VANISHING SEA.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1925, Page 1

VANISHING SEA.

Till*: HAOI'K, May Hi. Itomamv ;tml the labour o! earning a livelihood go suit* hy salt* on tilt* Zllldor Zee. and with its disappearance, wliic-li is to take plan* during 11 k* next twenty-live to thirty years many people art* likely to suffer tlu* loss ol hotii. Already the first part of the great hyke which is to prevent the sea Iron, ovcrllou tug is nearing eompletion. I In; island of Wieriugen will in liituro he no longer an island, tor tlu* dyke will keep oil' the water which separated it in the past from the mainland, l.ater. as the dvke is extended to the coast of Krieslttltd, tlu* Zuider Zee will vanish. Market! will then he an island district with one or two agricultural villages, and .Monnikendam. Voleinhnn, Kdant. will he inland villages with little of their old seaside picturesque outlook —-that is. if they are not utterly deserted. AI read v some ol the lisherlolk. whose families for generations liavt* lived and worked there, who have fought, to win a means ol livelihood and to pieicut their homes being overwhelmed by the waves, are leaving for other places, and the while caps and many coloured dresses of the women are beginning to he seen in villages and (owns along the v ortli Sea coast. One result of (lie Zee’s disappearance ill lie the development of fresh-water dieries. Another is the problem of isposing of tlie salt which will he left < the sea water is drained or ova ported. How to make (his ol use, what ■ops to sow pending the settlement of 10 new ground, whether to attempt at rst to turn the land into pasture 01 > plant timber and shrubs that will ire the ground stability, are questions I,,'cli the Government’s scientists are ow considering. To the average man the great thing ; that islands and seaside villages of curiously picturesque and interesting haraeter are disappearing, and that n their place is springing up a new md, the character, appearance, and itilitv of which can only he guessed.