The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1921. THE FORESHORE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1921. THE FORESHORE.

The ravages caused by the heavy seas during the recent gale on the foreshore of New Plymouth, from the breakwater to the Henui, have again drawn attention to the urgent need for the. pro vision of effective measures of protection being taken in order to preserve one of the best assets possessed by the town. The matter is of long standing, yet no serious effort has yet been made either to combat the continuous erosion that is taking place, or to cope with such extraordinary conditions of attack by the sea in severe storms like* that which was experienced on Thursday night. Hitherto the puny attempts made to protect the foreshore have been lamentably futile because they failed to recognise the enormous battering and pulling power of the ponderous storm-driven rollers that are occasionally hurled by means of a noiithy-westerly gale on our exposed coast-line. No ordinary 'engineer can be expected to devise effective! means for safeguarding the coast against the inroads of such vast natural forces; only those exports who have made this work a special study—theoretically and practically—can be- of any real service, and oven then the necessary finance must be at their service for the costly work if success is to be achieved. To fritter away time, money and material in tinkering expedients is sheer folly. Work of this nature should be regarded more as a national than a local obligation, and the Government should have amongst its expert advisers at least one well qualified to prepare schemes of protection from the inroads made by the seas which surround tJiis island Dominion, especially as national property, such as the railways, is seriously menaced. Nor is it too much to claim that the Consolidated Fund should bear a due share of the cost of such works as are necessary to avert the destrueton of valuable assets on the coast. So far as the New Plymouth foreshore is concerned, that portion from Moturoa to the municipal baths will probably be safeguarded fairly well wjien the breakwater scheme is completed, but the remaining section from the baths to the Henui necessitates the provision of extensive protective measures, the nature of which can only be decided upon by'an expert fully qualified in this branch of work. The state of affairs at the East End reserve cannot be much more serious than it is, and the jact that the beach in front of the

pavilion and its immediate vicinity is flattening in such a way as to alter the mouth of the Henui river, appears to the lay mind as indicating the probability of destroying in the near future the good work carried out by the committee, unless a solid groyne is constructed on the western side, running in a north-easterly direction. It may be found necessary to construct a succession of these wave-breakers along the foreshore from the baths to the East End, but that is-a question for an expert to decide. Apparently few people realise that Woolcombe Terrace can be made into an ideal promenade reaching to the East Epd, but the erosion which has been going on for years past is gradually robbing the town of an asset of great value. Surely the time has arrived to cope with this difficulty in a manner befitting its importance and under the most expert advice obtainable in the Dominion. It, is the duty of the citizens to hand down to posterity the assets of the town, improved and not frittered away, therefore they should act promptly and wisely while it is possible to save the sea front, from the fury of the waves.