OUR OWN MARVELS

Evening Star, Issue 20687, 9 January 1931, Page 12

OUR OWN MARVELS

NATURE’S MONUMENTS A PLEA TO PRESERVE Right along the route of tho future (but not far distant) coast road from Wellinj to Wairarapa via Orongorongo and Capo Turakirao are remark able raised beaches telling tho story of New Zealand’s uplift. An article in tho ‘ Now Zealand Magazine ’ declares • a It is time that tho public recognised the broader meaning of the word monument. In most people’s mind a monument is erected by men to a man or men —to Shakespeare, to Nelson, to Darwin, or to tho Unknown Warrior as representing armies. Few people regard a monument as eing other than a man-made .symbol commemorating men or the work of mankind. And yet there exist in every country (and none is richer than New Zealand) natural monuments, or monuments of Nature, which claim nothing save protection—which, in .Byronlc phrase, “ softly woo us hut to .spare.” “ .Just as the ornamental stone obtdisk is a monument of art (Kunstdenkmal), and as tho rude stone, erected by man in former ages to the memory of the dead, is a prehistoric monument, so too, the erratic block, transported in past time by natural forces, constitutes a natural monument. Again, just as an artificially-erected wall or mound of an earlier period may bo a prehistoric monument, so the natural moraine or prominent hill produced without the help of man is a monument of Nature.” Tho above passage from a work published as long ago as 1909 by H. Oonwentz (Prussian State Commissioner for the Care of Natin-.l Monuments) shows how’ far in advance of the British Empire! the Continent has been (and probably is) in recognising monuments of Nature and tho need of guarding and preserving them. Now that the guns no longer batter Rheims Cathedral it is safe to say that, the Continent has returned to'its allegiance to monuments —man-made and other. But in Now Zealand tho war against the wonders of Nature —forests, gorges, rocks, etc. — goes on with little intermission.

SPECIMENS OF NATURAL MONUMENTS.

As president of the New Zealand Institute in 1928, Air B. C. Aston, who. besides being Government Agricultural Chemist, is a botanist of note, made an appeal to the institute (and the public) for the need of protecting natural monuments. He said;

“ Some instances may make my meaning clearer. Near Fortroso, Southland, in W.'ikawa Bay, is a fossil forest which is washed by the sea at high tides. Similarly at Mocraki Beach, Otago, arc the most perfect concretions in the world, known as Mooraki Boulders. Hundreds of those .smaller boulders have been taken away to ornament Dunedin gardens. The Sandymounb basaltic pillars are per haps the finest in New Zealand. These three southern instances are geological features which it should be sought to preserve. Being on tho sea frontage and Crown' property there is not the same difficulty in preserving the sites that there would be if they were on privately-owned land, although in England recently a large area of valuable building site land on tho South Coast Downs has been preserved by public subscription. “An instance near Wellington arfc the truly wonderful raised beaches at Turakirac. Another instance may be noted in the lava fields and volcanic cones at Auckland City. Such geological monuments as these starid in danger of being converted into stone quarries, or at any rate of being seriously damaged by the careless or thoughtless. Tho vegetation features are, of course, more humorous, but suitable areas near all the chief towns or cities of typical primitive vegetation should be preserved. One need only to look at the beautiful town of Taihape to realise what a great asset its readily accessible reserve of black pine forest is to the citizens.” A FASCINATING PAGE.

As a means of appealing to the people to take a people’s interest in a people’s question, Ist us glance at one of the fields of endeavour mentioned by Mr Aston—the raised marine beaches between the mouth of the Orougorougo River (flowing into Cook Strait) and Cape Turakirac. Here is seen a rare bit of Nature’s architecture, and here may be road a .fascinating page from geomorphological history. To state the case in subdued scientific language may seem like an anticlimax to - lovers of rhetoric, and yet there is grandeur in tho very restraint of the following .snmiuing-np in Mr Aston’s paper on the raised beaches; “ Tho raised marine beaches show that there has occurred comparatively recently, and perhaps within historic times, rapid elevation of the coastline near Palliscr Bay, at least four times prior to tho sudden elevation of nine feet (9ft) which took place in 1855. Violent earth movements have so altered the physiography of the litoral as to result in some unusual ecological features.”

Tho picture of five coast-rajsing uplifts (including 1855) “ perhaps within historic times ” must appeal to any imagination. When one sees the raised beaches he sees the monumental graph of a rising Now Zealand. As to tho “ unusual ecological features,” those also are still on tho beaches (though -sorely needing protection) and plain to tho eye of the uninitiated, though it may require a botanist to direct the gaze. And Mr Aston has done that admirably in the paper mentioned above fVol. XLIV. of ‘ Transactions of tho New Zealand Institute, 1911 ’). FIVE HA IS ED BEACHES, IN PLACES UNALTERED.

