Holiday Makers Visit “Weeping” Tombstone

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27860, 7 January 1956, Page 2

Holiday Makers Visit “Weeping” Tombstone

**The Press” Special Service

NAPIER. January 6. An unusual attraction for visitors to Napier during the Christmas and New Year holidays has been the “weeping" tombstone in the Hospital Hill Cemetery. Hundreds of persons have been to see water trickling from the stone from a spot about 30 inches above the ground. The trickle of water has no obvious source, and unauthorised persons have attempted to find out from where it comes by attacking the stone with cold chisels. They have been unsuccessful. Monumental masons and sextons have been baffled for months. The slow flow of water has continued steadily, unaltered by changes in the weather or in season. One explanation is offered by an old resident, a man aged 85, who lives across the road from the cemetery. He says that the cemetery was formerly a military post and he remembers a spring flowing out of the ground there then, which was piped to provide water. The spring was sealed up when the area became a cemetery, but the water could still be finding its way to the surface. It is known that a pipe carrying water to a rest room runs near the grave, but whether it passes beneath it is z not known. Three graves away on one side lie the remains of a young man who committed suicide in the 1890’s, and two graves distant in another direction a woman who was murdered about the same time is buried. The “weeping" grave contains the

rerqains of the White family—father, mother and son. Old residents say th£ son was involved with the man who committed suicide in a dispute over a girl. Spiritualists in Napier say the trickle is caused by the White bov’s dislike of being buried so close to the other young man. The tombstone is turning orangered where the water flows over it. A Napier monumental mason suggests that this colouration is caused by acid working out of the copper lettering, but he cannot.explain the moisture. Religious bodies have shown interest. The Spiritualist Church held a meeting at the graveside, some time ago. and Church of England and Roman Catholic clergymen recently visited the grave. Th? Whites are believed to have been Anglicans. Numbers of letters offering explanations of the mystery are reaching cemetery and reserves department officials. Inquiries show that the trickling began two or three years ago. although publicity was not given to it until last November. The concrete base is not sunk far into the ground so that, if the water comes from the earth, it must soak up through the marble headstone to trickle from a point 29 inches above the base. It occurs at a corner where two marble slabs meet. The ground below is kept constantly moist, although the rest of the cemetery is dry. t The police are investigating damage done to the headstone by vandals just before Christmas.