CORRESPONDENCE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 63, 12 September 1908, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

CEMETERY SITE

(To the Editor.)

Sir,— lt appears that the committee set up by the Borough Council to report on the question of the cemetery site,, in conjunction with Messrs Armstrong "and Cowper, of the Dannevirke County Council, recommend tho acquisition of about ten acres of theTahoraiti Block,; on the northern side of the— old Kaitoke Road, and the County Council offers £100 towards the cost.

This seems an admirable proposal, and even its opponents can only find one objection, and that is its proximity, to the racecourse. In the discussion at the Council meeting that followed on the report it was mentioned that a funeral passing by at the time of the races would be objectioiial. No one will dispute this; but judging. from the report of the discussion, members, or some of them, seem to be under the impression that races are continually being held on "the racecourse. This, of course, is not so: In the past only one meeting has been held here per annum, and for the future there is no prospect of more than two meetings, each of two. days, being held in any one year. That will leave three hundred and sixty days in the year during which the racecourse is deserted, except for. the presence of trainers in the early mornings. The chance, therefore, of a funeral passing by while races Are in progress is about one in ninety. Now no one has ever, so far as I know, been heard to say that the. present cemetery site Avas unsuitable because of its proximity to the" Recreation Ground, and yet probably over eighty per cent, of all the funerals in Dannevirke pass by it. This ground is used for football, .cricket, hockey and other matches once, and sometimes twice a -week, throughout the year, in addition to which sport 9 are held there on public holidays. Between sixty and seventy days in the year would probably be a low estimate. If this is unobjectionable, why should the remote chance of a funeral being fixed for one of the four days in the year on which the racecourse is used for races, be taken into account as an objection to an. otherwise eminently suitable site? It is by no means certain that races will always be held on the present course, but if a permanent tenure is arranged with the native owners it will be planted round with trees, as probably will the cemetery. If a precedent were wanted,. I might mention tho Ashurst cemetery, which is situated near the top of the straight on tlio Ashursfc- course. — I am, etc., T, H. G.. LLOYD, Vice-president Dannevirke Jockey . Club. Dannevirke September 12, 1908.