hurled ibself against the wall, with the result that the two existing breaches were further widened. ' So huge and incessant were the I waves that it seemed that one scarcely saw the wall at all—only a mass of ! spray. Any rebuilding process at- the foot ! of the recently-scoured sandhills was swept away, and in some places it api pears that further erosion has taken j place. I At the pier, the only point of inter- ! est was in the fact that the decking of | the smaller and lower "off shoot" was awash. Cars returning to town shortly after four o'clock had to pass through water which flowed over the small protective bank on the side of the road near St. Andrew's Hill. At 5.30 p.m. the water was still coming over, only not to the same extent as earlier in the afternoon. A fair amount of silt had covered the rails, and for some time trams were obliged to travel at reduced speed over this section. The Heathcote Arms Hotel was marooned, the water covering the surrounding paddocks and extending on to the road, nearly to the tram lines. A motor-cyclist with a side-chair attached, evidently wishing to visit the hotel, was observed gazing contemplatively at the water, apparently attempting to guess the location of the concrete bridges over the gutter. The side-channel from the hotel towards the "Tanks" was flooded, while the nearby low-lying land was a sheet of water. The land on the opposite side of the river from the "Tanks," which until a vear or two ago was immune from flooding,, was well covered with water. The protective wall is now in a sorry way, since the appearance of a gap which widens with every tide. Late last night a heavy sea was still running with an accompanying ominous roar.