DUE DEFACED BEACH

Evening Star, Issue 17366, 31 May 1920, Page 6

DUE DEFACED BEACH

CITY ENGINEER- NOW AT WORK. DEVASTATION BELIEVED TO BE ARRESTED. Some small repayment of the £250 voted by the City Council was made bv the public yesterday in the wav of train fares to and from St. Clair. They were crowded during the afternoon. Many hundreds of our people also visited the place in the morning. Much concern was manifested in the doings out there. It was an-ugly spectacle on the sea front—ugly as a fact, uglier in its threat. Going in and out amongst the crowd, one found the usual conflict of views. Some persons seemed to End a pleasure in making ill-natured jokes about the position; others apparently thought the remedy lay in fixing the blame on somebody. The prevailing feeling, however, was that of gratitude to the City Council for having come to the rescue, and appreciation of the work that the City Engineer (Mr M’Curdie) lias started on. No time has been lost in commencing these operations. Air M'Curdie was instructed on Friday night; on Saturday morning he removed the barrier at the end of Forbury road, so as to admit horses and carts, and began to tip big stones and scrub into the gap at the eastern end of tao esplanade, so as to make an approach to the danger-point, on the beach; and from early yesterday morning until dark steady progress was made in patting in a kind of stone apron at the foot of tho sandhills. It was a toilsome and rough job, calling for the exercise of patience. The immediate object was to get at the weak spot at the point where the upper road used to meet the lower road. This could be icached only in stages, for the road past the bathing boxes was all broken awav. Lhe procesvS was to tip over big stones brought from the St. Ivilda quarry, pull or let ei them into a sort of rough formation, compacted with scrub, and thus make a way yard by yard towards the danger spot. Slowly but surely the work went on all day, in spite of tho dirty weather and the rushes of the ocean, and by nightfall tho temporary barrier on which "our hopes rely was completed to a point almost directly ahead of Professor Dickie’s residence.

Mr Curdie planned the operations and personally supervised, and the actual work w;w carried on under the direction of Inspector King. Mr Malcolm Stevenson very generously placed his horses and drays at the service of .Mr M'Curdie free of charge, so that the only expense for this indispensable part of the work will be the payment of wages. Fully a dozen residents of the district lent a hand voluntarily, and worked well.

M'Donakl paid this morning that the Vigilance Committee are perfectly satisfied with the work that is being carried on, and are prepared to support Mr M'Curdie in what, they believe to be tho wisest scheme that can be adopted just now • and Mr M'Donald added that help from lu •P}. ,c . " -as a k° being attracted hy their faith in the engineer, as evidence of which two cheques for £lO each were banded him ‘yesterday by public-spirited citizens, this money to be'applied towards the necessary expenses.

Last night’s high tide took out a great lot of sand from the hills to the eastward ot whore the repairing has so far extended. and tho work is being pushed on so as to protect St. Kilda, present appearances being that this is necessary in order t ?fi l i re x7 nt a brpak through ' somewhere about Moreau street.

It is a comfort to know that the washed out sand is not far away. Mr J. 11. HanC ?i Ck A t l le 4 n,tblul amJ untiring observer of all that Nature is up to, points to the long bar that has formed to seaward and declares with firm hope that this sand is ready to come in again as soon as it can find a hold.

Me understand that, though tho £250 voted bv the City Council will soon he expended, the work is not likely to stop till some security is assured.

-Jl 5 ociocTctins afternoon about wOO loads of stone had been tipped on to the foot of the sandhills at the beach. The sea to-day had smoothed considerably