CARE OF CEMETERIES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 110, 3 February 1931, Page 11

CARE OF CEMETERIES

Hard to Keep in Order AN AMERICAN SYSTEM Ona of the interesting subjects touched upon at the recent conference of directors of parks was the care, or rather the neglect, of cemeteries, and methods that might be introduced to effect an improve--IXI Mr. D. Tannock, the director of parks at Dunedin, introduced the subject, and pointed out how under the present system it was almost impossible to. keep old cemeteries in order, and how inevitable it was that existing cemeteries would in time become similarly neglected. In the course of the general discussion it was indicated that under the present system of individual ownership and maintenance the present state of things must go on. For a time the graves of the newjy dead were often most carefully tended, but as the generation passed away that knew those at rest, neglect crept in, and stayed on. , With neglect and sinking ground, the tombstones, placed over the dead with such loving reverence, began to tip sideways and the concrete developed cracks, the soil became over-run with rank weeds. This was the case In almost every old cemetery. It was stated that in some country places old cemeteries were so much nobody’s business that occasionally they were deliberately fired, or sheep and cattle were allowed to stray in them. The old fences became ruined and broken, the wooden head-slabs fell down and rotted, and the whole aspect of the place was one of utter neglect. It was argued by most. of the directors of parks present that this sort of thing need not be. It was the result of a bad system. It could, for example, be rectified, if some system were adopted whereby instead of a person expending a large sum on a handsome headstone, the money could be handed over to the authorities, who would, with the interest earned, guarantee to keep the grave in order for all time. That could be done by adopting the idea in vogue in some parts of America, ■ where it was enacted that no tombstone should appear more than twelve inches above the level of the ground; no dividing fences were erected between graves, and the whole area under the jurisdiction of the local body concerned was kept more as a green parklike sward. The grass was mown regularly, and by the judicious planting of the right kind of trees and shrubs here and there, the cemeteries became restful beautiful places. It is the intention of the association to endeavour to educate the New Zealand public into thinking differently about cemeteries, having always in view the knowledge that under the new s y s .t®™ graves would be attended for all time.