HARBOUR FORESHORE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6978, 15 October 1948, Page 6

HARBOUR FORESHORE

EXTENSIVE EROSION A DIFFICULT PROBLEM After the storm—the calm. That is Kawhia’s present condition climatically. Now that weather conditions are again spring-like, it is possible to more accurately gauge the erosion which the recent high spring tides and easterly gales caused along the harbour foreshore. The foot track from Mr W. Meyer’s residence onward has been extensively damaged and virtually all the pug and other material recently put in has been washed away. The track over the hill itself is badly cracked for a considerable distance and the possibility of future trouble cannot easily be discounted.

Where the road leaves the beach to go past the pohutukawas, the filling at the back of the wooden wall has completely disappeared. The stone wall on the beach at the bottom of the pohutukawas has been cracked in two places, there being two ugly holes in it—a striking illustration of the force of the gale. Further along, additional slips have occurred on the hillside opposite Mr R. McFie’s residence, while the beach opposite the residence of Mr and Mrs H. A. Spooner has been washed away to the extent of about thirty feet, causing the beach at the Waiwera Street entrance to be strewn with debris and bottles. Many of the latter are broken and have become a source of potential danger to the everincreasing number of children playing about.

The, problem thus created is an extremely difficult one and is quite beyond the slender finances of the Kawhia Town Board. A suggestion has been made that the Government should be approached and asked to regard the matter as one of national concern. That, in effect, would mean that it would get its own engineers to investigate, prepare a comprehensive scheme and then supervise and carry out the job as a State undertaking.