VANISHING ENGLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 19 April 1924, Page 3

VANISHING ENGLAND

ilritiimiitt may be mistress ol the seas, but she Ciinmit prevent Neptune from tearing pieces off her robe. Two geological changes of an opposite kind are going on in England simultaneously. A tract of East Anglia that until comparatively recent days was so marshy that people who ventured on it had to tie bunches of rushes to their legs to 'prevent themselves from getting "bogged" in the swamps, has become firm, dr,\ soil, writes ,l.li. in the Daily Mail. ' Hut while the level ol the laud in I this area—once a submerged forest —is i rising, our country iu other parts is < sinking gradually. Viewing the occurrence casually, it 1 might appear that as the "swallowing** oroeess goes on so slowly it is not worth while worrying over. But- ■ when one looks into the subject more closely it. takes on a different aspect, ••('oa-t erosion" lias become a serious matter. From West Sussex alone it is estimated that the sea "bites off’’ nearly 1111 l acres annually—the area ol a fairsized farm. To give specific instances: At Braekelsham Bay and Cakeharn the coast "erodes’’ to the extent ot itoiu S to In feet a year. The parishes of Selsev and llayling each lose three acres of their land per annum by the inroads of the sea, which has "swallowed up” so much of the latter place that Hayling’s old parish church now lies submerged a good mile off shore. These examples of the persistent manner in which the sea encroaches upon England might he multiplied maiiv times over. Bight from Hunstanton, on the Wash, down to the extreme end of Cornwall this “process of attrition" is going on continuously. Of course, coatst erosion is not a new thing in itself; the new thing about it U that if Inis become a grave problem that must, he dealt with. As an illustration, the inhabitants ot Portsmouth, our principal dockyard town, recentlv made the unpleasant discovery that "erosion” had become >„ serious locally that if they did not take measures at once to combat n thev might wake up one morning to find their town under water. Similarly a large part of Thorney Island is threatened with submergence, and fears have been expressed lest the sea should make the Isle ot Wight into twtr islands instead ot one. -fhe startling fact about coast erosion is that it is due to what geologists term a “continuing depression of the land In other words. England, on its south ami west sides at any rate, is gradually sinking.