WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 288, 5 September 1928, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

A message to-day records more heavy slips on farming country iu the Poverty Bay district, one settler in the Te Aral Valley, for instance, losing 200 sheep by the sliding away of a hillside. 'This country has long been slipping away, aud the rate at which the rain is bringing spoil down from the billsides was strikingly instanced some years back in a Public Works Department report. It was then noted that during the fifteen years between 1905 and 1920 the bed of the Waipaoa River at the Kaiteratahi bridge had been raised no less than 15 feet by material brought down from the hills by river Hoods. After the memorable floods of December, 1893, and January, 1894, Mr. Henry Hill, inspector of schools in Hawke's Bay, in his travels about bis district noticed such an immense number of slips that lie directed the attention of Sir .lames Hector to the matter. In tlie sixteen years of his work Mr. Hill had never seen anything on such a scale, and as a keen geologist he thought it a very striking illustration of. how even a comparatively slight deviation from normal in the rainfall, and continued over only a brief period, could change the appearance of the landscape. Sir James Hector was equally interested, and it was decided to take a census of slips. Circulars were sent out to landowners in the districts most affected, and they were asked to state the number of slips on their properties and the area that had slipped.

Not everybody replied, hut most did. Some put in vague remarks, such as “Slips everwhere, no idea of the area, and so on. But taking the replies of those who made estimates of the size of their slips and leaving the others out of the count, it was found that over a total area of 1,158,237 acres there were slips totalling 7693 acres. On one Poverty Bay block of 72,500 acies the slips totalled 2639 acres. At the Te Mahia property of 5000 acres there were 500 acres of slips. On the Maraetaha station of about the same size there was another 500 acres gone in slips. Mr. Gray, at Wai-o-hika, near Gisborne, had 15 per cent, of his propertv of 2200 acres slip away. At Mr. Gray’s place Mr. Hill reported that “in one case a whole hillside some hundreds of feet in height broke away and crossed a creek at its foot, filled an adjoining valley, and passed over a public road on the opposite side. The impetus was such that huge bouiderlike rocks were lodged on the adjacent hillside.” These boulders, Mr. Hill thought, would probably puzzle geologists later on and perhaps make them think they had been transported by glaciers. “Open and improved country,” it was noted, appears to have suffered most and bush country least.” The figures make one wonder how it is that New Zealand has not been washed away ages ago.

A throw-out of books ou a considerable scale is proceeding, at Wellington’s Public Library. Yesterday on asking permission to refer to a book iu the library stock room. T.D.H. came on evidence of it, a considerable number of ancient volumes with their covers removed being piled on the floor awaiting transport to the destructor. The library building has not been enlarged for many years, and has now reached such a stage of congestion that to get new books in it is necessary to throw old ones out. It struck T.D.H., however, that it might be quite a good thing instead of shooting off the rejects straight to destruction to allow the public to buy, or at any rate take away, such as it fancied.

Picking up some of the volumes lying on the floor with their covers removed and awaiting the arrival of the rubbish cart, T.D.H. found among them some curious old books printed in thp eighteenth century. There was, for instance, a time-stained old volume entitled “A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas from Balambangan, including an Account of Mangindano, Sooloo, and other Islands; and illustrated with thirty copperplates, performed in the Tartar Galley belonging to the Honourable East India Company during the years 1774, 1775, and 1776 by Captain Thomas Forrest.” This book was printed in London in 1780. No doubt it is seldom asked for by frequenters of Wellington’s Public Lil>rary, but an Australian library would probably exchange something valuable to us for it. •

Another book in the heap was a volume Of Pinkerton’s “Best and Most Entertaining’ Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World,” published in 1809 by this well-known antiquary. A third volume was dated 1778, and proved to be a copy of “Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World,” by John Reingold Forster, LL.D., F.R.S., telling the story of his travels with Captain Cook in the Resolution. This is described in Hocken's “Bibliography of New Zealand Literature” as an “excellent account of the countries visited in 177275, prefaced by a short journal of daily events.”

Some day Wellington is due to have a public library with room to house the books it possesses. In the meantime tlie policy seems to be to send to the destructor books and periodicals that are not in demand. Later on, possibly the city may be wanting some of these back. In other lands the libraries seem to have a way of hanging on to old books and periodicals. In the Melbourne Public Library some years ago, in seeking information on a particular subject, T.D.H. found, for instance, by reference to Poole’s magazine index, that an article had appeared on the wanted topic in the first or second number of the “Edinburgh Review” issued in 1802. “Well,” he said to the library attendant, “I don’t suppose you Lave that!” “Oh, yes, I think so,” came the answer, and in a few minutes up came the magazine from the cellars. In London in 1919 the British Museum Library on request was found able to produce a copy of any issue of the “Dominion” required, back to its start in 1907, and did so within about a quarter of an hour. It is only by storing “old trash” that libraries can have What everybody wants, but zrt K what is old trash and what is not, there seems to lie a considerable difference of opinion, MARY AGAIN. (With apology to the Bishop of Ely, and negation to Euclid, “Makarcta” offers the subjoined.) That “parallel lines will never meet" Will soon be proved a fairy; Observe the lines of blouse and skirt As shortened now by Mary, Those lines are moving down and up, And some day, bright and airy, The linos must meet like lip and cup—• —Nothing remains ulus Mary J