A SHINGLE SUGGESTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2303, 25 January 1897, Page 3

A SHINGLE SUGGESTION.

XO THE EDITOR OP THE TIMARU HERALD, Sir,— l have just been reading the figures and forecasts on the shingle question published by the South Canterbury Times of the 18th inst, the gist of which appears to be a supposition that the harbour has a life of at most 2 to 3 years. This supposition induces me to put forward a suggestion which occurred to me a short time back, and which strikes me as being quite practicable. It is that a short, but strong, rubble mole be thrown out from Patiti Point. The shingle from the southward would then begin to pile up against thil mole the same

way that it has been doing against the breakwater. It would thus, as there is such a long stretch of beach, take a good number of years, say ten, to fill up level with the end. We should then be able to tell what the shingle did after passing the mole, and from that gather what it would do after passing the end of the breakwater. In any case, I think the cost would not be large, not so large as extension of the breakwater, and all this time the harbour would have an extended life with some tangible idea of what would be likely to happen. Also, if thought advisable, the mole might be lengthened; or the feasibility of Mr Parr's " slit " be tried. If the shingle passed on at the end, of the period it would then be thrown well into deep water, and so would have a chance of going northwards without interfering with the harbour. I am, etc., . "Farmer." THE SHINGLE QUESTION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMARU HERALD. Sir, — There are a few remarks I would like to place before the ratepayers on the harbour question, as we are on the eve of the Harbour 'Board election. A great deal is being said about there being no evidence that the shingle is travelling past the harbour entrance. To me the matter seems proved almost beyond a doubt, as the addition to the shingle bank at the breakwater is nothing compared with the quantity drifted off the southern beach, which I estimated at an average of a chain m width as far down as the Elginshire (some 3 miles;. , This would represent a good deal of the whole accumulation at the breakwater and a neighbour I saw after the storm said that! had underestimated the quantity .carried away. Now, bb according to the report of the Harbour Board the toe of the shingle was out 1550 feet or 290 feet past the bend, the trapping power of the breakwater was little or none, consequently the greater quantity by far of this drift must have travelled past to the Dashing Rocks and Woollcombe's lagoon, and the Ninety Mile Beach, all of which are accumulating shingle, while a few years ago they were denuded of it till there was scarcely anything but clay left. Yet some say, who have evidently not gone to see for themselves,, there is not a pebble to be seen m these places when actually the force of the waves has carried heaps of shingle right up into the foundation of Saunders' works, some 15 feet high on the cliff atr Dashing Rocks. Then again, according to Mr Pringle's speech, there have been dredged away about 7000 or 8000 tons of shingle and sand from the harbour entrance on different occasions, which must have passed along the arm. As I have been travelling the portion of the beach south of Timaru every week for some years, and occupying land adjoining the coast, I have had every opportunity of seeing any change that takes place. After witnessing the enormous amount drifted off the southern beach, and the comparatively small advance the Rhingle bank at the breakwater has made seawards, as proved by the borough sewers, I cannot come to any other conclusion than that the shingle has been passing for some time m large quantities, and will perhaps fill up an extension if made m a very few years. I have seen the current cause two or three ships to drag their anchors and drift ashore since I came here, without wind or storm, and why not the same force carry shingle ? I am, etc., W. Parry.