SOLDIERS' CEMETERIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 293, 8 December 1920, Page 4

SOLDIERS' CEMETERIES.

FINAL PLAN NOT YET SBTTtBD. TEMPORARY CROS3_L_. That the Government will erect temporary crosses over aU unmarked soldiers' graves in O'Neill's Point, Purewa Waikaraka, Waikumete, Otahuhu' Hamilton, Te Aroha and Rotorua was the intimation contained in a letter from the secretary of the New Zealand War Graves' Committee to Mrs. Emily Nicol, honorary secretary of the Soldiers' Mothers' League of Auckland, which recently made a strong complaint as to the state of the soldiers' graves in Waikumete cemetery.

"The final scheme has not yet been definitely decided upon by the New Zealand Government in regard to the formation of soldiers' cemeteries and the erection of memorials," said the letter. "It is possible that where there are special soldiers' cemeteries, two memorials. 'The Great War Crosa' (Cross of Sacrifice,) and the 'Great War Stone' (Altar of Duty) will be erected in addition to the permanent headstone over each grave. The general lay-out and arrangement of cemeteries is being discussed with the New Zealand Architects' Association, and it is probable that some little time will elapse before this question and others of equal importance will have been definitely determined.

"For the creation of these soldiers' cemeteries it is possible that the Government will offer to concentrate the bodies into burial grounds. For instance all those buried at O'Neill's Point, Waikaraka, Purewa, Birkenhead, Otahuhu and other cemeteries within a reasonable distance of Auckland might be moved to the soldiers' cemetery at Waikumete. This would be following the policy of the Imperial War Graves Commission in their work on the battlefields. The relatives are assured of the care of the graves even after they themselves have crossed the Great Divide. Under such conditions the possibility of graves now isolated being encroached upon or obliterated in the years to come is removed."

The crosses to be erected temporarily in the cemeteries already specified will be the same as those placed over the graves at the Soldiers' Memorial Cemetery at Karori, Wellington, and will in. time be replaced by permanent headstones to be erected by the GaArnment.