The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 24, 1920.

Evening Star, Issue 17360, 24 May 1920, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 24, 1920.

Babbsd wire entanglements audi voluntary sentries are now reMore Destruction quired to guard the • at the Sandhills, inner approaches to tho sandhills at St. Clair. It was eo, at any rate, yesterday, when hundreds of. citizens • visited Ocean Beach to see the additional havoc wrought by the recent spring tides. The precautions have been taken for. the protection of pedestrians rather than for the belated protection of the dunes which are now in thie "process of dissolution, and appear to be. left to/ the destructive caprice of tho ocean. * There is ■undoubtedly an element at danger to the public • and it may yet bo * necessary, especially after, sunset, to close the" main entrances to the beach at St.. Glair and Forpury. Recent ruin? has made many pitfalls and dangerous places where only a few days, ago there was a reasonably secure parade. The latest havoc is extensive and severe. \ Most of. the '• patriotic" load which formerly ran along the middle of the sandhills on the seaward side has disappeared l altogether, leaving only a huddle' of rotten rock to mock engineering 'enterprise and c-iyjc prpgrea3. The remnant of the notorious' highway is a Tniserable~rniu, siill wide enough" to. taiUo a handcar?, but scarcely solid enough to support a perambulator for robust''iyihf Its seaward edge- is a miniature cliff, brittle and The havoc is not confined to the lower roadway ; it has swept up to and across the high road that rah along the razor-backed dun» between Forbury Bsach and the Esplanade—a "parade" which, was to serve, thank God! as a substitute if the sea ever took the low load".' It may now he laid that eveii the upper track has

been added to Dunedin's innumerable "~~ blunders. One portion of it is poetically inrpaeeable; only a track «fcir.ts a - —huge gandslida •which, of course, attracts . iiturdy boys. iN'ear .to this yesterday

said to alt those who tactfully challenged: I "The police say we must not let you .pass." The sentry at the other end was more terse and less explanatory, but equally effective. From all of which it -will bS seen plainly that a fine resort has become a pathetic ruin requiring for the public safety an alert guard. In the meantime, it is to bo hoped that j all the pessimists will find encouragement, it not full consolation, in the assurance of experts that "there is no-immediate danger." There never has been any immediate danger, but laymen notice in exus-' peration that all the -while the sea gains in vicious encroachment. The sandkilta, which represent the accumulations of anfuries, are steadily slithering into the sea. I Authority remains impotent and appar-! ently idle. It is true: that there ha 3 been ' talk of action and the construction of groynes. For some reason action is tardy. The scheme is still on paper or in some engineer's head. It is said that the delay in providing groynes has been due to an accident; it is understood that an inward liner knocked down a channel' beacon in the Lower Harbor, thus necessitating the services of the Port Authority's piledriver and expert workmen for replacing the light. In any case, the men have not been free to undertake, by the eourtesv of the Harbor Board, the work of putting in groynes at Ocean Eea-.h. Since exports place j?o much confidence in groynes, why* not seek to convince the letf expert pnblic, *vho have not the same confidence, by a practical test—by immediately clothing •with essential timber the skeleton piles now demonstrating, in their long-uegleeted condition, the futility of groynes? Such a test could be made forthwith by .the ex. penditure of £lO, instead of waiting for the spending of £I,OOO or thereabout in another big experiment. Are the propertyholders and the public to depend on a favorable inshore current from the southeast for a consoling measure of restoration of sand? Such a current .did -excellent service last week, but a. perverse current [■came and made even-thing a great deal worse than before. Groynes will certainly not pile .sand on the dunes that are now so frequently being swept into the capricious tides. Corrective action is required without further delay.