TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9122, Issue 9122, 20 January 1910, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In Monday's issue- we voiqed the pro-

tests of numerous visiA Seaside tors to the Manawatu !» Road. Heads this year with re-

gard to the shocking I etate of the road to the beach. It was also suggested that steps should be taken to have a clay road made at an estimated cost of £1000, which it was considered would fulfil all requirements. At the meeting of the Foxton Harbour Board on the same evening the question of the construction of the road was fully discussed. The road is within the jurisdiction of the Manawatu County Council, whose chairman, Mr J. G. Wilson, is a member of the . Board, and was present at the meeting. During the discussion reference was made to the growing importance of the beach as a seaside resort, and in the interests of the annual visitor and also of the seaside port it was desirable that some steps should be taken to facilitate travel to the beach. With this idea in view a resolution was carried asking the Manawatu County Council to take the necessary steps to raise a loan for a new road. It was pointed out that there are now forty-four sections at the beach with cottages erected upon them, and lessees of these sections were willing to contribute to the rates that would be levied to pay interest on the loan. Mr Wilson said his Council was quite willing to assist as far as they were able, and he added that it would be necessary to raise a loan and strike the- rate over a special district. That is, of course, the obvious answer, but it is just possible that the residents of the special district affected may object to the suggested loan and rate, and visitors to the beach will be no further ahead. However, it is to be hoped that this contretemps may not occur, and that the Council will see its way clear to give effect to the resolution at the earliest poseible opportunity.

Residents in the Southern portion of the Manawatu and in A Successful the Horowhenua Experiment. County continue to ta"ke keen interest in the problem of the ever-advancing sands from the coast. During recent years the inroads of the sand, as pointed out last week, have been attracting very general attention, and the necessity for action to prevent the absolute epoilation of good land has been forced upon those interested. At different times more or less energetic efforts have been made to combat the steady drift, but it has remained for Messrs Field Bros., of Waikanae, to show what can be done in this direction by concentrated effort. There is no sandier region anywhere than the coast from Foxton to Waikanae, the sand dunes, in places reaching a considerable distance inland. The properties of the Messrs Field are situated at Waikanae, and during the past week representatives of local bodies who are concerned in the eternal drift were afforded an opportunity of witnessing the beneficial effects following upon the planting of lupin and marram gra.ss. Both the lupin and the marram "have been quite successful in holding the sand wherever tried by Messrs Field, the lupin in particular doing effective work. At one place the visitors saw just in the rear of a big dune a Chinaman's garden of fully 40 acres in which vegetables ot all "kinds are growing. But for the lupins this land would have been covered with sand. It was the eame wherever the visitors were taken. Lupin and the grass had resulted in crops of oats, fruit trees, shelter belts and other vegetation wherever it had been used to combat the sand, the whole forming a splendid object leseon of the result of concentrated effort, thought and energy, and a pleasing illustration of the possibilities of the big areas of sand land along the coast if tackled intelligently and energetically.