He finds that between the Orongorongo’s mouth and Cape Turakirae (the north-western point facing Cape Pall iser, these two capos being the enter bastions of Palliscr Bay) can he traced five raised beaches, representing (ivo uplifts, of which one (1855) occurred 1 in our time.

These raised benches run parallel with the sea, between tho sea and the cliffs, from which latter they have received debris, which has been deposited mostly by water action (crocks, etc.). Creeks, as elsewhere, have spread this debris fan-wise.

Deposited debris frequently sustains a different flora to the flora sustained by tho raised beaches themselves if uninterfered with by these intrusions of overlying debris from the cliffs and hills. Where not thus interfered with, even tho older beaches present in places an extremely recent appearance. That, is to say. they have altered comparatively little in centuries. Those agencies that—apart from deposited material—could have altered the beaches (thus smudging tho record) include weathering and tho blowing in of dust. Those factors would have combined to adapt tho nosed beaches to a flora different from their original and distinguishing flora. But iMr Aston points out facts limiting the opera I ion of such causes : “ Tho main impression left on one’s mind is that marvellously little altcra-

lion lias taken plate hi the peopling of these areas-' by plants, and in the external appearance of the shingle generally, in the hundreds of years which have probably elapsed since each was rapidly elevated. The survival of the beaches as shingle involves the fact that it is composed of the harder portions of the country rock, and which would hence, in the equable climate, offer a considerable resistance to the weathering influences; isolated by boulder plains on all sides, little dust could blow in and form soil between the interstices, and without soil little atmospheric moisture could ho retained. Only specially-adapted shingle plants, such as Muehlcnbeckia, could therefore hope to survive in such a station. LESSON OF THE FLORAS. “Happily we are not entirely in the dark as to the rapidity with which these beaches may bo elevated beyond the reach of the breakers. It is well known that the coast at Mukumuku was elevated !)ft during the earthquakes of 1855 (see Crawford, Trans. N.Z. Inst., Essay, vol. 1, p. 18). Knowing this, the author carefully searched the boulder-strewn shore a little above high water mark, and was rewarded by finding traces of a shingle beach about that altitude above high water mark Further search near Mukumuku showed a long strip of shingle beach quite as well developed as the older beaches The fact that the sea is now breaking on boulders and monoliths somewhat discounts the thought that beach No. 1 ma(y be a more storm beach. Exploring the country adjacent to the hills, two much older single beaches were found. These nearly everywhere have been obliterated by tlio debris carried down by temporary creeks from the steep hillsides, the site of the older beaches being now, occupied by fans of angular shingle mixed with finer detritus many acres in extent, which may or may not support a flora. This recent alluvium has buried those two older beaches many feet below the surface, but where fragments of them remain one is struck with the extremely recent appearance of the bead). The interesting fact that the younger of these beaches is more thickly populated by a flora is probably accounted for by the difference in size of the component stones, which explanation must suffice also for the fact that much of the newer fan material supports dense formations of herbage or aboreal growth. Five distinct shingle beaches have now been mentioned, which for the sake of case of reference may bo designated by the numbers 1, 2,3, 4, and 5, No. 1 being the youngest (the 1855) bench and No. 5 the oldest. Observations taken with a surveying aneroid show that the level, of each of these beaches is practically constant along its entire length—that is to say, beach No. 1 is approximately Oft; beach No. 2 is 40ft; beach No. 3 is 00ft; bench No. 4 is SOft; and beach No. 5 is 95ft above high water mark.” SOILING AND VEGETATING. Unfortunately those influences which have prevented considerable patches of the older beaches from becoming soiled, vegetated, and obliterated have not boon assisted by man. To the extent that the white man’s system allows cattle to wander on the areas and soil them, hastening their transformation, the rate of obscuring the picture of Nature’s architecture is being accelerated. It is lime that areas were selected along these raised beaches for preservation ns monuments of Nature. Not only do the cattle go there, but a road connecting Wellington and the Wairarapa (extension of Wainui-o-Mata road to the Lake country) will presently go there. Surely the public of Wellington, the capital cifiy which has this groat object lesson at its back door, will take action at once to protect this natural monument from tho effacing hand, not so much of Father Time as of Father Time’s white children. Even Time Is more merciful than the cattle and the road builder. Here is tho chance of a beginning in monnmentation, a chance that the Nature people of Wellington should be eager to grasp