PROPOSAL BY Cr

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32016, 17 June 1969, Page 16

PROPOSAL BY Cr

Compulsory Cremation The Government should be urged to make cremation compulsory, Cr P. J. Skellerup, chairman of the parks and recreation committee, said at the City Council’s meeting last evening.

He said he knew this would offend some persons' religious beliefs, but already 50 per cent of funerals were cremations and in 10, 15 or 20 years cremation must become universal because of the shortage of land for residential purposes. There was already a prohibition on the use of land in city areas for cemeteries. It would be foolish to absorb land in the heart of the urban area to create problems in 40 or 50 years similar to those created now by places such as the Barbadoes Street Cemetery. Cr Skellerup was referring to the council’s decision to close Barbadoes Street Cemetery and beautify the area. After long legal negotiations, everything was now ready for submissions to the Government for closing the cemetery, he said. The over-all condition of cemeteries was reasonable and certainly not as bad as newspaper reports had inferred from time to time, the committee said in its report. From an inspection of the seven cemeteries administered by the council it was apparent that the Memorial Park and Ruru Lawn Cemeteries would not create problems of maintenance for the future such as those existing in the older cemeteries. The council agreed with the committee that the wooden gates at Linwood Cemetery should be removed, that the old chapel at Bromley Cemetery, now used as a tool shed, should be demolished, and that the chapel at the Sydenham Cemetery, which was in a fair state of repair, should be restored to provide the only example in the city of this type of building.