PROTECTION WORKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 2, 1 December 1925, Page 8

PROTECTION WORKS.

(To tho Editor.)

Sir, —The erosion of the river banks is assuming a most serious aspect in many places where the banks have been denuded of the native bush, with the exception of the rock-bound portions, which are able to resist the action of the current. Naturally a great diversity of opinion exists as regards the most successful method of successfully coping with the difficulty. And let me state, that the action of the floods forms a most interesting study as it varies very greatly in tho effect it produces. Over forty years ago, I remember a case in point, whore one of the South Island rivers caused such loss that it was a menaco to the township in the vicinity. A great amount of money was spent in pile-driving arid groin work, the result being an accretion of gravel on tho foreshore and a change in the channel, which was hailed with delight. However, after three years an old man flood swept the piles, groin and the accretion; not a vestige remained. Later on the situation was saved by securing floating logs in a different spot. Personally, 1 have assisted in the erection of several protective works in this island, with this result, that I contend that you cannot lay down any hard and fast rule by which to work in order to ensure success, inasmuch that the current will, at certain times, change its course without any apparent cause, and no amount of scientific explanation can enlighten the minds of those who are seeking for an explanation on such developments.—l am, etc., H. J. CANTON. Palmerston North, December 1, 1925.