THE OCEAN'S RIM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 806, 2 May 1910, Page 8

THE OCEAN'S RIM.

BEACHES I HAVE KNOWN*

(By "Sylvias.* 1 }

It may be set down as oaio of tho greatest bits of lnck that could have befallen this city for the late Mr. Harry Crawford to have exchanged land along the beach, an. area of sand dunes and a road across the isthmus which connects Wellington with the Miramar Peninsula, for an extension of the' tramway system to the Lyall Bay beach. And now the corporation is considering tho purchase of a further ■' strip of land on the south-eastern side of the bay, which will preserve the crescent-shaped strand to the people for all our days and after. Up till last summer AVeUington was hardly aware of tho manner in which an ocean beach can be made a joyous playground for all people of all ages and both sexes. It developed the surf-bather, as he (or she) has been known in Sydney for four or five years past. The particularly fine summer helped. Children up to 40 years of ago became inoculated with the spirit of the surf, and a desire to brown their too whit© clothespampered flesh in the glowing sun.

But I am diverging. My duty "is to write of beaches I have known.. Lyall Bay is a good beach as far as the word conveys that it is a nice, smooth rest-ing-place for the ocean's lip. It has a fine reach, and. a curve that pleases the eye. Its sand —a dirty and rather depressing _ shade of brown—shelves gradually into the waves, which forever have in them a nip of the south— that limitless Hue that faces one straight out to sea. Lyall Bay is not picturesque. It has no rocks, ■ .no hilk, no trees, and presents the same aspect in and out of season. The only variation is that there are sometimes more people on the beach than others. In the summer one breathes life and gladness in the changing lights and the ocean's bouquet. In the winter it is drear and grey.

Beaches of the South. Lyall Bay is more like St. Clair Beach than any other of the known beaches in New.Zealand. St. Clair is not so .wide perhaps, but it is backed by low sandhills of a similar shade to those of ■ Lyall Bay, - and, like our Bay it faces the clean cool south. The St. Clair Beach has been popular with Dunedin folk for many years, but not as a resort for the surf-bather proper—he who is in and out of the water for hours at a " me \ . ® alr has a fine natural bath in among the rocks which t.lic rollers effectively aerate at high water. One of the 'most magnificent beaches in the whole of the Dominion is that at Timaru, which will one day be the great watering place .of South Canterbury. Its fine sand, which hardly boasts a pebble, is lighter in colour and finer m texture than', that) of Wellington beaches, < and there is accommodation for millions. _ The season for beachbathing at Timaru is limited to three months. _ Before and after those three months is hardly surf-bather's weather. The contrary is the case at Napier, where the beach lures for nearly six months of the year. The Napier beach is a lovely streteh of ocean strand, shelving perhaps a little more steeply than others mentioned, and more exposed to the public gaze, seeing that the finest promenade in New Zealand follows the oeach-line as far as the eye can reach from Bluff Hill southwards. The lazy heat of Napier's summer makes . bathing popular, and some of the brownest, white skins in New Zea- ; land are to be found in Napier homes, i. In Auckland surf-bathing as it is [known here hardly-exists." The' beautiful harbour is indented with a hundred little bays, whose golden sands gleam a glad welcome. They are ideal for the children to play in. For the surf-bather seeking new beaches to conquer, they are in some cases a delusion and a snare, for when you get into the water you tread in soft,' yielding mud.

So English! Christchurch has always bean particularly English in its love of places where it can throw itself down for a week or two per year " and enjoy an ozonous diet. Sumner, I suppose, is the oldest seaside resort in New Zealand, and is perhaps the most picturesque, though not boasting the Turner tints of Auckland. The quality of its sand is beyond reproach, and the old foot-worn Cave Rock, is such a picturesque asset. It boasts a pier, and/behind it nestles the quiet little town, with the green hills rising majestically behind. I always associate Sumner with gulps of evil-smelling smoke,/ taken in when riding on the top of the steam-driven cars. The service is electrified now, I believe. Never have I passed along the Toad beneath a beetliing cliff without a cheerful voice at my elbow has said: "Some day that lump will tumble down I" He knows no more about the cliff's intention than I do, but I have always breathed more freely when I have passed the danger point.New. Brighton's far-extending beach, reaching from the estuary of the Avon, to a point some 18 to 20 miles to the north, is an asset Christchurch is proud of. New Brighton, with its low, lupinoovered sand-wave backing, lacks the natural picturesqueness of Sumner. It has, however, a habit of getting into the public eye through such mediums as stranded frost-fish and motor-car accidents. On the Other Side. For surf-bathing in' its purest, most fervent form, however, oue must journey to Australia—to Sydney for preference. In that' golden land, with its nine or ten months of summer, the beaches have become the natural playgrounds of the people.: Away from the factory and office, the humid street-and the clammy shop, Sydney revels on'its creamy beaches, shutting out the clutching sordidn-ess of ;tho mean streets in the delicious cool of the curling rollers. There t'tie majority of the bodies exposed to view are as brown as Maoris. Manly, the ocean beach, half an hour's steam from Circular Quay, is perhaps as perfect a bit of ocean strand as there is in tlie world, and it stretches for miles, a pure creamcoloured sand, the native. sandstone of the place pounded into dust. Stones and pebbles cannot be found, a"d children can play the whole day long on' the beach without sustaining even so-uracil as dirty hands. The breakers- of Manly seem to be of a special'quality, the blue of the ocean is most ultra ultra-marine, and character is lent the scene by the abrupt rocky cliffs that form the grim North Head. Just a little down the coast, a Jew miles to the south of the big light that guides the ships that pass in the night, are the merry beaches of Bondi aud Coogee, on which sport thousands of people every sunny day— and far into -the night. Both aro reached in half-an-hour by car from midSydney. There is also Bronte, Botany, and other beaches, all of which have their special clientele, life-saving clubs and swimming associations. ' '

Melbourno lias its St. Kilda Beach now the habitat of kinomatograph and pierrot shows of - all descriptions, and Adelaide its beautiful beach at Glenolg, which, as Aaelaido asserts, is superior to anything in tho world. Atlelaido also calls itsolf the Queen City of tho South, so do Sydney, Auckland, and Buenos Ayres, but from the surfbather's and beacli-lovor's point of view none can compare with Sydney, the peerless pearl of,the Pacific.