FORESHORE PROTECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17868, 25 February 1920, Page 10

FORESHORE PROTECTION.

TO TUB KDl'l'Olt. Sin,—To those who liavo an open mind ns to the utility of the present ({ruins and tho advisability of proceeding with more work of this- nature at the St. Clair beach, it will l>3 of interest to quote tin , opinion of thn lato Mr VV. I , '. I'otro, 0.K., on the Biibj:>et. From his long residence at St. (.'lair, and almost daily observance, of the beach, his opinion should carry weight. Interviewed by a reporter in 1910 he replied: "Jt is "not nil engineering question at all. It is a matter coneorijinff which any intelligent observer can form an opinion. In' my judgment the groins are not only useless, but iibsolutrly liarmful. Tho whole of the sand, or nearly the whole of it., that eomes into the St. Clair corner of t.h ,, beach depends upon the north-oust wind blowing it along tho foreshore. The groins not as a. check to ilie travelling of tiv.' wind along the beach. To sum up, the Hind that is deposited at the St. Clair end owes its presence to the action of the wind, not the waves, and any groins at tliat end must interfere with the supply." fco long as then? is a prevalence of southwesterly winds the denudation of the. beach at the St. (-lair end will continue, the more so now on account of the work of the Domain Hoard in harnessing up tho sand by moans of fjrass and lupin planting. Before tho board entered upon the scone the sand was free to travel as Natnm provided, and a few days of north-easterly weather brought away sufficient sand to combat tho effect of the next south-wceterly gale,. _ and so on —the sand was continually travelling backWards and forwards. The Domain Board, with the assistance of the City Council, now proposes to eroct more groin.", according to the Government engineer's roport, for the purpose of arresting the sand at tho St. Ckir end. But,. I ask, where u it going to come from? Tho groins, if they are going to stop tho sand (which at the present time does not represent much) from travelling towards St. Kildti. will equally stop the sand from travelling from St. Kilda, whore it is now collected, and whore tho natural resorvoir of it was. The Government engineer in his report says:—" A prolonged spell of southerly and south-westerly weather must result in more or less denudation of the beach oven if an adequate number of groins wr.s maintained." It is not only the question of providing public money for what is at the best nn experiment and for what in the past has proved an absolute failure; but the rrroins. once erected, will remain there, a hideous eyesore. —I am. etc., Lover of Nature. Dunedin, February 23.