OLD NORTH SHORE—AND NEW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 12

OLD NORTH SHORE —AND NEW.

Sir, —As a comparatively newcomer of merely a score of years' residence I read ■with much interest Isabel Maud Feacocke's article on Old North Shore- ine devastations here of modern times are becoming painfully obvious even to ono who recalls it a couple of decades ago, and •.the hand of Bumble has been heaver on ills beauty spots. "Edson's Paddock is Eon est; the macrocarpa trees which fringed it became a "wash out" some years since during the autumnal equinoctials, and with them went most people's, fences and two eyesores termed "temporary dressing sheds," all victims of Bumble's inexorable demand for cheap eand. The -writer asks "where is Lover's Lane," with its avenue of enclosing pines Sand its secluded scats, that 'walk for whispering -Joviers made Y*' But th efe ahe errs, it never was a ''lane'' but Lovers' Walk, until decided with much unction that the niceties of nomenclature called for something less suggestive, and has now tacked a sign to the telephone post designating it "Arawa Avenue," -"Arawa" being his pigeon Maori for 'lovers." The "enclosing pines" have long since disappeared, and in their place we have tarred and sanded paths, concrete kerbs and channels, and metalled road. Could one ask for more? Btimb'e has destroyed the pines, root and branch, bat has planted an aesthetic sewer -'ie across the beach, considerately labelled "Danger, keep clear" —but it- never does! So the old order changeth and. Bumbl* is manifest in all his works. Day by day, and week by week, he sends his 'drayß to rob Cheltenham of its bench. On" the morning that Maud Peacocke's article appeared there were five drays loadiag shell at high tide, and the lovely golden 'sands are now a morass of ruts and holes, while the mud-flat creeps closer and closer in. We have a Beach Beautifying Association •which recently held a highly successful carnival, but while they spend their money improving and beautifying. Bumble spends his despoiling. True to his nature he has plnocd electric lights along the j beach to lighten our darkness till early j hou'rs of the morning—even at full moon —but that doesn't worry anyone much, we also hav<v bathing by-laws which a magistrate who is now a Judge enjoyed immensely. They permit you to enter the water in a refutation costume, but to come out and warm in the siin in the Bame costume is "Verbotcn" with Prussian severity and the uniformed arm of the law. But. public morals and bathing costumes were always Bumble's long suit. A few photos of the hideous vandalism Ihe Boroueh Council has been guilty of at this end of the North Shore would condemn the members to sumroarv execution at sr/ht. It might be suggested that. our beaches are trust property to vu i conserved for our children's children, but fancy putting that aSiS u i rt-n h c '„„„ chcan si ■ML-'PS. r^i" one-time happy beach ani 7m L° r 1 the shore that is no 'more. nk ' nK of Lovers' Walk, Devon jSrt!* ANDwnr -