THE SHINGLE THEORY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3887, 4 January 1884, Page 3

THE SHINGLE THEORY.

["To tiik Editor of the Daily Tkleokaph.] Sir,—ln your leading article of yesterday you say that Mr Goodall has made the discovery" that the shingle does not come from the Tuki Tuki, but from the Kidnapper cliffs. Mr Goodall, in proceeding along tho base of the cliffs, has come to a place, where "from the beach to the top of the cliff was fully 300 feet, and this whole formation was shingle." " Here, you say, "is tho source of Mr AVebers bug-bear." I feel confident, Sir, that you must have misunderstood Mr Goodall as 1 have walked along the foot of the_ cliffs at low tide for the purpose of examining thenformation, and I have not seen anything answering yourdesenption The Kidnapper cliffs- that" is. the cliffs between Chiton station and the Black Keef-consvst of clay-sl-it» ("papa") calcareous clay, with occasional bands of gravel, tho latter in the aggregate not exceeding one per cent "of the whole mass. l T our statement about a cliff 300 feet 1 hiirh, composed of only shingle, is based upon hallucination. If' I am right about the formation of tho cliffs, it is evident, that the abrasion from these cliffs can only produce an infinitesimal portion of the shingle that forms the beach from the Tula Tuki northwards, and that now blocks up the mouth of the Ngaruroro. That my view is correct is borne out by the fact that there is only a very trifling quantity of slrngle deposited on the beach between the cliffs and the Tuki Tuki, a stretch of five miles, although this beach is perfectly flat and favorable for the deposit of shingle. The substantial shingle beach begins only onehalf mile north of the mouth of the Tuki Tuki, at a former mouth of that river. Sir John Coode and Mr Carruthcrs, who have successively examined the beach between the Tuki Tuki and cliffs, have both come to tho conclusion that the shingle comes from tho Tuki Tuki. Sir John Coode was accompanied to the cliffs by Sir George Whitmore, who, from his long- residence at Clive Grange, at the mouth of the Tuki Tuki, should be a safe guide in tracing the source of the shingle I will not trespass any further for tho present, but when Mr Goodall's report is in the hands of the Harbor Board I may ask your leavo to say more on this subject.—l am, <fee, Charles Weber. Napier, 4th January, 1884.