CHANGED FORESHORE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 9

CHANGED FORESHORE

FLOTSAM FROM THE FLOOD THE BEACHES DEEEPLY LITTERED. DRIFTWOOD AND DEAD ANIMALS. NATURE BEGINS REPAIR WORK. The vast change that can be wrought in a few hours by the elements was remarkably demonstrated yesterday on the New Plymouth foreshore. What was accomplished on Thursday night by uncontrollable torrents in a matter of hours will leave its brand in more than a few ways for many weeks to come. Graceful trees on the banks of lazy streams have become shattered corpses at the mouths of foaming torrents, and the clean gentle sea a living thing trying to cleanse itself of the tons of debris shot into it. And Nature gently begins to heal the wound. To those used to seeing the clean stretch of sand from East End to Waiwakaiho it was an amazing sight that presented itself yesterday morning. Banks of leaves and sticks, trunks of trees and occasionally the body of some unfortunate' animal have been thrown up on to the beach in every direction. Still it is an ill wind that blows no-one good. From children scarcely of school age to men and women past their prime, all worked hard to make large heaps of fire-wood at intervals along the sea front. Pumpkins also came down in plenty, one man securing 11 of them. A battered boat, large branches and various other rubbish have been piled up against the piles of the East End bridge, while jagged sheets of concrete tremble where the solid steps overlooking the swimming pool once stood. Among the collection of dead animals were seen two sheep, two dogs, a penguin, several hedgehogs and a cat showing a bedraggled face from a hole in a bag. Wood entwined in other rubbish, ranged from small splinters to an uprooted pine trunk shorn of its branches and 30ft in Length, which not 12 hours before had been standing proudly and seemingly invincible on the banks of the Waiwakaiho River. One wonders, in spite of the large quantity of wood that is being taken away, what is going to happen to the huge amount of inextricable refuse which will, of course, if not washed away, be of considerable annoyance to bathers. Yet all this is only part of the havoc done by the rain.