"A VOLTE FACE"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 44, 30 August 1928, Page 15

"A VOLTE FACE"

♦ THE WESTERN OUTLET Sir Harold Beauehamp, as a citizen of Wellington of very long standing, was asked to give evidence before the Parliamentary Committee in regard to the question of resuming part, of the Bolton Street Cemetery to improve the city's ' outlet to Karon,'■but was unable to do so;/but his viewa on the subject were given '. to a "Post" reporter. : They were, in the nature of an emphatic .. .protest '■'-.:• against the "volte face", of; the City Council in respect to the' proposed;■route' through tho cemetery. ■ In- the light of the very strong recommendation made- by the Access Commissioners, who were appointed, to advise tho council as : to the best route from the city to1 Karori, it seems to mo peculiar that, after the council had adopted, that recommendation it should have turned completely round and somersaulted as a result of an'- agitation by . the necessarily small section of the community who have relatives buried in the old cemetery. "In a measure one can, of course, understand the feelings of those whoso relatives had been buried in the old cemetery; but in many parts of the world sentiment has had to give way to utilitarianism. "An alternative route has been adopted, but it will, I believe, involve the 'citizens in an expenditure of £50,000"; also it will mean tho ousting of a number of people from their present residences. In view of the difficulty that persists of obtaining suitable private houses in Wellington this is another aspect of the question that should have weighed with the council. If in carrying out the*original scheme the remains of those lying on tho route were reverently exhumed' and rein torred elsewhere, I cannot see what reasonable objection could be made in proceeding'with tire original route; I fail to see how relatives of the deceased can. be seriously perturbed. One has only to recall what was done in Sydney when the now railway station was built and an old cemetery was resmued.■ Then one can find an example nearer home in the Symonds Street ■Cemetery in Auckland, where the ■graves of relatives of citizens of living 'Auckland -were reverently dealt with' in order to give effect to improvements and greater facilities for the growing traflie of the city. London supplies innumerable- examples of the successfully reverential treatment of old churchyards and other planes of sepulture in -the interests .of the living, with no violation of the respect due to the dead. "If tiino-permits, I am sure, that a very large number of citizens will bo ready to-sign a petition of protest to Parliament against the change in tho route, and urging it not to give way to this agitation by a few against the convenience- of tho many to-day and hereafter.'*