EROSION AT HOKITIKA.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13745, 7 April 1915, Page 4

EROSION AT HOKITIKA.

(Special to "The Colonist.")'

Christchurch, April 5. A Ohiistchurch man who spent two or turner weeks a(- Hokitika, and has returned from the West Coast, told a representative of the "Press" in the oourse of a chat that the damage that is being done by the encroachment of the sea at Hokitika is much more serious than the people of the Dominion realise.

The heavy weather experienced at the beginning of last week^ in conjunction with the spring tides, he said, resulted in the sea encroaching and endangering a portion of Revel! street. During the previous spell of fine' weather there was an apparent tendency foi- the beach to make, and there were signs of good formation having taken place. -The recent heavy seas, howover, swept that formation away, and in addition took a further slice off the sections exposed to the sea. Present indications point to the encroachment travelling northward, the great danger zone lying between Manson's right-of-way and Stafford street. The possibility of the sea breaking through between these points was very manifest last Thursday and Friday, when heavy seas and spring tides were experienced. Several business people Jost further portions of their outbuildings, and the main structures were .jeopardised. In a certain hotel in the area referred to, after the dinner on Good Friday had been removed from the kitchen range, the portion of the building under the range collapsed, precipitating the stove, the chimney and the hot-water service into the sea' the catastrophe being accompanied by a loud explosion. The business premises of the Chinese suffered on the same occasion as did the residence of Mr. J. Lloyd, who lost a glasshouse. A number' cf concrete septic tanks, bin to Bin thick and! 4ft. to sft. deep, were undermined by the turbulent waves, and cracked and were engulfed. The piles on which Mr. Schroeder's place of business is erected, piles that were driven in the sand about 14ft., were exposed tor bit., the sea having washed'off the sand to that?' depth. Good Friday morning's tide invaded Mr. Schroeder's shop, and fcr a time it seemed that considerable damage would be done. The opinion of the most of the residents of Hokitika regarding the groynes erected. by the Public Works Department is that they have not been erected far enough out. They extend only seme 300 ft., and it is contended that to be of any permanent service ™£-y ought to extend from 800 ft. to ■1000 ft,

According to the Christchurch gentleman a certain amount of apparent indifference characterises the manner in which the residents contemplate the ha-roe wrought b y tho sea. For exampie, on Good Friday, after the midday. tide had spent its fury, the people whoso premises were affected worked' in the most philosophical manner to protect their property with sandbags famines .and heavy timber. Europeans and Chinese worked side by side placidjy, _ and apparently unconcernedly. Ineir labours wore, however, to a certain extent in vain, as the midnight tide rendered null and void much of their efforts.