CEMETERY EXTENSION.

Evening Star, Issue 8553, 27 June 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

CEMETERY EXTENSION.

10 THH EDITOB. Sir,—Young men imagine that old hands are slow, stupid, and incapable of appreciating the ne*v order of things mere laudatores tmporis acti. Young colonies are equally opinionated, speaking scornfully of " old-world ideas," quite forgetting that the old countries have learnt their lessons of wisdom through many bitter experiences. One of these lessons learnt by the older civilisations is that cemsteries should not be located in the hearts of cities; and everywhere they are closing the old burial grounds and are opening fresh ones at convenient distances in rhe country, easily accessible by road and rail. Those who laid out Dunedin set apart the Town Belt as a lung for the breath of the City, to be preserved for all time. Some have said that the cities of New Zealand will not have more than 40,000 or 50,000 Inhabitants each, but Dunedin and its suburbs has already reached that figure, and we hope for and have room for three or four times that number.

It requires no great stretch of imagination to see the whole of the inner area of the City given up to business offices, whilst the private residences in the suburbs will thickly hem in the Town Belt, and then the benefit of that lung and the wisdom of the old hands who reserved it will be more fully appreciated than it i 3 at present. What Bhall we say to our present City Council, who are trying not only to close and occupy, but actually to taint and befoul, this very lung of cur City by turning it into a cemetery. Surely the citizens of Dunedin will never allow this. We ought to be very jealous of our reserve, and allow no encroachment whatever upon it ; for once the ice is broken the whole Belt will very soon be done away with. Already there is a talk of its occupation not only by this cemetery but the hospital, and goodness knows what next. No ! let there be no surrender of the reserve, but let the cemetery be out of town, north or south, and easily accessible by rail. Even thoso who likß to solemnize their thoughts by visiting the burial ground would, I am quite sure, prefer to have the sacred spot more secluded, further away from the noieo and laughter of a great town. That L 3.600 which the Council are said to have gobbled up will come in handy to curchase a new site out of town, and let us keep our Town Belt as "a thing of beauty and a joy for ever."—l am, etc., Digamma. Dunedio, June 26.